# Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year
The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, usually called the Diagram Prize, is a humorous British literary award given annually to the book with the oddest title. It is administered by *The Bookseller*, the British book trade magazine, and is named jointly after the magazine and the Diagram Group, a London information and graphics company.[1](https://www.librarything.com/award/5846.1/Bookseller-Diagram-Prize-for-Oddest-Title-of-the-Year-Winner) The prize has been awarded since 1978.[2](https://time.com/33425/this-book-won-an-award-for-oddest-title-of-the-year/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| First awarded | 1978[2](https://time.com/33425/this-book-won-an-award-for-oddest-title-of-the-year/) |
| Awarding body | *The Bookseller*, the British book industry magazine, with the Diagram Group as co-namesake[1](https://www.librarything.com/award/5846.1/Bookseller-Diagram-Prize-for-Oddest-Title-of-the-Year-Winner) |
| Eligibility | Non-fiction books; the shortlist is selected by publishers, booksellers and librarians from around the world[3](https://znayshov.online/FR/10581/8kl_rob_zoshit_anglmova_Karpuk.pdf) |
| Winner selection | Online public vote on the shortlisted titles[4](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/09/the-philosopher-fish-wins-oddest-book-title-prize) |
| Prize | No award for the winning author or publisher; the nominator of the winning title traditionally receives a bottle of claret[5](https://shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/2022-12-12/awards%3A_diagram_prize_for_oddest_book_title_winner.html) |
| Years without an award | 1987, 1991, and 2017[1](https://www.librarything.com/award/5846.1/Bookseller-Diagram-Prize-for-Oddest-Title-of-the-Year-Winner) |
| Most recent winners | *The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire* (2024) and *The Pornographic Delicatessen: Mid-century Montreal's Erotic Art, Media, and Spaces* by Matthew Purvis (2025)[4](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/09/the-philosopher-fish-wins-oddest-book-title-prize) • [6](https://www.westerncape.gov.za/cas/files/wcg-blob-files?file=2025-12%2Fnd25-cape-librarian.pdf&type=file) |
## Origin and purpose
The prize was conceived in 1978 by Trevor Bounford and [Bruce Robertson](https://www.edgepedia.org/bruce-robertson), co-founders of the Diagram Group, to avoid boredom at the Frankfurt Book Fair.[5](https://shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/2022-12-12/awards%3A_diagram_prize_for_oddest_book_title_winner.html) It has been given annually since then by *The Bookseller*, a business magazine covering the book industry.[2](https://time.com/33425/this-book-won-an-award-for-oddest-title-of-the-year/)
Two criteria govern eligibility. Besides having an odd title, the book must be non-fiction. The shortlist is selected by publishers, booksellers and librarians from all over the world. Joel Rickert, an editor of *The Bookseller*, described it as "the only literary prize where the content of the book doesn't matter a lot," and said the prize "helps to define the weird, the strange, and the simply odd book titles."[3](https://znayshov.online/FR/10581/8kl_rob_zoshit_anglmova_Karpuk.pdf)
## Judging and rewards
The winner is chosen by an online public vote on the shortlisted titles; the vote has been the selection method for roughly the last 25 years of the prize's history as of 2024.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/09/the-philosopher-fish-wins-oddest-book-title-prize) • [7](https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/philosopher-fish-claims-the-booksellerdiagram-prize-for-the-oddest-book-title-of-the-year) There is no prize for the winning author or publisher. Traditionally, the nominator of the winning entry receives a "passable bottle of claret"; when the nominator is a *Bookseller* staff member, as happened in 2023 and 2024, the bottle is held over, and the magazine announced three bottles for the 2025 prize.[5](https://shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/2022-12-12/awards%3A_diagram_prize_for_oddest_book_title_winner.html) • [7](https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/philosopher-fish-claims-the-booksellerdiagram-prize-for-the-oddest-book-title-of-the-year)
The prize is not awarded every year: no awards were given in 1987, 1991, and 2017.[1](https://www.librarything.com/award/5846.1/Bookseller-Diagram-Prize-for-Oddest-Title-of-the-Year-Winner) The 2025 cycle, the 45th prize, was announced in October 2025 with deliberations underway.[8](https://www.thebookseller.com/news/news-top-stories/axe-murder-and-montreal-erotica-titles-vie-for-the-oddest-book-title-of-the-year)
## Notable results
**The 2024 contest** produced the narrowest winning margin in the prize's history. *The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire* by Richard Adams Carey, a study of the caviar industry published originally in 2005 and deemed eligible in its 2024 edition because it contained enough new material, won 27% of the public vote. *How to Dungeon Master Parenting* by Shelly Mazzanoble took second with 24%, and *Looking through the Speculum: Examining the Women's Health Movement* by Judith A Houck third with 22%; five percentage points separated the top three. All six shortlisted titles came from university presses, a first in prize history.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/09/the-philosopher-fish-wins-oddest-book-title-prize) • [9](https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/uni-presses-make-clean-sweep-of-oddest-book-title-shortlist)
**Earlier winners** show the range of titles the prize celebrates. Past winners cited by *Time* include *The Joy of Chickens* (1980), *Bombproof Your Horse* (2004), and *The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification* (2006); *How to Poo on a Date* won the 2014 prize.[2](https://time.com/33425/this-book-won-an-award-for-oddest-title-of-the-year/) More recent winners recorded by LibraryThing and the trade press include *The dirt hole and its variations* (2019), *A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path: Animal Metaphors in an Eastern Indonesian Society* (2020), *Is Superman Circumcised?: The Complete Jewish History of the World's Greatest Hero* (2021), *RuPedagogies of Realness: Essays on Teaching and Learning with RuPaul's Drag Race* (2022), *The Joy of Waterboiling* (2018), and *Danger Sound Klaxon!: The Horn That Changed History* by Matthew F. Jordan (2023).[1](https://www.librarything.com/award/5846.1/Bookseller-Diagram-Prize-for-Oddest-Title-of-the-Year-Winner) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/books/oddestbooktitleprize)
The 2022 vote was itself close: *RuPedagogies of Realness*, edited by Lindsay Bryde and Tommy Mayberry, took 39% of the popular vote and a final margin of 14% over *What Nudism Exposes: An Unconventional History of Postwar Canada*, after the two titles ran neck-and-neck for most of the voting period.[5](https://shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/2022-12-12/awards%3A_diagram_prize_for_oddest_book_title_winner.html) The 2025 winner was *The Pornographic Delicatessen: Mid-century Montreal's Erotic Art, Media, and Spaces* by Matthew Purvis.[6](https://www.westerncape.gov.za/cas/files/wcg-blob-files?file=2025-12%2Fnd25-cape-librarian.pdf&type=file)
## Place among literary prizes
The Diagram Prize sits apart from awards that judge literary merit. Its stated criteria concern the title alone, with the book's content explicitly not a major factor, and its winner is decided by public vote rather than by a jury of experts.[3](https://znayshov.online/FR/10581/8kl_rob_zoshit_anglmova_Karpuk.pdf) • [4](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/09/the-philosopher-fish-wins-oddest-book-title-prize) It carries no monetary award, in contrast with major prizes such as the [Booker Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/booker-prize), whose winner receives £50,000.[5](https://shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/2022-12-12/awards%3A_diagram_prize_for_oddest_book_title_winner.html) • [11](https://thebookerprizes.com/booker-prize) Its function is publicity and amusement within the book trade: the winning title, and the shortlist announced each autumn, generate coverage in outlets well beyond the trade press.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/09/the-philosopher-fish-wins-oddest-book-title-prize)
## References
1. [Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year Winner, LibraryThing](https://www.librarything.com/award/5846.1/Bookseller-Diagram-Prize-for-Oddest-Title-of-the-Year-Winner)
2. [The Oddest Book Title of the Year, Time (21 March 2014)](https://time.com/33425/this-book-won-an-award-for-oddest-title-of-the-year/)
3. [Oddest Book Titles reading text, e-ranok.com.ua](https://znayshov.online/FR/10581/8kl_rob_zoshit_anglmova_Karpuk.pdf)
4. [The Philosopher Fish wins oddest book title prize, The Guardian (9 December 2024)](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/09/the-philosopher-fish-wins-oddest-book-title-prize)
5. [Awards: Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title Winner, Shelf Awareness (12 December 2022)](https://shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/2022-12-12/awards%3A_diagram_prize_for_oddest_book_title_winner.html)
6. [Great Britain literary awards listings, Western Cape Government Libraries (December 2025)](https://www.westerncape.gov.za/cas/files/wcg-blob-files?file=2025-12%2Fnd25-cape-librarian.pdf&type=file)
7. [Philosopher Fish claims The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year, The Bookseller (6 December 2024)](https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/philosopher-fish-claims-the-booksellerdiagram-prize-for-the-oddest-book-title-of-the-year)
8. [Axe murder and Montreal erotica titles vie for the Oddest Book Title of the Year, The Bookseller (24 October 2025)](https://www.thebookseller.com/news/news-top-stories/axe-murder-and-montreal-erotica-titles-vie-for-the-oddest-book-title-of-the-year)
9. [Uni presses make clean sweep of Oddest Book Title shortlist, The Bookseller (8 November 2024)](https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/uni-presses-make-clean-sweep-of-oddest-book-title-shortlist)
10. [Oddest book title prize topic page, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/books/oddestbooktitleprize)
11. [The Booker Prize, The Booker Prizes](https://thebookerprizes.com/booker-prize)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Broadcasting and journalism › Periodicals and publishing › Publishing and publishing houses › Publishing industry bodies and trade infrastructure › Publishing and printing industry prizes*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license