# Don't judge a book by its title (or cover), judge its title (or cover)



## nickel (Mar 28, 2009)

Το πιο απολαυστικό κομμάτι στο καινούργιο ηλεδελτίο του Michael Quinion:

Thirty years ago, to assuage the boredom of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Bruce Robertson of the Diagram Group invented a contest to choose the oddest book title of the year. Ever since, it has been run by Horace Bent of The Bookseller. Some wonderful titles have been featured, including the first winner, “*Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice*”, and last year’s “If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs”. Others of note have been “Bombproof Your Horse”, “Highlights in the History of Concrete”, “The Joy of Sex: Pocket Edition”, “The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories”, and “Living With Crazy Buttocks”. Last autumn the best winner of the last 30 years was chosen: “*Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers*” with the runners-up “People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It” and “How to Avoid Huge Ships”.

The shortlist is said to have been particularly difficult to create this year. It must have been, to exclude the title “Excrement in the Late Middle Ages”, which should have replaced “Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring”, an utterly mundane and sensible title. The others on the list were “Curbside Consultation of the Colon”, “The Large Sieve and its Applications” (a mathematics treatise), “Baboon Metaphysics”, “Strip and Knit with Style”, and “*The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais*” (since the usual size is 60g, I’m betting that the market is as minuscule as the pots).

The winner was announced on Friday as the result of voting by the public. By a significant margin it was the last title. *It turns out that it’s not a real book, being the product of a patented method of automatic production of print-on-demand works from databases*. It won’t actually exist until a tragic soul desperate to learn about the subject forks out $795 for a copy. Professor Philip Parker, who invented the production method that avoids the tedious part of the publishing business called authorship (and, it seems, the bit that sanity-checks numbers), has some 200,000 titles on tap, including –or so Horace Bent swears– marketing advice for toilet brush makers thinking of emigrating to Kyrgyzstan.​Δεν θα ήταν δυνατό να λείπει το θέμα από την Wikipedia. Και εκεί θα βρούμε μια πληρέστερη κάλυψη καθώς και κάποιες λεπτομέρειες για το βιβλίο που μας έφερε στην κορυφή:
The second "Diagram of Diagrams", announced on 5 September 2008, was _Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers_, the 1996 winner. The book looks at the history of Greek stamps in rural parts of the country and how they came to be cancelled by the Greek Postal Service. It is designed, "to encourage the collection of Greek stamps and to promote their study".​


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## bernardina (Mar 27, 2013)

Seriously now? 







Δείτε εδώ δέκα από τα πιο wtf εξώφυλλα και τίτλους βιβλίων


mod's note: οι αναρτήσεις #2 έως #12 μεταφέρθηκαν από άλλα νήματα.


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## Hellegennes (Mar 27, 2013)

Καλά, το _How to Avoid Huge Ships_ είναι all time classic, το 'χω δει σε πολλές ανάλογες λίστες. Πάντως πιο παράξενος τίτλος ever θεωρείται αυτό:

_Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers_ :)

Νομίζω ότι από την συγκεκριμένη λίστα, βραβείο παίρνει το _It's Easy to Play Classical Themes_.


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## daeman (Mar 27, 2013)

nickel said:


> Το πιο απολαυστικό κομμάτι στο καινούργιο ηλεδελτίο του Michael Quinion:Thirty years ago, to assuage the boredom of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Bruce Robertson of the Diagram Group invented a contest to choose the oddest book title of the year. Ever since, it has been run by Horace Bent of The Bookseller. [...]​



Ριπλέι, μετά από 4 χρόνια παρά μία μέρα, με αφορμή εκείνο το ποστ:

Ξεκινώντας από το πιο πρόσφατο ηλεδελτίο του Κουίνιον, το περασμένο Σάββατο:

• _Goblinproofing One’s Chicken __Coop_ is the winner of the Diagram Prize for the oddest book title of 2012, it was announced yesterday, 22 March. The custodian of the prize at _The Bookseller_, Horace Bent, commented “The public have chosen a hugely important work regarding the best way to protect one’s fowl from the fairy realm’s most bothersome creatures.” More here.

επισκέφθηκα (υπήρχε καμιά αμφιβολία; ) το here που γράφει εκεί, τον ιστότοπο του _Bookseller _και φυσικά αντιγράφω όλο το άρθρο:

*Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop wins Diagram Prize*






*Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop* has been named as the winner of Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year.

The title won 38% of the public vote, fighting off competition from fellow contenders *How Tea Cosies Changed the World* and _*God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis*._

Horace Bent, _The Bookseller's_ diarist and custodian of the prize, said: "In _Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop_ the public have chosen a hugely important work regarding the best way to protect one's fowl from the fairy realm's most bothersome creatures. Everyone knows well the hazards cats, dogs and foxes hold for owners of chickens, not to mention red mite, but the public has recognised the need to illuminate this hitherto under-reported nuisance."

Bent added: "It is perhaps no coincidence in these austere times that a book aimed to assist members of the public frugally farming their own produce proved the most popular title on our six-strong shortlist. It also illustrates that the public at large is afflicted by an incredible amount of paranoia regarding the threat foreign invaders pose to their property."

The book, published by Conari Press, was written by Reginald Bakeley, with a foreword by its US editor Clint Marsh.

Marsh said: "On behalf of Reginald Bakeley and Conari Press, I am honoured to accept this award. The Diagram Prize celebrates the playfulness that is at the heart of much of the world's best book publishing. Thank you to everyone who voted and allowed _Goblinproofing_ to join the distinguished list of Diagram winners. Reginald and I take this as a clear sign that people have had enough of goblins in their chicken coops. Our campaign against the fairy kingdom continues."

More than 1,000 people voted for the winner on _The Bookseller's_ sister consumer site, welovethisbook.com.

The Diagram Prize celebrates its 35th year in 2013, after first being founded as a way to avoid boredom at the annual Frankfurt Book Fair. Bruce Robinson, the founder of the Diagram Group, a publishing solutions firm, established the first prize in 1978, with the crown going to _*Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice*._

Although the winner receives no prize attention, the nominator of the title, Deep Books' marketing manager Alan Ritchie, will receive a bottle of wine.

Previous winners of the title have included _*Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers*, *Highlights in the History of Concrete*, *Bombproof Your Horse*_ and _*Cooking with Poo*._

Philip Stone, _The Bookseller_ charts editor and Diagram Prize administrator, said: "People might think the Diagram Prize is just a bit of fun, but it spotlights an undervalued art that can make or break a work of literature. Books such as _*A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian*, *The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society*_ and *The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time* all owe a sizeable part of their huge successes to their odd monikers."

He added: "The kind of niche, off-beat publications that often appear on the Diagram Prize shortlist might not make their writers or publishers rich beyond their wildest dreams, but the fact writers still passionately write such works and publishers are still willing to invest in them is a marvellous thing that deserves to be celebrated."

The full shortlist and their share of the vote:

1) *Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop* by Reginald Bakeley (Conari Press) 38%

2) *How Tea Cosies Changed the World* by Loani Prior (Murdoch Books) 31%

3) *God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis* by Tom Hickman (Square Peg) 14%

4) *How to Sharpen Pencils* by David Rees (Melville House) 13%

5) *Was Hitler Ill?* by Hans-Joachim Neumann and Henrik Eberle (Polity Press) 3%

6) *Lofts of North America: Pigeon Lofts* by Jerry Gagne (Foy's Pet Supplies) 1%


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## daeman (Mar 27, 2013)

bernardina said:


> Seriously now?
> 
> Δείτε εδώ δέκα από τα πιο wtf εξώφυλλα και τίτλους βιβλίων



Τα βλέπω, κι _ανεβάζω_: _*God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis*. _ 

@ Helle:



daeman said:


> Μέσα σ' ετούτο τον μπαξέ πολλά θα βρεις λουλούδια,
> ιδέες, μεταφράσματα, ακόμα τίτλους, μα και τραγούδια.


 


nickel said:


> Το πιο απολαυστικό κομμάτι στο καινούργιο ηλεδελτίο του Michael Quinion:Thirty years ago, to assuage the boredom of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Bruce Robertson of the Diagram Group invented a contest to choose the oddest book title of the year. Ever since, it has been run by Horace Bent of The Bookseller. Some wonderful titles have been featured, including the first winner, “*Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice*”, and last year’s “If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs”. Others of note have been “Bombproof Your Horse”, “Highlights in the History of Concrete”, “The Joy of Sex: Pocket Edition”, “The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories”, and “Living With Crazy Buttocks”. Last autumn the best winner of the last 30 years was chosen: “*Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers*” with the runners-up “People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It” and “How to Avoid Huge Ships”.
> [...]
> ​Δεν θα ήταν δυνατό να λείπει το θέμα από την Wikipedia. Και εκεί θα βρούμε μια πληρέστερη κάλυψη καθώς και κάποιες λεπτομέρειες για το βιβλίο που μας έφερε στην κορυφή:The second "Diagram of Diagrams", announced on 5 September 2008, was _Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers_, the 1996 winner. The book looks at the history of Greek stamps in rural parts of the country and how they came to be cancelled by the Greek Postal Service. It is designed, "to encourage the collection of Greek stamps and to promote their study".​


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## bernardina (Mar 27, 2013)

daeman said:


> Τα βλέπω, κι _ανεβάζω_: _*God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis*. _



Τα ρέστα μου! :lol:


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## daeman (Mar 27, 2013)

bernardina said:


> Τα ρέστα μου! :lol:


Άμα μιλάς για ρέστα: 

- “If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs”. 
- Oh, I got it, righty tighty, righty-oh: “The Joy of Sex: Pocket Edition”. :lol:


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## Hellegennes (Mar 27, 2013)

Ενίσταμαι! Δεν βλέπω τίποτα το παράξενο στο _Highlights in the History of Concrete_.


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## daeman (Mar 27, 2013)

...
Go tell it on the mountain.  As for the book itself, I guess it would be like watching cement dry.


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## Hellegennes (Mar 27, 2013)

Μμμφ... σε πληροφορώ ότι η ιστορία του μπετού είναι συναρπαστικότατη. Αλλά τζάμπα χάνω τα λόγια μου.:glare:


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## daeman (Mar 27, 2013)

...
Περί ορέξεως, τσιμεντόπιτα.


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## bernardina (Mar 27, 2013)

daeman said:


> ...
> Περί ορέξεως, τσιμεντόπιτα.



Ή ψυλλόπουδρα του Φραντσέζου.


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## daeman (Mar 9, 2014)

...
Από το ηλεδελτίο του Κουίνιον πριν από δυο βδομάδες:

*Poo, pies, cats, fish and god
* 
The Diagram Prize shortlist for the oddest book title of 2013 has been announced. As usual, it’s an eclectic mixture of the weird and wonderful. The six titles are, in no particular order: 

_How to Poo on a Date_ (invaluable advice on toilet etiquette and love, and what to do when the twain meet); 
_
Pie-ography: Where Pie Meets Biography_ (women tell their life stories through the traditional narrative technique of pie-making); 
_
How to Pray When You’re Pissed at God_ (practical tips on communicating with an omniscient deity when you are feeling peeved at it); 
_
Working Class Cats: The Bodega Cats of New York City_ (a celebration of the cats working — often illegally, it has to be said — in delis and bodegas in NYC); 
_
Are Trout South African?_ (South African identity explored through an animal with a brain proportionally one-fifteenth the size of a mammal’s); and 
_
The Origin of Feces_ (an examination of how important the stuff is to the survival of the human species).

     

και από τον ιστότοπο του περιοδικού _Τhe Bookseller_ που απονέμει το βραβείο Diagram για τον πιο παράξενο τίτλο βιβλίου κάθε χρόνο από το 1978:

Working class cats, South African trout and pies as biography are all some of the topics up for scrutiny as part of the 2014 Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year.

Six books have been selected from dozens of nominated titles, with the ultimate winner now chosen in a public vote on the _Bookseller_'s sister website, We Love This Book.

The shortlisted titles are _Working Class Cats: The Bodega Cats of New York City_ by Chris Balsiger and Erin Canning (SCB Distributed Publishers); _Are Trout South African?_ by Duncan Brown (Picador South Africa); _How to Poo on a Date_ by Mats & Enzo (Prion Books); _Pie-ography: Where Pie Meets Biography_ by Jo Packham (Quarry); _How to Pray When You're Pissed at God_ by Ian Punnett (Harmony); and_The Origin of Feces_ by David Walter-Toews (ECW).

The prize was originally conceived in 1978 by Trevor Bounford, co-founder with Bruce Robertson of publishing solutions firm The Diagram Group, as a way of avoiding boredom at the annual Frankfurt Book Fair. It has been administered every year by _The Bookseller _and Horace Bent, the magazine's diarist.

Bent said: "I believe my fellow judges and I—after much discussion and robust debate that quite frankly often threatened to descend into fisticuffs—have come up with one of the strongest shortlists in The Diagram Prize’s over three-and-a-half decade history.

He added: “It is a truly inspiring list celebrating the art of title-making that goes from the sublime to the fantastic. It runs the gamut from a book with a Darwinian pun and a very liberal sprinkling of the S-bomb within its pages, to a title that hints at the heretofore unreported class struggle amongst the moggies of the Big Apple. ”
[...]

Tom Tivan, features and insight editor at_ The Bookseller_, said: "This year’s shortlist reveals once again that more than other literary awards—which superficially judge books on the content between the covers—The Diagram Prize taps into the zeitgeist. _Working Class Cats_ will appeal to the great mass of people who spend their days watching cat videos on the internet when pretending to work; while the “Great British Bake-Off” contingent will be thrilled by _Pie-ography_’s inclusion. We also have a hard-hitting take on faith, and a look at national identity through an animal that is very tasty when sautéed in garlic butter and garnished with lemon and capers.

“And we have two books about poo.”

Votes can be cast on the We Love This Book website. Voting closes on Sunday 16th March, and the winner will be announced on Friday 21st March.


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## daeman (Mar 20, 2015)

...
«Πάρα πολύ περίεργα βιβλία»:











inter alia.  Oddyseys Oddities.

www.trolleei.gr/index.php/diafora/1220-para-poly-perierga-vivlia


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## Earion (Mar 20, 2015)




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## daeman (Apr 8, 2015)

...
*Nether regions and pavements hot on Diagram Prize shortlist*

Witches, camels, nether regions and pavements are just some of the subjects covered by the shortlisted books on this year's Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year.

The seven-strong shortlist celebrates the most peculiar titles published in the year, with the winner chosen by a public vote on The Bookseller's sister site We Love This Book.





Making up the shortlist are _Nature's Nether Regions_ by Menno Schilthuizen (Viking), a history of the evolution of genitals; and _Advanced Pavement Research: Selected, Peer Reviewed Papers from the 3rd International Conference on Concrete Pavements Design, Construction, and Rehabilitation, December 2-3, 2013, Shanghai, China_edited by Bo Tian (Trans Tech); academic papers from a two-day pavement symposium.

They are joined by _The Madwoman in the the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones_ by Sandra Tsing-Loh (Norton), a memoir of the menopause, and _Where do Camels Belong?_ By Ken Thompson (Profile), an investigation into native and invasive species.
Also on the shortlist are _Divorcing a Real Witch: For Pagans and the People That Used to Love Them_ by Diana Rajchel (Moon Books), a practical guide for ending pagan relationships, an account of the author's experience of speaking to strangers and _The Ugly Wife is Treasured at Home_ by Melissa Margaret Schneider (Potomac), an expose of love and sex under Maoist rule in China.

The prize was open to self-published authors for the first time in its 37-year history, and the self-published_Strangers Have the Best Candy_ by Margaret Meps Schulte (Choose Art) completes the shortlist.

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/nether-regions-and-pavements-hot-diagram-prize-shortlist


*1. Advanced Pavement Research: Selected, Peer Reviewed Papers from the 3rd International Conference on Concrete Pavements Design, Construction, and Rehabilitation*
Souvenir guide to a two-day pavement symposium.
_December 2-3, 2013, Shanghai, China 
Bo Tian (ed.), Trans Tech Publications

_*2. Divorcing a Real Witch: For Pagans and the People That Used to Love Them
*“Fills a huge gap in the resources that Witches and Pagans have in the areas of family and relationships,” according to its publisher. 
_Diana Rajchel, Moon Books_

*3. The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones*
A roller-coaster trip through “the change”. (This is not your grandmother’s menopause memoir.)
_Sandra Tsing Loh, W W Norton_

*4. Nature’s Nether Regions*
What links men and stamen? This fascinating history of the evolution of genitals is an essential addition to the field of research, because, as one online reviewer notes: “Sex is one of the things we humans find really worth doing.”
_Menno Schilthuizen, Viking

_*5. Strangers Have the Best Candy*
A chronicle of Margaret Meps Schulte’s experiences of talking to strangers, including Carrie, “the topless runner who popped out of the woods at Crater Lake with a bag of flour”.
_Margaret Meps Schulte, Choose Art

_*6. The Ugly Wife is a Treasure at Home*
An essential expose of how romantic love and sexual freedom came to be considered a revolutionary act in Communist China under the rule of Mao.
_Melissa Margaret Schneider, Potomac Books

_*7. Where Do Camels Belong?*
A riveting investigation into the contradictions of ‘native’ and ‘invasive’ species – the notorious Japanese knotweed is among the latter. Could camels be the next invasive species to give British horticulturalists the hump?
_Ken Thompson, Profile Books_

http://www.welovethisbook.com/features/oddest-book-title-prize-reveals-shortlist

Self-published title _Strangers Have the Best Candy_ has won the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year.

In the closest vote since the prize was opened to public voting in 2000, Margaret Meps Schulte's travelogue won with 26.1% of the vote, just ahead of Diana Rajchel's_ Divorcing a Real Witch: For Pagans and the People who Used to Love Them_ with 25.1% of the vote.

Schulte said the win was a "miracle", adding: "The Diagram Prize doesn’t reward bad books, just quirky titles. Often, they are funny because they are targeted at very small audiences. _Strangers Have the Best Candy_ targets a huge audience: people. Not since _The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America_ has the Diagram Prize been awarded to a book with such a potentially wide audience."

There is no prize for the author of the book, though the person who nominated the winning title traditionally receives a "passable bottle of claret". Schulte entered the title herself.

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/strangers-have-best-candy-wins-diagram-prize


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## Hellegennes (Apr 8, 2015)

Πάλι ενίσταμαι. Τι περίεργο έχει το _*Advanced Pavement Research;*_


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