Oddest Book Title of the Year?

>> Monday, March 15, 2010


Every year, The Bookseller gives out The Diagram Prize, awarded to the book with that year's oddest title. The prize was first awarded in 1978 - to Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice - and was conceived to alleviate boredom during the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Says prize custodian Horace Bent:

Selecting a shortlist proved a Herculean task, as many books carried titles that furrowed the brow—not least How YOU™ Are Like Shampoo, and Map-based Comparative Genomics in Legumes. However, the vast sum of submissions has, in my humble opinion, created one of the most competitive shortlists in the 32 years of the prize. And I look forward with incalculable anticipation to the result of the public vote.

Tthe 2008 Diagram Prize was won by Professor Philip M Parker’s The 2009–2014 World Outlook for 60mg Containers of Fromage Frais, while other previous winners include: If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start with Your Legs, and Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers.

This year's short list:

* David Crompton's Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter (Glenstrae Press)
* James A Yannes' Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich (Trafford)
* Daina Taimina's Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes (A K Peters)
* Ronald C Arkin's Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots (CRC Press)
* Ellen Scherl and Maria Dubinsky's The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SLACK Inc)
* Tara Jansen-Meyer's What Kind of Bean is This Chihuahua? (Mirror)

You can cast your vote here. (The poll is halfway down the page.)

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