Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers has been crowned the oddest book title of the past 30 years. In The Bookseller's online poll to find the "Diagram of Diagrams" , Derek Willan's comprehensive record of a sector of Greece's postal routes gained 13% of the public vote. Gary Leon Hill's People Who Don't Know They're Dead finished second (11% of the public vote) and John Trimmer's guide to avoiding maritime mishaps, How to Avoid Huge Ships (10%) finished third.

Well, I still like Bombproof Your Horse, but what do I know?

Category: Coffee and Cats
Technorati: Diagram Book+Title Odd

1. Conrad Longmore08/09/2008 09:02:32
Homepage: http://www.dynamoo.com/

"Bombproof Your Horse" sounds like a bizarre title, but it isn't. If a horse is "bombproof" then it has a very calm temperament and it won't be frightened by crowds, loud noises or other things that would normally make a horse panic. Police and military horses undergoing training to make them bombproof, and it's not uncommon elsewhere.

So it's a bit dull really. I guess like Greek postal routes :)

2. Chris Linfoot08/09/2008 10:26:12

That is in fact the whole point.

All of these titles sound odd, but all are fully justfied in the context in which they are used.

The award actually rules out books with deliberately odd titles - 101 Uses For a Dead Cat and so on - seeking only serious works whose titles, taken out of context, sound odd.

Unable to post a comment? Please read this for a possible explanation...