And the Winner of the Oddest Book Title of the Year Goes to

I’m not sure how we missed this one; we love award season here at For Reading addicts and we keep a close eye on when the long lists and shortlists come out, when they are announced, when the winners are due to be announced and who’s who in the world of literature but this one slipped under our radar!

Here for your delight and delectation, is the winner of and the other shortlisted novels for the award of  Oddest Book Title of the Year.

And the winner is……….

Too Naked for the Nazis

The Biography of Wilson, Keppel and Betty saw off the competition in order to win this most coveted award. Originally going to be called Walk Like Three Egyptians, the title was changed to reflect how appalled the Nazi leadership of Germany were in 1939 when they saw the trio’s act.

Buy Too Naked for the Nazis US
Buy Too Naked for the Nazis UK

Here are the other titles that made the shortlist.

Reading the Liver: Papyrological Texts on Ancient Greek Extispicy

Why isn’t this one on all of our TBR lists? After all we all need to know how to divine the will of the gods using animal entrails don’t we.

Buy Reading the Liver US
Buy Reading the Liver UK

Soviet Bus Stops

Photographer Christopher Herwig has covered more than 30,000km by car, bike, bus and taxi in 13 former Soviet countries discovering and documenting these unexpected treasures of modern art. From the shores of the Black Sea to the endless Kazakh steppe, these bus stops show the range of public art from the Soviet era and give a rare glimpse into the creative minds of the time.

Buy Soviet Bus Stops US
Buy Soviet Bus Stops UK

 Paper Folding With Children

Ahhh the importance of ensuring the correct grammatical translation of a title; or perhaps they just have particularly flexible children in Germany.

Buy Paper Folding With Children US
Buy Paper Folding With Children UK

Transvestite Vampire Biker Nuns From Outer Space

No this isn’t actually a book that should be kept under your mattress, or on a high shelf out of reach of those with delicate psyches; it is in fact an exploration into what makes a cult film, a cult film.

Buy Transvestite Vampire Biker Nuns From Outer Space US
Buy Transvestite Vampire Biker Nuns From Outer Space UK

Behind the Binoculars: Interviews with Acclaimed Birdwatchers

I’m sure that if you are an avid Twitcher this title makes perfect sense to you and is not in the least bit odd. For us mere mortals however is there really such a thing as an acclaimed birdwatcher? Isn’t it all just luck, plane tickets and binoculars?

Buy Behind the Binoculars: Interviews with Acclaimed Birdwatchers US
Buy Behind the Binoculars: Interviews with Acclaimed Birdwatchers UK

Reading from Behind: A Cultural Analysis of the Anus

Amazon tells us that in this book:

Jonathan Allan asks us to admit that the anus seems caught up in a grand narrative; the very ‘ground zero of gayness’. So what is our critical obsession with orientation? What would happen if we privileged the anal dimensions of texts and of cultural analysis? What if we relaxed, loosened up our critical inquiries, embraced the fullness of the pleasure of the text, and removed ourselves from the hermeneutics of suspicion?

No? Me either. I think perhaps it may be asking us to move away from the erotic (homoerotic?)  emphasis on the penis and focus on the beauty of the anus instead. Or maybe not.

Buy Reading from Behind: A Cultural Analysis of the Anus US
Buy Reading from Behind: A Cultural Analysis of the Anus UK

Well that’s my TBR list grown by another half dozen.

Or maybe not.

“Administered by the Bookseller, this is the 38th prize. The award was conceived in 1978 by Trevor Bounford and Bruce Robertson, co-founders of publishing solutions firm the Diagram Group, after they spotted that year’s winner – Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice – while bored at the Frankfurt book fair.”