NP great book titles

[Doug Millison]

This just in, from World Wide Words:

The results have just been announced of the annual competition run
by _The Bookseller_ for the oddest book title of the year.

The winner was _Weeds in a Changing World_. Runners-up were _Guide
To Eskimo Rolling_, and _Procrastination and Task Avoidance:
Theory, Research and Treatment_. Other shortlisted titles included
_Good Practice with Violence_, _Lakeside Car Parks_, _Toothpick
Culture and Icecream Stick Art_, _Women and Wasteland Development_,
and _Betel Chewing Equipment of East New Guinea_. The superb _Male
Genitalia of Butterflies of the Balkan Peninsula_ had been the
favourite but the judges seem to have suspected the title had been
made peculiar on purpose, a trick outlawed by the rules.

This competition has in the past thrown up much engaging stuff: the
all-time best seems to be the 1996 winner, _Greek Rural Postmen and
their Cancellation Numbers_. Some other past winners are _How to
Avoid Huge Ships_, _Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality_,
_Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice_,
and _The Joy of Sex: Pocket Edition_.

Other titles shortlisted in past years include _God's Chewable
Vitamin C for the Spirit_, _The Prostate: A Guide for Men and the
Women Who Love Them_, _A Method for Calculating the Size of Stone
Needed for Closing End-Tipped Rubble Banks in Rivers_, _Attractive
and Affectionate Grave Design_, _Wood Carving with a Chainsaw_,
_Male Genital Organs and their Improvement_, and _Postal Rates in
Iceland 1870-1997_.