British industry magazine The Bookseller has opened voting for the oddest book title of the year, some of which suggest that nothing is stranger than non-fiction.
Readers of the magazine's web site www.thebookseller.com are being invited to vote on a shortlist of six non-fiction books in its annual Diagram Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year.
The nominations are made by publishers, booksellers and librarians from around the world.
PHOTO: AFP
The nominees are:
— Tattooed Mountain Women and Spoon Boxes of Daghestan
— How Green Were the Nazis?
— D. Di Mascio's Delicious Ice Cream: D. Di Mascio of Coventry — An Ice Cream Company of Repute, with an Interesting and Varied Fleet of Ice Cream Vans
— The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification
— Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Seaweed Symposium
— Better Never To Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence
Joel Rickert, deputy editor of The Bookseller, told BBC radio: "It's the only literary prize where the content of the book doesn't matter a jot.
"So, there's still hope for Salman Rushdie or Martin Amis if they're worried about the Booker (prize). All they've got to do is give their books an odd title and they're in with a shot."
Last year's winner was People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves To Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About it by Gary Leon Hill.
The competition has been running since 1978, when the winner was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice.
(AFP)
英國產業雜誌《書商》已開放票選今年最光怪陸離的書名,有些書名顯示,沒有比非小說類書名更怪異的了。
這個雜誌網站www.thebookseller.com 的讀者皆受邀從入圍總決賽的六本非小說類書本中,票選出年度最怪書名獎「圖解獎」。
提名者是由世界各地的出版商、書店與圖書館員評選。
提名者包括︰
《達吉斯坦的刺青山女與湯匙盒》
《納粹有多綠?》
《迪瑪西可的美味冰淇淋︰考文垂市的迪瑪西可——坐擁趣味多元冰淇淋車隊的知名冰淇淋企業》
《北美東部的流浪購物車︰實地識別導引》
《第十八屆國際海藻座談會進程》
《最好別出生︰生存的害處》
《書商》的副總編輯喬伊.瑞克特告訴BBC廣播公司︰「這是唯一與書本內容毫不相干的文學獎。」
「所以,假如塞爾曼.魯西迪與馬丁?艾米斯擔心得不到布克獎,他們還是有希望得到這個獎。只要取怪書名就有機會。」
去年的得主是蓋瑞.里昂.希爾的《不知已死的亡靈︰如何附身於不知情的旁人且如何做到》。
這項競賽始於一九七八年,當年得主為《第二屆國際裸鼠研討會進程》。
(法新社/翻譯:賴美君)
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