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Behind-The-Books Blog
And the award for the Oddest Book Title of 2008 goes to…
Monday, March 30th, 2009
This weekend, I thought I would look through the newspapers for inspiration for this week’s blog entry. Should I write about the marches in London for the G20 summit? Jacqui Smith’s ‘blue movies’ scandal? The amazing escape of the death-defying grandmother who plunged her Mini Cooper over a 100ft cliff – without wearing a seatbelt – and walked away with only a bruised arm? Or how about the fact that Posh was spotted wearing flip-flops (shock horror – seriously, no killer heels! Who would have thought they’d ever see the day Posh gave in to comfort over style?)? Although all of the above are obviously highly newsworthy stories, I didn’t feel they were quite right for the A&B blog.
Then I came across the perfect article. I’m sure there are hundreds – nay, thousands – of people out there who were waiting with bated breath to find out the winner of the Diagram prize for the ‘Oddest Book Title of 2008’, and last Friday the results were revealed. There was stiff competition from Baboon Metaphysics, Curbside Consultation of the Colon, Strip and Knit with Style (surely a must-have read for every modern woman), and The Large Sieve and its Applications, but the ultimate winner was – drum-roll, please – The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais by Professor Philip M Parker. This enticingly titled masterpiece is apparently available for a mere $795, and it’s far from being this nutty professor’s first publication. He claims to be ‘the most published author in the history of the planet’ with over 200,000 (yes, that’s not a typo – I really do mean two hundred thousand) titles to his name, including such tempting offerings as The 2007-2012 Outlook for Lemon-Flavoured Bottled Water in Japan (for sale at $495) and The Import and Export Market for Household Refrigerators in the Czech Republic (a snip at only $112).
Now, you might be wondering how one man can possibly publish such a huge volume of work. It turns out that Parker, a professor of Management Science at French business school Insead, has created his own patented writing machine. I don’t understand all the technical bits and bobs involved, but it seems it does away with the need to have an author, an editor, graphic designers, artists, data analysts, translators, distributors and marketing personnel – basically the whole publishing community. (Let’s just hope his invention doesn’t catch on or we’ll all be out of a job!) If you ask me, Professor Parker and his computer-written book are worthy winners of not only the oddest title of last year, but also the strangest story I’ve read all week. Congratulations! And just as an aside, as the average fromage frais pot holds 60 grams – not 60 milligrams – I’d say the future for these micro containers must be pretty uncertain indeed.
If you’ve come across any other peculiar titles or funny stories recently, why not spread the joy and share them with everyone here…?
Louise Watson, Editor
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Persuasion, by Jane Austen. Sara: Yes, I'm still on my Jane Austen kick. After this one I will try reading something new...
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