Monday, February 23, 2009

Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year



From: The Guardian

The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, also known as the Diagram Prize, is a humorous literary award that is given to the book with the oddest title. The award was created by publisher Bruce Robertson to provide entertainment during the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1978.

Nominees are selected from submissions sent in by librarians, publishers, and booksellers, although people cannot select books they publish themselves. However, since 1993, readers of The Bookseller have been allowed to nominate titles. Titles which are deliberately designed to be funny are normally rejected. There have been two occasions, in 1987 and 1991, in which no award was presented because Bent felt no title was odd enough to win.

Here are the winners since 2000 (this year's nominees at The Guardian link):

  • 2000: High Performance Stiffened Structures

  • 2001: Butterworths Corporate Manslaughter Service

  • 2002: Living with Crazy Buttocks

  • 2003: The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories

  • 2004: Bombproof Your Horse

  • 2005: People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It

  • 2006: The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification

  • 2007: If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start with Your Legs



Full list at Wikipedia

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