“Poo Wins Prizes”

A couple of fast facts:

1. There are books out there on every topic, and…
2. Some of them are kinda nuts.

Seemingly in celebration of these two things, the UK’s Diagram Awards annually honor the oddest title of the year. The winner usually receives, “ a fairly passable” bottle of claret, according to Horace Bent, of The Bookseller.

“The public have chosen wisely,” writes Bent on How to Poo on a Date’s 2014 win. “Not only have they picked a title that truly captures the spirit of the prize, they have selected a manual that can help one through life’s more challenging and delicate moments.” From We Love This Book:

The book, by Mats & Enzo, published by Prion Press, topped a public vote to find the oddest title, in one of the closest contests in prize history. In the end, How to Poo on a Date: The Lovers' Guide to Toilet Etiquette, took home the title with 30 per cent of the vote, beating into second place Are Trout South African? by Duncan Brown (Pan South Africa) and The Origin of Feces by David Waltner-Toews (ECW Press), which both captured 23 per cent of voters.

The rest of the shortlist was made up of early frontrunner Working Class Cats: The Bodega Cats of New York City by Chris Balsiger ands Erin Canning (One Peace Books), with 14 per cent; Pie-ography: Where Pie Meets Biography by Jo Packham (Quarry) with 6 per cent ; and How to Pray When You’re Pissed at God by Ian Punnett (Harmony Books), with 4 per cent of the votes.

Nor is How to Poo on a Date the author’s first run at the prize. How to Poo on Holiday, How to Poo at Work and How to Bonk at Work, were all previously nominated for the prize.

The Diagram Prize was founded in 1978 as a way of relieving boredom at the Frankfurt Book Fair by Diagram Group co-founders Trevor Boundford and Bruce Robertson.