Odd Book Titles

[Stavros]

This year's nominees for Odd Book Title have been published; see the article below. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the more Dominant ts who visit HA already have their copy of Truncheons: Their Romance and Reality.

My own offering -a book that remains to be written:

An Historical Geography Of Golfing Transexuals Vol 1: Europe and North America

Oddest book titles: top ten of all time

By Catherine Scott The Daily Telegraph 1:11PM GMT 22 Feb 2013
The announcement of the shortlist for the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title is a humorous reminder of just how inventive, not to mention downright bizarre, authors can be. While the first winner in 1978 – Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice – takes some beating, this year’s six nominees have certainly done their best to stay esoteric and baffling, with titles including God’s Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis and the wonderfully British How Tea Cosies Changed The World.

Previous winners such as Estonian Sock Patterns All Around the World by Aino Praakli and The Great Singapore Penis Panic and the Future of American Mass Hysteria by Scott D Mendelson show that we’re spoiled for choice when it comes to book titles that raise a snigger or a quizzical eyebrow. So here’s The Telegraph's rundown of the ten oddest book titles ever to grace a cover:

1) The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide To Field Identification – Julian Montague
2) An Arsonist’s Guide To Writers’ Homes In New England – Brock Clarke
3) What To Say When You Talk To Yourself – Shad Helmstetter
4) Truncheons: Their Romance and Reality – Erland Fenn
5) Fancy Coffins To Make Yourself – Dale L Power
6) The Art of Faking Exhibition Poultry – George Ryley Scott
7) Penetrating Wagner's Ring – John L DiGaetani (editor)
8) Reusing Old Graves – Douglas Davies and Alastair Shaw
9) The Joy of Uncircumcising – Jim Bigelow
10) Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read In School – Carl Japikse

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9888055/Oddest-book-titles-top-ten-of-all-time.html

[Prospero]

I rather like "Penetrating Wagner's Ring."

[bluesoul]

I rather like "Penetrating Wagner's Ring."

yes, this title can be amusing, but if you're familiar with wagner's operas it starts to make sense.

i personally found 'reusing old graves' to be very suitably titled

[Dino Velvet]

10) Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read In School – Carl Japikse

Hey, thanks for that.http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/customprofilepics/profilepic3632_1.gif

[sukumvit boy]

Chingrish book title
.How to Good-bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way?: Hiroyuki Nishigaki: 9780595094721: Amazon.com: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QqW-DXuhL.@@AMEPARAM@@41QqW-DXuhL (http://www.amazon.com/How-Good-bye-Depression-Constrict-Everyday/dp/0595094724)

[maxpower]

I gave that shopping cart book to a friend as a birthday present a few years ago. It's a funny book of photography of stray and abandoned shopping carts, presented in a format similar to a field guide to birdwatching. It breaks the shopping carts down into various categories of cart, like you would species of bird; e.g "Aquatics," and then pictures of carts found in ponds and streams, etc. would be shown.

[robertlouis]

My sister who lives in Oz once gave me a book called 'Blokes and their Sheds' (Best said in an okker accent). And that's all it was. Fearsome looking Aussie blokes satnding beside their sheds. No commentary.

[Stavros]

The Sheds -there is a UK version of it was well, I think it ranks alongside one about car parks or roundabouts whatever it is...

[Prospero]

Surely there is now quite an industry in putting out improbable or provocative books. Taschen the low cost art book publisher did a book called The Book Of The penis a few years ago,. Their bookstore on Sloane square even had a special window display dedicated to it for a while.

And also a few years back there was one called simply "Shit" with that word emblazoned large on the brown velvet cover. A good book to be seen reading on the Tube. I gave a copy to a (now ex) girlfriend who had an especially bawdy sense of humour. This book would, of course, be a perfect gift for Dino.