Oddity Book Titles Vie for Top Prize

March 10, 2007 — -- Sometimes it's best to judge a book by its cover.

At least, that's what editors at the British magazine The Bookseller believe.

For the last 29 years, The Bookseller has invited publishers, bookstore owners and librarians to submit their choices for the oddest book title of the year. The choices are then published on the magazine's Web site where readers are asked to vote for their favorite title.

The only requirement? There are two, actually -- the book must be a work of nonfiction, and its title must be ridiculous.

Just how ridiculous?

Last year's winner was a book called "People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to do About It," by Gary Leon Hill. It's a guide to counseling dead spirits who just can't seem to shake off their desire to live on, often in bodies that don't belong to them.

In an interview with ABCNews.com, The Bookseller's deputy editor, Joel Rickett, said that "the origins of this award are shrouded in the mists of time. Despite years of searching, I haven't been able to figure out quite how it came to be."

Whatever the story behind these awards, one thing is clear -- the rewards are definitely not financial. As Rickett put it, "There's no cash prize, only the prestige of winning such a special prize. People love an obscure title!"

But the nominated books are not always as strange as their titles might suggest.

One of last year's nominees, "Ancient Starch Research," is actually an academic tome on plant archaeology, a subject not usually given over to belly laughs.

The book's California publisher, Mitch Allen of Left Coast Press Inc., said, "We were very amused to hear of the nomination. We plan to publish books with equally odd titles in the future. I only wish we had published the book with the winning title as well!"

The book's distributors, Berg Publishers, were equally thrilled about the nomination."We would have loved to win," said Berg's sales and marketing manager, Veruschka Selbach. "We spend so much time devising the perfect title, and when it's noticed -- even if for its oddness, it's a great thing."