I can’t think of anything that I’ve avoided specifically because of the title. I just wanted to say that this
is the absolute best excuse for anything that I ever recall reading.
My dad announced when it was in heavy rotation on HBO that based solely on the title he would not watch “White Men Can’t Jump” until someone was allowed to make a move called “Black Men Can’t Do Science”
Just about any title employing this formula:
“The [proper name] [vague latinate word that wants to sound important]”
E.g:
The Rembrandt Affair
The Pelican Brief
The Screwfly Solution
The Trudeau Vector
The Johnson Presumption,
etc.
And of course, the vast majority of what Ludlum cranks out.
The Guizot Refusal.
Do they also avoid looking at the constellation Orion?
Even now, at this late date, I would hesitate to buy, or check out of the library:
Complete Idiot’s Guide To Amazing Sex.
Sex Tips For Straight Women From A Gay Man.
Everybody Poops!
Oral Sex He’ll Never Forget.
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is, if only to me, one of the stupidest names for a movie ever and one reason I’ve never seen it. The other reason is the trailer. (And how can it take 10 days? Just say “Dude, I don’t want to see you anymore” and that should be it unless he’s a deranged stalker in which case 10 days isn’t going to do it any better than that sentence.)
The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover was a movie I thoroughly disliked- all of the arthouse cliches- and so I have a prejudice against any title that sounds similar (Eat Drink Man Woman comes to mind- have never seen it).
Cry, the Beloved Country. I’ve read the quote the title comes from, and still can’t parse the syntax.
My teachers were pretty nonplussed, too, when I told them why I had missed the first month of the semester.
Most of the political pundits’ books turn me off just based on the titles. I’m thinking of books like:
“If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans”
“Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism and Liberalism”
“Liberalism is a Mental Disorder”
They present an image that is automatically ugly, confrontational and closed-minded. I like to confront ideas that I disagree with, but not being shouted at by the cover of a book.
Well, at least they give a clear idea of what to expect, however inane. Contrast those to the titles in vogue now with wannabe and past presidents, so desperately trying to paint a picture of auspiciousness and responsibility that they instead would seem to be about nothing at all, (and are mostly ghost-written anyway):
“A Charge Kept” (Bush, G.W.)
“Promises to Keep” (Biden)
“Living History” (Clinton, H.)
“A World Transformed” (Bush, G.H.W.)
Would that the presidents could still follow the very straight-forward example set by Washington:
“Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour”
Sin tetas no hay Paraíso, there’s no Heaven without tits.
Even before learning that it was some sort of woe-is-everybody romantic drama where the male lead is a drugs dealer, I reckoned the title was absolutely barfy.
The premise is not how to break up with the guy, but what stupid things women do that make men break up with them. A woman is writing an article about this, but doesn’t realize she’s trying to do it with a guy who has a bet saying he can get any girl to fall in love with him.
A better reason not to want to see it is that the setup is all so we can watch a guy have to put up with the foolishness of women without being sexist.
As for the OP, all I can think of is the Satanic Bible. I know it’s not really evil, but I hate the idea of reading something that was titled to give Christians the heebie-jeebies. Why would anyone think a legitimate religious text would just happen to have that title?
Right there with you. I keep hearing it’s actually not a bad show too but that title is so awful that I don’t feel inclined to give it a go.
Well, I can’t argue about it sounding lame as hell. In fact, I started watching solely because I figured I’d be enjoying it ironically and for the first few eps this was the case. It got waaay better as the season progressed and I ended up really looking forward to each new episode.
“Stupid White Men” by Michael [del]Moor[/del] Moore.
You’re getting a lot of mileage out of that incident, aren’t you? 
I have a copy of *Lies *that I’m meaning to read soon - glad to hear you liked it.
Eat Drink Man Woman is really good, Sampiro. Although don’t watch it when you’re hungry.
Man, you must hate The Big Bang Theory, since the show and every episode in it are titled in that fashion.
Hell, all I got was peed on by a lion, and I’m still telling the story 25 years later.
I saw someone get peed on by a lion…
I didn’t watch The Hudsucker Proxy for years because of the stupid enigmatic title. Good movie, though.