The Bookseller is back with another round of odd book titles. This year the six finalists for the Diagram Prize for odd book titles are the following:

• Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter
• Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich
• Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes
• Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots
• The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• What Kind of Bean is This Chihuahua?

As I mentioned before in this context, as the translator of Frozen Coagulated Cultures in Wine, Cheese, and Sauerkraut Production, I fail to see what’s so funny about these titles.

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Odd book titles of 2009

Who says you can’t take it with you? Well, you might have to leave your books behind, but at least you no longer need to be separated from your bookshelves, thanks to William Warren’s “Shelves For Life.”

The shelves are meant to last a lifetime. But they don’t stop there. They keep on going right with you on that final chthonian journey. The shelves are made to your own measurements, and they convert to a coffin upon your demise.

According to Warren, “The aim is to make stronger emotional relationships with our belongings and encourage life-long use.” That’s tongue in cheek, right? Right?

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via Book Patrol

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Buried in Books

Weirdly the book does not have a living author but is the product of an automated authoring invention by Professor Philip M Parker, which produces titles based on database searches.

The niche book sells for a whopping £795 begging the question – “Why do people who care about Fromage Frais containers have so much money?”  Philip Stone, of The Bookseller, said: “[The book] is a fitting champion given that today’s public are more aware of green issues than ever. It highlights an area that, perhaps, we are all guilty of ignoring as we push our trolleys down supermarket aisles”.

Dorothy L Cheney and Robert M Seyfarth’s Baboon Metaphysics and Brooks D Cash’s Curbside Consultation of the Colon finished second and third with a 22% and 18% share of the vote respectively.

In fourth place was Mark Hordyszynski’s Strip and Knit with Style, followed by Emmanuel Kowalski’s The Large Sieve and its Applications and Lietai Yang’s Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring.

As the translator of Frozen Coagulated Cultures in Wine, Cheese, and Sauerkraut Production (my first book-length translation, back in my brief technical translating period many years ago), I don’t see what’s so odd about this title!

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Oddest book title of the year

UPDATE, 10:15 PM. It’s a fun exercise, so I did another randomized album cover. This time I did tweak the rules, however, rejecting any image that contained a copyright notice — it took me a while, but I took the first creative commons image I came to. The band is Continuous Passive Motion. The album is Strangeness in the Proportion. The photo is from zergatikez’s photostream.

Results from the first experiment are below.

Album cover created with Wikipedia random album cover generator.

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Albums of the year

Above: The Passion of Saint Rudolph, 2008, colored pixels, by Thomas Christensen and an unnamed Palin family photographer.

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Instead of doing my traditional seasons greetings this year, I decided to feature Saint Rudolph. Previously I had taken Nicholas as my subject, as shown below.

I wish everyone a very merry holiday!

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Above: The Martyrdom of Nicholas 2, 2007, colored pixels, by Thomas Christensen and the master of Saint-Austremoine-Issoire.

Below: The Martyrdom of Nicholas, 2006, colored pixels, by Thomas Christensen and Francisco de Goya. (Last year I also listed the top ten seasonal songs that don’t mention Christmas.)

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The Passion of Saint Rudolph

While only a few display cases have been installed at this point, selected areas of the museum are nonetheless ready for viewing. To be one of the first to visit the new facility, just click on the screen shot below. (For the special tour, you will enter through the front entrance, but later you can use the member’s shortcut to the new acquisitions galleries.)

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Special offer: preview the Museum of Folly

According to finehomebuilding.com, “‘I came back my client and said, “I’m not going to make this look like Hollywood,”‘ Archer recalled, choosing to focus instead on a finely-crafted structure embodying a sense of history and tradition.”

More photos and story here.

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hobbit house

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Seen on eBay

All of which is just an excuse for the link below to Tom Waits singing “Chocolate Jesus.”

• “Easter Bunny, Meet Chocolate Jesus,” from the Gothamist
• Cosimo Cavallaro website
• Chocolate Jesus at Buzzfeed
• “Chocolate Christ Art Exhibit Cancelled,” via BoingBoing

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My Sweet Lord

Are you in shape for following step 12 in the instructions shown in the screen capture?

Via Google Blogoscoped. While at GB, check out Raymond Chandler’s 1953 mention of Google.

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Swim, Swim, Swim!

Could this be the beginning of a new Swiss imperialism intent on converting the whole world’s signage to Helvetica?

Too bad Peter Sellers isn’t around to make a movie version.

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Invading Liechtenstein

Some examples:

ATTORNEY : What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS : Gucci sweats and Reeboks.

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ATTORNEY : Are you sexually active?
WITNESS : No, I just lie there.

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ATTORNEY : So the date of conception of the baby was August 8th?
WITNESS : Yes.
ATTORNEY : And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS : Uh….

Go here for more.

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“The Dumbing Down of America”

Click image for more info.

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200+ U-Turns

Do you like green eggs and ham?

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Green pigs that glow in the dark

Bao xishun, at seven feet nine inches, is said to be the world’s tallest man. But that’s not the item. The item is that he was called in by a veterinarian to save a couple of dolphins that had swallowed some sort of plastic. Using his extremely long arms, Bao reached into the dolphins’ stomachs and retrieved the offending items.

UPDATE: Bao Xishun was married on 24 March 2007. I’ve posted a photo of the wedding here.

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World’s Tallest Man Saves Pair of Dolphins

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Note to Self

“We saw snails riding on each other’s backs and moving in clusters,” said David Walrond, chairman of the local emergency response office that organized 60 volunteers for the hunt. “You’re just crunching the shells as you’re walking through.”

(via Exploding Aardvark)

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Barbados Faces Invasion by Giant Snails