Diagram Prize 2004
Magazine
The prize this year goes to the quite barmy Bombproof Your Horse, which even in these troubling times would seem to be advocating taking things a bit far...
Just when the year was drawing to a close and it looked as if there wasn't going to a 2004 Prize, the shortlist has now been announced for my favourite competition of the year, run by columnist Horace Bent in the Bookseller (the UK book trade weekly) with input from dedicated odd title hunters from all over the world. The prize, set up in association with the Diagram Group, has been running since 1978 and is a joyous celebration of the barmy side of publishing.
As always, they've come up with some extremely amusing and quite incredible titles, but all are guaranteed to be authentic. It's been a tough job choosing from the extremely bizarre 2004 line-up.
The 2004 shortlist
Applications of High Tech Squids
The Aesthetics of the Japanese Lunchbox
Bombproof Your Horse
Detecting Foreign Bodies in Food
Equids in Time and Space
Sexual Health at Your Fingertips
Aren't they wonderful?
The 2003 Winner
The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories
So how do you think this lines up alongside glorious winners of the past, such as 2002's wonderful Living with Crazy Buttocks and the original classis Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice? The 2004 winner will be announced very soon.
(Please note that, contrary to what you may think, all entries for the Prize must be genuine titles of books actually being published - no cheating allowed)
© Chris Holifield 2005
