I agree with the article that subtitles have gone out of fashion on fictional books — at most you might see The Messershmann Papers – A Novel.
But they remain rampant (if not increasing) in non-fiction. You simply can't publish a book The Sinking Ship without including something like … How America's Obsession with Cheez Whiz is Destroying Our Foreign Policy Options in Latin America.
And then you have to cite the whole thing.
I guess maybe it's because for fiction, we just need or want a mood or impression from the title. For non-fiction, we want a catchy main title, but also info at a glance on what the book's actually all about (in case it's not clear that it's about Cheez-Whiz and Latin America, vs. the sinking of The Lusitania vs. an indictment of Russian oversight of Internet memes).
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10 Famous Books With Lesser-Known Subtitles – Mental Floss
10 Lesser-Known SubtitlesA lot of the time, we end up dropping subtitles entirely. You may not have even realized these 10 books had them.
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Long subtitles are a pet peeve of mine, but as you say, they are so prevalent that if you ever want to read non-fiction you may as well get used to it. I hope it's a trend that goes away in a few years.
I’m a little embarrassed. I only knew four out of ten. I am slightly irritated with the never-ending titles of some non-fiction books, these days.