Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2005 13:57:20 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title...
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

> omni at omniphile.com 12/27/2005 12:13:02 PM >>>

some text blue penciled... as it were...

>
>>Urogenital Manipulation by Jean-Pierre Barral (Eastland). Submitted
>by
>>Ian Carlton of Gateshead Library, who tells me a library loan
>request
>>for this title has been circulated nationally.
>
>A medical text?  If so, not an odd title at all.

Granted context is everything... and certainly any group with their own
jargon can appear "odd" when outsiders stumble across it.  "What do you
mean by 'The Secret Handgrip of Fandom?' "

Anyway... for these books www.amazon.com or www.amazon.co.uk can be
your friend...

"This book completes Jean-Pierre Barral's widely acclaimed four-volume
exploration of the osteopathic implications of the dysfunctions of the
internal viscera. The focus of this volume is on the pelvis, especially
of women."

> Now if it had been titled
>"Eurogenital Manipulation", *that* would have been a bit odd.
>
>>The History of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie by Trevor Hickman
>(Sutton).
>>Submitted by Jon Woolcott of Ottakar's. "Apparently it is
>>'controversial'," Woolcott says. "Maybe there's something we're not
>>being told about the jelly content. Yum."
>
>http://www.porkpie.co.uk/ is the company site, apparently.  The title

>isn't
>all that odd IMO, but the fact that anyone would take the time to
>write the
>book is.
>
>>Designing Public Toilets by C del Valle Schuster (Edizioni
Gribaudo).
>>Submitted by Howard Stanbury of IFIS Publishing, one of several
>who saw
>>it in a display case at Frankfurt.
>
>What's odd about that?  I'd hope that those involved in such
>endeavors have
>some sort of guide to use to achieve a level of standardization.
>Unique
>design and concept is good in art, but in public toilets it just leads
to
>long lines.

Oh, look a Salvador Dali bidet !

>
>>Dining Posture in Ancient Rome by Matthew B Roller. This was
>submitted
>>by Caroline Priday of its publisher Princeton University Press. She
>>expands: "The book promises to be a fascinating treatise on the
>meaning
>>and importance of dining postures in the period 200BC-200AD."
>
>Like the pork pie thing, the title isn't odd at all, but the author
>probably is.

At JHUP we had an author who didn't understand whay his scholarly tome
wasn't in stacks  & heaps at his local WaldernBooks.  Then there was the
author with a trade book (i.e. not a scholarly monograph) who didn't
understand why his signature printed on labels was what the bookstore
had in mind when they wanted him to autograph copies of his book.

I suspect if you ask anyone in publishing they'll have their "odd"
author story.  & university presses probably have cornered the market on
such...

mjw