Last year’s unlikely blockbuster Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has made the longlist for one of Quillblog’s favourite literary awards: the Bookseller’s annual Diagram Prize for the year’s oddest title.
P&P&Z is something of a surprise inclusion, and is nowhere near the oddest title on the list, which also includes Peek-a-poo: What’s in Your Diaper?, Governing Lethal Behaviour in Autonomous Robots, and I Stopped Sucking My Thumb … Why Can’t You Stop Drinking?
Horace Bent, the prize’s administrator, told the Guardian that he received 90 submissions for this year’s award – close to three times as many as last year.
“The adage that everyone has a book in them may well be true, but that doesn’t mean every Tom, Dick and Harry out there can bash a few words out on a keyboard and then upload it to Scribd with a humorous title like The Historic Adventures of the Purple Waffle Iron on His Horse Made of Asparagus, and then think they have a chance at winning my prestigious award. I refuse to acknowledge such submissions,” Bent said.
Titles with a strong chance of making the shortlist – which will be announced on 19 February – include Dental Management of Sleep Disorders, Mickey Mouse, Hitler and Nazi Germany and Advances in Potato Chemistry and Technology, Bent added. Once the shortlist is revealed, the public will then be asked to vote for their favourite, with the winner to be announced on 26 March.
Last year’s prize went to The 2009–2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais. Previous winners include Living with Crazy Buttocks, Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality, and How to Avoid Huge Ships.
