What's in a Title? Analyzing Fantasy Romance Book Titles by Irene Alisjahbana

'What's in a Title?' is an exploration into the repetitiveness and patterns present within Fantasy Romance book titles. Using 760 book titles from Goodreads' Fantasy Romance genre as a foundation, this project classifies titles into four overarching categories based on their word type. As an illustrative example, a title such as 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' transforms into the format: A [NOUN] [ADPOSITION] [NOUN] and [NOUN], fitting snugly into the “Adposition” category. The visualization depicts these classifications through a treemap, presenting a visually engaging and insightful perspective on common title structures. The ideation behind this project was sparked by feedback from readers, lamenting the growing similarity in book titles. The project's primary aim was to validate these observations. Data extraction was executed with Python from Goodreads. For visualization, I used D3.js in combination with Illustrator. Initially intended for Instagram, the visualization garnered substantial engagement, indicating the audience's strong resonance with its findings. Indeed, the data underscored the perception, revealing a significant predilection for the "blank of blank" pattern in Fantasy Romance titles. This project stands as a testament to the broader discussion about originality in art and media. With the evolving landscape of literature, understanding patterns, even in something as seemingly innocuous as titles, can shed light on larger industry trends and reader preferences.