Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year

Here is a fun prize (for a change). A total of 64 books were submitted for the latest instalment of the prize, which
celebrates the very best in books with odd titles published around the world.

The shortlist:

Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop by Reginald Bakeley
God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis by Tom Hickman
How Tea Cosies Changed the World by Loani Prior
How to Sharpen Pencils by David Rees
Lofts of North America: Pigeon Lofts by Jerry Gagne
Was Hitler Ill? by Hans-Joachim Neumann and Henrik Eberle

Diagram prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year 2014

Working Class Cats: The Bodega Cats of New York City by Chris Balsiger and Erin Canning
Pieography: Where Pie Meets Biography-42 Fabulous Recipes Inspired by 39 Extraordinary Women by Jo Packham
Are trout South African by Duncan Brown
How to Pray When You're Pissed at God by Ian Punnett
The Origin of Feces by David Waltner-Toews
How To Poo on a Date by Mats and Enzo

Diagram prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year 2015 has been announced

Diana Rajchel’s, Divorcing a Real Witch
Sandra Tsing Loh’s, The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones
Ken Thompson’s, Where Do Camels Belong
Margaret Meps Schulte,s, Strangers Have the Best Candy
Melissa Margaret Schneider’s, The Ugly Wife Is a Treasure at Home and
Nature’s Nether Regions, by Menno Schilthuizen

The winner is to be announced on March 27.

Strangers Have the Best Candy by Margaret Meps Schulte won the Diagram prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year 2015.

The seven-strong shortlist celebrates the most peculiar titles published in the year, with the winner chosen via a public vote on The Bookseller's website.

Making up the shortlist are Reading the Liver: Papyrological Texts on Ancient Greek Extispicy (Mohr Siebeck), an academic study on sacrificial sheep by William Furley and Victor Gysembergh, ; Too Naked for the Nazis (Fantom Films) by Alan Stafford, a biography of a musical hall troupe; and Paper Folding with Children (Floris Books) by Alice Hornecke and translated by Anna Cardwell, a craft book that appears to assume children are extremely flexible.

They are joined by Transvestite Vampire Biker Nuns from Outer Space: A Consideration of Cult Film (MKH Imprint) by Mark Kirwan-Hayhoe; Behind the Binoculars: Interviews with Acclaimed Birdwatchers (Pelagic Publishing) by Mark Avery and Keith Betton; and Soviet Bus Stops (Fuel) by Christopher Herwig.

Reading from Behind: A Cultural History of the Anus (Zed Books) by Jonathan Allan rounds out the shortlist.

>5 bergs47: - it appears that the Soviets took the humble bus stop to another level - Futuristic Soviet Bus Stops.