I swear, a colon has become a necessary part of every (non-fiction) book title these days. I looked down Discover Magazine’s top ten list or something or another, and all the science books had colons in their titles. Every single one. And here, I look around at some books lying around…

• The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently… and Why
• Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything
• Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
• Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union
• Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World
• Sneaking into the Flying Circus: How the Media Turn Our Presidential Campaigns into Freak Shows

And on and on and on and on: You can’t escape the colon! Everyone’s got their great tagline. Since when did the title become not enough; since when did every title need a little explanation with it?

Okay, I can understand the Henry Clay one, I guess. I mean, it makes sense to have the man’s name in the biography, with something else in it to differentiate it from the others.

But when I write a book, I’ll just cut out the middle man, the colon. No, no, even better yet! I’ll leave out the title completely! I’ll use the tagline. That’s the thing that makes sense anyway. Go back and look at my list and take out the colon and everything before it! It’s utterly amazing!

Oh how I long for the days when the title did not need a crutch!

Note: The 3rd book on that list is not mine.