Winner of Oddest Book Title Prize

The Bookseller Magazine recently announced the winner of the 2009 Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year: Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes, by Dr. Daina Taimina, who is a mathematician at Cornell University. This year's runners-up were What Kind of Bean is this Chihuahua, by Tara Jansen-Meyer, and Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich, by James A. Yannes.

The UK-based magazine has been awarding the Diagram Prize since 1978 -- the first winning title was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice. Anyone can nominate a title (except publishers cannot nominate their own books), and the public is invited to vote at the magazine's website. There is no prize involved with winning this honor, other than the "inevitable sales boost," resulting from the publicity. The prize's administrators try to not read the nominated books because doing so "might cloud our judgment."

Previous winners include If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs; The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frai; Weeds in a Changing World; Reusing Old Graves; and People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It. No fooling. Have you read any of these?