BBC Writing Prompt
Friday, September 5th, 2008The BBC Website reported
Distinctively odd
For the past 30 years, the Bookseller magazine has awarded a prize to the oddest book title it can find. The first ever winner was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude MiceMind-boggling as that is, it is far from the strangest. Now the top prize has been won by the 1996 magnum opus Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers, published by the Hellenic Philatelic Society and edited by Derek Willan.
They finished by saying:
We want to give listeners a chance to construct their own stories, inspired by the titles which have won every year.The Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year
- 1978: Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice
(University of Tokyo Press)- 1979: The Madam as Entrepreneur: Career Management in House Prostitution
(Transaction Press)- 1980: The Joy of Chickens
(Prentice Hall)- 1981: Last Chance at Love: Terminal Romances
- 1982: Population and Other Problems
(China National Publications)- 1983: The Theory of Lengthwise Rolling
(MIR)- 1984: The Book of Marmalade: Its Antecedents, Its History and Its Role in the World Today
(Constable)- 1985: Natural Bust Enlargement with Total Power: How to Increase the Other 90% of Your Mind to Increase the Size of Your Breasts
(Westwood Publishing Co)- 1986: Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality
(Brunner/Mazel)- 1987: No Award
- 1988: Versailles: The View From Sweden
(University of Chicago Press)- 1989: How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art
(Ten Speed Press)- 1990: Lesbian Sadomasochism Safety Manual
(Lace Publications)- 1991: No Award
- 1992: How to Avoid Huge Ships
(Cornwell Maritime Press)- 1993: American Bottom Archaeology
(University of Illinois Press)- 1994: Highlights in the History of Concrete
(British Cement Association)- 1995: Reusing Old Graves
(Shaw & Son)- 1996: Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers
(Hellenic Philatelic Society)- 1997: The Joy of Sex: Pocket Edition
(Mitchell Beazley)- 1998: Development in Dairy Cow Breeding and Management: and New Opportunities to Widen the Uses of Straw
(Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust)- 1999: Weeds in a Changing World
(British Crop Protection Council)- 2000: High Performance Stiffened Structures
(Professional Engineering Publishing)- 2001: Butterworths Corporate Manslaughter Service
(Butterworths)- 2002: Living With Crazy Buttocks
(Kaz Cooke - Penguin)- 2003: The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories
(Kensington Publishing)- 2004: Bombproof Your Horse
(J A Allen)- 2005: People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It
(Gary Leon Hill - Red Wheel/Weiser Books)- 2006: The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification
(Harry N Abrams)- 2007: If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs
(Simon & Schuster US)
If that doesn’t make for a fun writing prompt, I don’t know what would!
