Tuesday 9 September 2008

TUESDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER - odd bods

Last Friday morning as I was having my first hot drink of the day an article caught my ear - is there a more appropriate phrase? - and this was about the overall winner of the 30 years of the Oddest Book Title competition which is run by The Bookseller.

The winner is "Greek Rural Postmen and their cancellation numbers" by Derek Willan which has been voted the oddest title of them all in the last 3o years.

2nd was "People who don't know they're dead "- Gary Leon Hill

3rd -"How to avoid huge ships" - John Trimmer

The presenter interviewed a startled elderly 91 year old Derek Willan who needless to say was delighted with this unexpected accolade.

Here are a few past winners.

The Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year:

Winners

1980: The Joy of Chickens


1984: The book of Marmalade

1988: Versailles: The View From Sweden

1992: How to Avoid Huge Ships

1994: Highlights in the History of Concrete

1995: Reusing Old Graves

1996: Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers

1999: Weeds in a Changing World

2002: Living With Crazy Buttocks

2004: Bombproof Your Horse

2006: The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America

Comprehensive list at theBookseller.com

I'm off to Truro later today so a browse in the bookshop is a must perusing titles for their quirkiness!

Any offers?!

11 comments:

Jan said...

Brilliant ones!!
I shall go and browse in a bookshop and hopefully be back...

abcd said...

Hi Kissa, thanks for calling by my blog. I am afraid to say I actually own a copy of Bombproof your Horse!
Enjoy your day in Truro.

Claire said...

jan: any luck? Nice to see you.
fern: fancy youowning one of the list! Well if I am honest I quite fancy a copy of Versailles from Sweden!

Chris Benjamin said...

I would love to read a book about 'Stray Shopping Carts'. I'm odd too I guess. The Joy of Chickens made me laugh loudest.

Claire said...

benjibopper: I feel sure that the titles are probably way better than the content however maybe I will track one of these down and find out one day on a dusty shelf at the back of a library somewhere.

Georgina said...

I do agree with the joy of chickens, and would also like to bombproof my horse. Great titles. Debs x

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Fantastic titles! Thank you for giving me a good laugh.

Claire said...

lehners in france & welshcakes: I laughed too with the radio presenter.

Babaloo said...

The 2004 winner is really worrying me... ;-)

Just dropping by your blog!

Irene said...

I feel that I ought to come up with some odd titles, but I'm afraid they'd all be in Dutch gathered from the library catalog. I could cheat and check into an American library catalog, I suppose, but do I have the where with all for that? I could make some up, would that count?

Irene said...

Like: "How to streamline your Cocker Spaniel."