Worm Hunter makes odd title list
Afterthoughts Of A Worm Hunter and Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich have been shortlisted for this year’s oddest book title award.
A public vote will determine the winner of The Diagram Prize, to be announced on 26 March.
Trade magazine The Bookseller, which runs the competition, said it received a “record number” of entries this year.
Previous champions include Bombproof Your Horse and Living With Crazy Buttocks.
According to Nielsen BookScan, Afterthoughts Of A Worm Hunter by David Crompton has not sold a single copy in the UK or US.
The shortlist of six books was narrowed down from 90 entries, including Bacon: A Love Story and I Stopped Sucking My Thumb… Why Can’t You Stop Drinking?
The Diagram Prize has been running since 1978 under the watchful eye of The Bookseller’s Horace Bent.
“I received a record number of submissions,” Mr Bent said.
“Sadly, however, almost half the submissions were ineligible as they were published well before 2009.
“However, even after the initial cull, the list was still considerable in size, meaning my panel of esteemed literary minds and I were forced into ruthlessness, brutally cutting any submission we felt carried a deliberately odd title.”
The 2009 shortlist is as follows:
Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter by David Crompton
The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease by Ellen Scherl and Marla Dubinsky
Collectible Spoons of the 3rd Reich by James A Yannes
Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes by Daina Taimina
Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots by Ronald C Arkin
What Kind of Bean is this Chihuahua? by Tara Jansen-Meyer
Story from BBC NEWS
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I’d have to go with What Kind of Bean is this Chihuahua as my favorite. 🙂
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I’d have to go with What Kind of Bean is this Chihuahua as my favorite. 🙂
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I’d have to go with What Kind of Bean is this Chihuahua as my favorite. 🙂
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I’d have to go with What Kind of Bean is this Chihuahua as my favorite. 🙂
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That’s awesome.
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That’s awesome.
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That’s awesome.
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That’s awesome.
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Wow, that’s what I get for skimming. I honestly thought ‘Afterthoughts’ and ‘Spoons’ were both part of one really long title at first! Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes: Oddly enough, I think I know what this is about. I read a news blurb a while back on how some uber-brainy physics equations were considered impossible to graph in real space until someone discovered that youcan KNIT the suckers! Weird, huh? ~Shady
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Wow, that’s what I get for skimming. I honestly thought ‘Afterthoughts’ and ‘Spoons’ were both part of one really long title at first! Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes: Oddly enough, I think I know what this is about. I read a news blurb a while back on how some uber-brainy physics equations were considered impossible to graph in real space until someone discovered that youcan KNIT the suckers! Weird, huh? ~Shady
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Wow, that’s what I get for skimming. I honestly thought ‘Afterthoughts’ and ‘Spoons’ were both part of one really long title at first! Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes: Oddly enough, I think I know what this is about. I read a news blurb a while back on how some uber-brainy physics equations were considered impossible to graph in real space until someone discovered that youcan KNIT the suckers! Weird, huh? ~Shady
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Wow, that’s what I get for skimming. I honestly thought ‘Afterthoughts’ and ‘Spoons’ were both part of one really long title at first! Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes: Oddly enough, I think I know what this is about. I read a news blurb a while back on how some uber-brainy physics equations were considered impossible to graph in real space until someone discovered that youcan KNIT the suckers! Weird, huh? ~Shady
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RYN: I can only imagine that people in costumes like that learn after a while to shuffle really slowly when they need to move instead of taking steps. It’s better to knock kids over than squash them, right? Now I know why Disneyland sends out ‘handlers’ with the people who are dressed up. It’s not to protect the employee in the big foam head from the kids, it’s to grab wandering children out of the way of huge over-padded feet! Can you imagine getting trampled by Mickey Mouse? We’re talking about years of therapy! 🙂 ~Shady
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RYN: I can only imagine that people in costumes like that learn after a while to shuffle really slowly when they need to move instead of taking steps. It’s better to knock kids over than squash them, right? Now I know why Disneyland sends out ‘handlers’ with the people who are dressed up. It’s not to protect the employee in the big foam head from the kids, it’s to grab wandering children out of the way of huge over-padded feet! Can you imagine getting trampled by Mickey Mouse? We’re talking about years of therapy! 🙂 ~Shady
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RYN: I can only imagine that people in costumes like that learn after a while to shuffle really slowly when they need to move instead of taking steps. It’s better to knock kids over than squash them, right? Now I know why Disneyland sends out ‘handlers’ with the people who are dressed up. It’s not to protect the employee in the big foam head from the kids, it’s to grab wandering children out of the way of huge over-padded feet! Can you imagine getting trampled by Mickey Mouse? We’re talking about years of therapy! 🙂 ~Shady
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RYN: I can only imagine that people in costumes like that learn after a while to shuffle really slowly when they need to move instead of taking steps. It’s better to knock kids over than squash them, right? Now I know why Disneyland sends out ‘handlers’ with the people who are dressed up. It’s not to protect the employee in the big foam head from the kids, it’s to grab wandering children out of the way of huge over-padded feet! Can you imagine getting trampled by Mickey Mouse? We’re talking about years of therapy! 🙂 ~Shady
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Surely it has to be the spoons? 🙂
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Surely it has to be the spoons? 🙂
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Surely it has to be the spoons? 🙂
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Surely it has to be the spoons? 🙂
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RYN: Okay, I’ve got to ask… where is Shatnerquake set? I live only a few miles away from both Ashland and Jacksonville, Oregon. Bruce Campbell lives in J’ville (as do Kirstie Alley and Tobey Maguire’s parents) and Shatner’s rumored to have a horse ranch somewhere outside of Ashland… I may have to find a copy of this book if it takes place locally… if just for the novelty. Wait. *rereads note* Is the fight between Shatner fans and Campbell FANS, or Shatner fans and Campell himself? I just realized that sentence could be read both ways. Either way, it sounds hilarious! 🙂 ~Shady
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RYN: Okay, I’ve got to ask… where is Shatnerquake set? I live only a few miles away from both Ashland and Jacksonville, Oregon. Bruce Campbell lives in J’ville (as do Kirstie Alley and Tobey Maguire’s parents) and Shatner’s rumored to have a horse ranch somewhere outside of Ashland… I may have to find a copy of this book if it takes place locally… if just for the novelty. Wait. *rereads note* Is the fight between Shatner fans and Campbell FANS, or Shatner fans and Campell himself? I just realized that sentence could be read both ways. Either way, it sounds hilarious! 🙂 ~Shady
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RYN: Okay, I’ve got to ask… where is Shatnerquake set? I live only a few miles away from both Ashland and Jacksonville, Oregon. Bruce Campbell lives in J’ville (as do Kirstie Alley and Tobey Maguire’s parents) and Shatner’s rumored to have a horse ranch somewhere outside of Ashland… I may have to find a copy of this book if it takes place locally… if just for the novelty. Wait. *rereads note* Is the fight between Shatner fans and Campbell FANS, or Shatner fans and Campell himself? I just realized that sentence could be read both ways. Either way, it sounds hilarious! 🙂 ~Shady
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RYN: Okay, I’ve got to ask… where is Shatnerquake set? I live only a few miles away from both Ashland and Jacksonville, Oregon. Bruce Campbell lives in J’ville (as do Kirstie Alley and Tobey Maguire’s parents) and Shatner’s rumored to have a horse ranch somewhere outside of Ashland… I may have to find a copy of this book if it takes place locally… if just for the novelty. Wait. *rereads note* Is the fight between Shatner fans and Campbell FANS, or Shatner fans and Campell himself? I just realized that sentence could be read both ways. Either way, it sounds hilarious! 🙂 ~Shady
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