ICAS 6 Newsletter | Choice in Academic Publishing | July 2009
12
Weird and wonderful book titles
Finding a good title for a book is both an art and a science. Colophon
An art because the author often aims for something elegant ICAS 6 Newsletter Responsibility for
A supplement to IIAS Newsletter 51 copyrights and for
and inviting, even intriguing, and indeed many of the best book July 2009, 12 pages facts and opinions
expressed in this
titles have some element of humour or linguistic playfulness that Editorial office publication rests
IIAS exclusively with
sets them apart. But titling is also a science where the publisher P.O. Box 9515 the contributors.
2300 RA Leiden Their interpretations
usually wants a title that is concrete and descriptive, easy to Netherlands do not necessarily
iiasnews@iias.nl reflect the views
find in a keyword search, short enough to fit on a book spine, www.iias.nl of IIAS or ICAS.
devoid of special characters that might not reproduce on foreign Subscriptions
Please contact iias.subscribe@iias.nl
websites – and many other technical requirements besides.
Guest editor
Marie Lenstrup Marie Lenstrup
Asian Studies Book Services
Elst
Utrecht
AND THEN THERE ARE THE MAVERICKS. Authors and publishers who insist on telling it exactly as it is, sometimes at great length Netherlands
and often with a touching honesty about the underlying monomania.
Illustrations
To celebrate these free spirits, the British trade magazine The Bookseller awards the annual Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Alex Prinz
Year. The award was created in 1978 to provide a bit of light relief during the Frankfurt Book Fair and has since become a firm Trondheim
favourite of the British book trade. Nominees are selected from submissions sent in by librarians, publishers, booksellers and Norway
readers of the magazine. Titles which are deliberately designed to be funny are normally rejected, and self-nominations are not
allowed. The winner is voted for by members of the public via the Internet. Below is a full list of the happy winners of the honour Design
and a bottle of fizz. Artmiks
Amsterdam
1978 1988 2000 Netherlands
Proceedings of the Second High Performance Stiffened
International Workshop on Versailles: Structures Printing
Nude Mice Wegener Graphische Groep
The View From 2001 Apeldoorn
1979 Butterworth’s Corporate Netherlands
The Madam as Entrepreneur: Career Sweden Manslaughter Service
Management in House Prostitution Circulation
1989 2002 24,000
1980 How to Shit in the Woods: An Environ-
mentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art Living with Crazy
The Joy of
1990 Buttocks
Chickens Lesbian Sadomasochism Safety Manual
2003
1981 1991 The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories
Last Chance at Love – No award
Terminal Romances (nothing was deemed odd enough) 2004
1982 1992 Bombproof
Population and Other Problems:
Family Planning, Housing 1,000 Million, How to Avoid Your Horse
Labour Employment
Huge Ships 2005
1983 People Who Don’t Know They’re
The Theory of Lengthwise Rolling 1993 Dead: How They Attach Themselves
American Bottom Archaeology to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What
1984 to Do About It
1994
The Book of Highlights in the History of Concrete 2006
Marmalade: 1995 The Stray Shopping
Reusing Old Graves: A Report on
Its Antecedents, Popular British Attitudes Carts of Eastern
Its History, and 1996 North America:
Its Role in the Greek Rural A Guide to Field
World Today Postmen and Identification
1985 Their Cancellation 2007
Natural Bust Enlargement with If You Want Closure in Your
Total Power: How to Increase the Numbers Relationship, Start with Your Legs
other 90% of Your Mind to Increase
the Size of Your Breasts 1997 2008
The Joy of Sex, the Pocket Edition The 2009-2014 World Outlook
1986 for 60-milligram Containers of
1998 Fromage Frais
Oral Sadism and Developments in Dairy Cow Breeding:
New Opportunities to Widen the Use
the Vegetarian of Straw Source: Wikipedia
Personality 1999
Marie Lenstrup
1987 Weeds in a Asian Studies Book Services
No award The Netherlands
(nothing was deemed odd enough) Changing World marie@asianstudiesbooks.com