I need a title for this…

I need a title for this cookbook! I suck at titles! Any advice would be much appreciated.

Isle of Delight: A (Mostly) Sri Lankan Cookbook
-- con: too cheesy sounding? If you don't know that the Arabs called it Tenerisim (the isle of delight)?

A Taste of Serendib: A (Mostly) Sri Lankan Cookbook
-- con: if people don't know that Serendib is an old name for Sri Lanka, will this be offputting?

Tastes of Taprobane: A (Mostly) Sri Lankan Cookbook
-- con: ditto previous, but perhaps this one is more alliterative?

Sri Lankan Recipes
-- con: simple, but boring (and misleading? since most of mine are modified and this sounds like it would be more authentic?)

Resplendent Recipes: A Taste of Sri Lanka
-- con: doesn't make sense unless you know Sri Lanka means "resplendent land" in Sanskrit -- and I'm not sure my recipes are particularly resplendent anyway

Cinnamon, Cardamom and Cloves: Recipes from Sri Lanka
-- I just like the sound of this one, though it could be India as easily as Sri Lanka

Any other suggestions are also welcome!

10 thoughts on “I need a title for this…”

  1. Why not “Resplendent Land: A Taste of Sri Lanka”? I don’t think you have to put the word ‘recipe’ in the title for people to get that it’s a cookbook… Just a thought!

  2. The old name for Sri Lanka could also be transliterated as “Serendip,” couldn’t it? Perhaps a play on that? Something like…

    Succulent Serendipities: A (Mostly) Sri Lankan Cookbook

  3. For what it is worth, I think it would be a mistake not to use the wonderful and exotic word Ceylon. Your ordinary person will connect with it immediately. (Sri Lanka does not yet have the evocative ring of Ceylon.) I would suggest something like: The Island of Ceylon: The Resplendent Food of Sri Lanka. Or, colonless: The Resplendent Food of Ceylon. etc.

  4. I like Ceylon too — but I think I’d rather get away from that particular name, for now. It somehow doesn’t feel right to me…and I don’t even know why. Hmm…

  5. I was thinking of the potential customer. Most people would not even look at a word like Serendip, but Ceylon is both a beautiful word to say and an exotic and attractive bundle of meaning, almost all of them positive to an ordinary person. A subtitle could make the shift to Sri Lanka, also beautiful but a much thinner word in terms of connotations. The goal here should be the sales to come, I was thinking, and the title chosen with that in mind.

  6. Oh, I followed your reasoning, GAC, and I have no arguments with it. But this cookbook is much more of a labor of love than a sales vehicle; most of the choices involved are decided on the basis of what I like, rather than on marketability. 🙂 And while I like Ceylon, it feels wrong to me for this. Besides, I like Serendib better. And the connotations of serendipity are lovely.

  7. I really like your second possibility, “A Taste of Serendib: A (Mostly) Sri Lankan Cookbook”. It sounds wonderfully exotic and appealing, even without knowing what, in particular, ‘Serendib’ means.

  8. I’m waffling now over whether I need the (Mostly). It weakens the title, and the only reason is in there so I’m not falsely-advertising that this is a particularly authentic cookbook. Which should be clear from the inside material. What do you think? I could also do it as:

    mostly
    A ^ Sri Lankan Cookbook

    With the mostly written in above. Cute? Annoying?

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