Diagram Prize: 'Judging a Book By Its Cover Title'

The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for 'Oddest Title of the Year', commonly known as the Diagram Prize for short is calling on the public to cast their vote for the absurdest book title by March 20. The shortlist includes 7 books and the winner will be announced on March 27. There is no prize for the winning title, but the person who nominated the book to the Diagram committee will receive the traditional "passable bottle of claret".

Among the more controversial titles is one entitled 'The Ugly Wife is a Treasure at Home' by Melissa Margaret Schneider which sheds light on 'the state of love and relationships in Communist China through the personal memories of those who endured the Cultural Revolution and the generations that followed'. Another is a research into the evolution of genitals in which the author, Menno Schilthuizen, 'joyfully demonstrates that by learning about the private parts of animals the more humans can learn about their unique place in the diversity of life'. The prize was open to self-published authors for the first time in its 37-year history.

The Diagram Prize shortlist:

1. Nature's Nether Regions by Menno Schilthuizen
   
2. Divorcing a Real Witch: For Pagans and the People That Used to Love Them by Diana Rajchel
3. Strangers Have the Best Candy by Margaret Meps Schulte
4. The Madwoman in the the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones by Sandra Tsing-Loh
5. The Ugly Wife is Treasured at Home by Melissa Margaret Schneider
6. Where do Camels Belong? by Ken Thompson
   
7. Advanced Pavement Research: Selected, Peer Reviewed Papers from the 3rd International Conference on Concrete Pavements Design, Construction, and Rehabilitation, December 2-3, 2013, Shanghai, China - edited by Bo Tian

The prize is named after the Diagram Group, an information and graphics company based in London, and The Bookseller. Originally organised to provide entertainment during the 1978 Frankfurt Book Fair, the prize has since been awarded every year by The Bookseller and is now organised by the magazine's diarist Horace Bent. Voting takes place on The Bookseller's sister site We Love This Book.

"This is one of strongest years I have seen in more than three decades of administering the prize, which highlights the crème de la crème of unintentionally nonsensical, absurd and downright head-scratching titles. Ultimately, it is a stunning collection of books. Let other awards cheer the contents within, the Diagram will always continually judge the book by its cover (title).” - The Bookseller's diarist Horace Bent