Cycling

The Book: Possible Titles

Carlo Levi wrote a book entitled ‘Christ Stopped At Eboli’, Eboliย being a town on the west coast of Campania in Italy, south of Rome. The book title comes from a local saying and is referring to the poverty and exclusion ‘from the full human experience’ in southern Italy in the first half of the 20th century. The book was filmed (at Materaย of all places) and is both an iconic piece of Italian literature as well as an iconic work of Italian cinema. I was thinking that it would be nice if my own book could have a title that emphasised how bad and wet the weather had been until I was south of Rome. I have considered ‘Cycling in the Rain’ but that’s a bit prosaic. And then I came up with ‘The Rain Stopped at Eboli’. What do you think? Would many (any?) people get the play on words? Any other ideas?

4 replies »

  1. How about ‘The good, the bad and the Puglia’? (rubbish I know, but it satisfies the criteria that a travel book must have a pun in the title*).

    (* although now I think about it, none actually come to mind).

    • I like your style John, that has a ring to it. If I adopt your suggestion, I’ll make sure you get a free signed copy. Could be worth a fortune one day. ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. No one will get the literary reference. Why not use the wildlife connection: “Pedaling for Pandas”,”Biking for Bears”,”Puglia for Polar Bears” etc.etc

    • Was there a wildlife connection? Oh, yes! You’re referring to the charity I presume. How about ‘Cats & Dogs in Switzerland’?

What do you think?