Comments | addedentry: Long tales

addedentry

Long tales

Feb 23, 2009 15:00

So, what's funny about Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring? I'm always in two minds when The Bookseller announces the shortlist for the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. It's an occupational hazard when you work with books. Since tagging was introduced on the new Oxford library catalogue, by far the most popular tag assigned has been ( Read more... )

books

Comments 10

addedentry February 23 2009, 14:56:42 UTC

The Bookseller's blog doesn't go with this angle, but I suppose it might be funny to think of monitoring corrosion instead of stopping it, a bit like Bullying and Harassment: A Guide. I suppose.

aldabra February 23 2009, 15:11:40 UTC

I just got M the first volume of A Catalogue of Southern Peculiar Galaxies (possibly the most tedious tome ever).

lnr February 23 2009, 15:12:37 UTC

I'm rather saddened by the characterisation of knitters as fatty and smelly.

monkeyhands February 23 2009, 15:23:30 UTC

I'm just baffled by it. It doesn't fit into the two knitting stereotypes I know, which are:

1. Little old ladies making twee things for the church jumble sale
2. Hip young women making clothes for themselves, creating feminist art or just doing something with their hands to take their minds off the drugs.

Horace Speaks... lnr February 25 2009, 11:22:24 UTC

Original paragraph: "The title is all the odder given the claim "with Style"-surely this is dependent on the knitter in question? How much "style" a rotund and malodorous naked knitting enthusiast oozes is open to debate".

I was not suggesting all knitters are fat and smelly, simply that a rotund and stinky knitter may not prove a pretty sight in an illustrated manual titled Strip and Knit with Style.

Horace

sillage February 23 2009, 19:18:53 UTC

Title 5 - HORSE!

nja February 23 2009, 20:05:57 UTC

I think you're absolutely right about the antiscientific bias - Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring is only a funny book title because "Horace Bent" is so utterly ignorant he has no idea what it might be about.

Re: My Ignorance nja February 25 2009, 10:17:02 UTC

Woah there Cowboys and Cowgirls, woah there. Libelous accusations!

I know full well what "corrosion monitoring" is. I imagine the 1,200 people thus far who have voted Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring as their favourite Odd Title of 2008 do too. I believe the humour comes from the fact that the general and wide concept of "monitoring" is merely "to observe" the item in question. But here is a manual of techniques for keeping ones eyes peeled. I found it quite funny, as have others. If you don't, please feel free to vote for something else.

Given that the majority of submissions I receive are from niche publishers, catering for an incredibly fine target audience, it is perhaps understandable that many books that make the long and short lists concern incredibly academic/scientific fields. Interestingly, usually I get accused of a scientific bias for including so many in my shortlists, rather than an unscientific one - rarely does a fiction submission ever make a shortlist ( ... )