Oscars are amusing, Olympics are fun, but for a good solid laugh, give me the competition for the Diagram Prize, the award presented annually to the Oddest Book Title of the Year. The shortlist of nominees for this year’s prize, which has been awarded for the past 32 years by the British trade publication The Bookseller, has just been announced. Readers should feel free to conclude whether any of these titles measures up to the standard set by previous winners, such as If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start with Your Legs; Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers; and last year’s memorable champion, The 2009–2014 World Outlook for 60mg Containers of Fromage Frais, by Professor Philip M. Parker. And whether or not you feel this is a sign of progress, the number of entries in the competition is dramatically on the rise, with this year’s 90 entries nearly tripling last year’s 32.
Here are this year’s nominees:
* 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)
Go to www.thebookseller.com to vote for your favorite. The winner will be announced on 26th March.