The shortlist has been released for The Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of 2010. What is perhaps the oddest thing about the list is how, well, normal most of the titles seem:
- 8th International Friction Stir Welding Symposium Proceedings, Various authors (TWI)
- The Generosity of the Dead, Graciela Nowenstein (Ashgate)
- The Italian’s One-night Love Child, Cathy Williams (Mills & Boon)
- Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis Khan Way, Michael R Young (Radcliffe)
- Myth of the Social Volcano, Martin King Whyte (Stanford University Press)
- What Color Is Your Dog?, Joel Silverman (Kennel Club)
Granted, there are a couple of pretty good exceptions. But, really…ho hum!
Forget 2010, what are the oddest book titles you’ve ever encountered?
What a fun question! Here’s one of my favorite peculiar ones:
The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification by Julian Montague
I saw this title in a used bookstore in Memphis when I was looking for a field identification book on Mississippi birds. It is really is about how to identify and classify abandoned shopping carts!
That’s awesome!