Games: Odd Books

After much deliberation, The Bookseller has awarded its annual "Diagram Prize" for the Oddest Title of the Year. The prize has gone, rather surprisingly, to The Joy of Sex: Pocket Edition, ahead of The Prostate: A Guide for Men and the Women who Love Them, and Method for Calculating the Size of Stone Needed for Closing End-Tipped Rubble Banks in Rivers. This year's short-list had displayed an unusual level of sensitivity by including Interpersonal Violence: The Practical Series, and Attractive and Affectionate Grave Design, though there was considerable surprise that the strongly tipped From Coherent Tunnelling to Relaxation was not featured among the top three.

Seasoned observers were generally of the opinion that this year's crop of odd titles were less curious than many from past years. Considerable doubts have been expressed about whether this year's winner - which is already known to cognoscenti as Pocket Sex Joy - is truly fit to stand on the same shelf as such notable past winners as Greek Rural Postmen and their Cancellation Codes (which took the award last year ahead of God's Chewable Vitamin C for the Spirit and Old Tractors and the Men Who Love Them), or the 1992 winner, How to Avoid Huge Ships.

Other worthy titles that have gained this singular honour include Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality, Versailles: the View from Sweden, and Highlights in the History of Concrete.