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I was just reading though a chapter book then noticed something annoying.
Everytime I started new chapter, the name of chapter already explains everything!
For example one of the chapter was about Jerome's death, but the title is Jerome's death and it already explains what will happen   I mean, I'm not saying taht this is a bad name. Esepically if you put it something like...a character's plan changed because of Jerome's death (then that would be a good title).

My point is, don't you get annoyed by these chapter books which title explains everything?

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I will be there...

Well...you know, I would, but I've never come across that since Junior High...what book are you reading there Bis? I would certainly be annoyed if I was reading a book and the author pulled that.

Elena

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I had an old signature. Now I've changed it.

Honestly, if I were reading a book and the author did that even once, I would probably not finish the novel.  Only an idiot would spoil a major story event in his chapter titles, in my opinion.

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Always hopeful, yet discontent; he knows changes aren't permanent --
But change is!

Dealing with Dragons did that, but it was a little more artsy.  Insead of Jerome's Death, it would be more along the lines of

"In which a battle is fought and someone is left behind."  or something like that.

<unrelated to above but still in topic>
in the Memory Sorrow and Thorn books.  there's a chapter in the first book called "1000 nails"  in which the hero arives at a fort surrounded by iron spikes.  In the third book there's a chapter called "1000 leaves."  I thought that was kind of stupid.

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"Number One, I order you to go take a number two."

I don't read near enough books, but the only one I can remember how the chapters were formed was Inferno. No name for them, just numbered. I wuv that book... though I get lost halfway into it. Must... finish.

This is probably why it's fashionable now to not put down chapter titles at all.  Of course, if chapter titles didn't reveal anything, books wouldn't be rousing successes.  A chapter about Jerome's death with the chapter title "Yummy Strawberries" doesn't exactly stick in the mind.  

I liked the Dealing with Dragons titles.  They were funny... also, it's fun when authors use multiple titles in the manner of Jerome K. Jerome.  "Swans - George's Banjo - Harris at Hampton Court - Camping Out - Not Camping Out".  Oh Jerome K. Jerome...what a character.

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"Turd-cookies!...they're hot and soft, though..."

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the beloved's bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on.  - Percy Bysshe Shelley

I think that sort of "chapter titling" is only tolerable when the author is extremely creative in the title.  Some writers have a great talent for titles which describe the content perfectly without being spoilers.  J.R.R. Tolkien did this superbly in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  (What, did you think I could have an intelligent discussion about literature without mentioning the Lord of the Rings?  Hah.)

For example...

SPOILER ALERT!  Highlight to view:

The beginning chapter of "The Two Towers", which describes Boromir's untimely death, is not titled "The Death of Boromir," but rather, "The Departure of Boromir."  This describes the event quite well without blatantly implying death.  The word "departure" can mean a great many things other than the departure from the mortal realm, as was the case.  I myself thought that "departure" meant he was simply going to leave the group because of a disagreement, or something.  This made the plot itself just as surprising, while keeping it a secret until the book actually portrayed it.

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"I always have a quotation for everything - it saves original thinking."
~Dorothy L. Sayers

"The truly remarkable thing about television is that it allows several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely."
~T.S. Eliot

"Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as reality - in your own mind!"
~ Bruce Lee

acually SM, I think that's almost as stupid as the tittle Bis was talking about.

My Idea of a good chapter title would be Hsiu's "Yummy Strawberrys" where Jerome dies by eating poison berrys .

One of my favorite chapter tittles is the second to last chapter of Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban: "Moony Wormtail Padfoot and Prongs"  You don't figure it out untill the very end of the chapter, and it has nothing really to do with the story, but the moment it refers to is one of the best passages I've ever read.

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"Number One, I order you to go take a number two."

I like the way Robert Jordan titles his chapters. He'll name a chapter after the street a scene takes place on or something. They describe the chapter so you remember it, but they don't spoil anything.

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What would Zorro do?-Homer Simpson

I enjoy Frank Herbert's method in the Dune Chronicles.  No titles, no numbers.  Each chapter is begun with a quote, however.  The quotes are fictional, taken from works that exist in the universe that he has created through Dune. Sometimes they may set the tone of or give insight what is going to occur in the following pages, but most of the quotes tend to be good for reflection after you have read the chapter.

One that I can think of from the top of my head (which is another way of saying that I haved it saved in a file with a bunch of quotes that I keep on my computer's hard drive) is:

Quote

No matter how exotic human civilzation becomes, no matter the developments of life and society nor the complexity of the machine/human interface, there always come interludes of lonely power when the course of humankind, the very future of humankind, depends upon the relatively simple actions of single individuals.

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"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." - Aristotle

Quote (Elena99 @ 3 Aug. 2002, 21:03)

Well...you know, I would, but I've never come across that since Junior High...what book are you reading there Bis? I would certainly be annoyed if I was reading a book and the author pulled that. Elena

sorry it's a novel translated to Korean so I can't tell you the exact name

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I will be there...

I prefer novels that don't have any description in the chapter title at all.  However, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman do a good job in the Dragonlance Chronicles series (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, Dragons of Spring Dawning).  It sets the scene, rather than spoiling it.  For example, the title may be "Death on the plains.  Tasslehoff's discovery."  This way, by telling you Tas discovers something, but not what, and someone dies, but not who, it encourages you to read "just one more chapter" instead of throwing the book down in disgust, as I would do in Bissy's case.

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I close my mouth now and I scream,
Open the door, there's nothing worth redeeming
I saw your face before in rough,
You should wait around a while, your body's bound to turn up.
So low for how high?
-Matt Good, "Running for Home"