Bookplanet: contenders for oddest title of the year

The Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year has been running since 1978, and people are beginning to suspect that authors come up with odd titles simply to win it. Here's an article about some of the likely winners for this year.

Odds on to win? – by Horace Bent (bent@bookseller.co.uk)

Judging from the wave of entries for the Diagram Prize over Christmas, many booksellers had a few quiet moments behind the tills. Here are some of the choicest--and oddest--submissions. Keep them flowing, and I'll announce the shortlist in February.

Circumcisions By Appointment: A View of Life in and Around Manchester in the Eighteenth Century by Roy Westall (Reword Publications). Nominated by Su and Andrew at Simply Books in Bramhall, who add: "at last a book which redresses the foreskin's take on Manchester's historical byways".

Whiplash and Other Useful Illnesses by Andrew Malleson (McGill-Queen's University Press). Submitted by Jon Lever of Ottakar's Bridport, who adds: "Personally, I've always found whiplash a useful reason not to have to cart boxes into the pit of our stockroom, while the threat of a good flogging is one of the few ways I have of getting any of my crew in there to deal with the ever-mounting piles of cut-price Jamie Oliver."

Rhino Horn Stockpile Management: Minimum Standards and Best Practices from East and Southern Africa by Simon Milledge (Traffic East Asia). Nominated by David Edwards of Waterstone's University of Teesside, who says: "I believe illegal trading of Rhino horn is a niche market I can break into with the help of this little £10 paperback."

Mr Edwards has also found Strategies of Sex and Survival in Female Hamadryas Baboons by Larissa Swedell (Prentice Hall)--"an excellent book which has helped me on many a night out in Middlesbrough town centre."

Chess for Zebras by Jonathan Rowson (Gambit Publications). Nominated by Helen Milligan.

The Anger of Aubergines by Bulbal Sharma (Spinifex). Sent in by Paul Swallow of Vision Paperbacks.

Nottingham Transformed by Kenneth Powell (Merrell). I'm not sure this is odd enough, but nominator Sam Carpenter of RIBA Bookshops proposes some new titles in the series: Burton Disturbed, Derby Dismembered and Tamworth Betrayed.

Finally, Inez Lynn of the London Library put us all to shame with no fewer than six nominations:

Colour Atlas of Diseases of Lettuce and Other Salad Crops by D. Blancard (Manson)

Bird Watching for Cats: an Entertainment Guide for Indoor Felines by Kit & George H. Harrison (Willow Creek)

Natural Enemies of Terrestrial Molluscs, ed G. M. Barker (CAB International)

Painting Zoo Animals On Rocks by Liz Welford (North Light Books)

Pope Pius XII: A Bilingual Coloring Book by Margherita Marchione

Blue Q: Wash Away Your Sins Bubble Bath-tism (Running Press). This is described as a "Bishop-tested Frankincense-scented bubble bath and holy water pbk." It has an ISBN, so it qualifies.