Date:06/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/06/stories/2008090652112200.htm

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Odd book title claimants all

LONDON: It may not be a best-seller, but Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers has won a literary accolade: the oddest book title of the past 30 years. The book topped a poll to find the weirdest-ever winner of Britain’s Diagram Prize for unusually monickered volumes.

It beat previous winners including Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice and How Green Were the Nazis? in an online vote. The results were announced on Friday by trade magazine The Bookseller, which organises the prize.

The runner-up was People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead. Third place went to How To Avoid Huge Ships.

The Bookseller’s Charts editor said the winning book may have benefited from Britons’ concern about the closure of rural post offices.

Rules for the prize, launched in 1978, say the books must be serious and their titles not merely a gimmick. Rural Postmen… was published in 1994 . — AP