Diagram: Odd Titles Prize

Como cada año, el pasado sábado se celebró la entrega de premios Bookseller/Diagram al título más original del año. El ganador del 2005 ha sido How people who don't know they are dead attach themselves to unsuspecting bystanders and what to do about it, un libro serio del escritor Gary Leon Hill. La descripción de Amazon no tiene desperdicio: "When people die by accident, in violence, or maybe they're drunk, stoned, or angry, they get freeze-framed. Even if they die naturally but have no clue what to expect, they might not notice they're dead. It's frustrating to see and not be seen. It's frustrating to not know what you're supposed to do next. It's especially frustrating to be in someone else's body and think it's your own. That's if you're dead. If you're alive and that spirit has attached itself to you, well that's a whole other set of frustrations." No me extraña en absoluto que ya haya vendido 15000 copias, yo ya he encargado la mia. El segundo premio fue para Rhino Horn Stockpile Management: Minimum Standards and Best Practices from East and Southern Africa by Simon Milledge, un lectura que imagino apasionante. El tercer puesto se lo llevó Ancient Starch Research de Robin Torrence y Huw J Barton. Otros participantes fueron: Soil Nailing: Best Practice Guidance, Bullying and Sexual Harassment: A Practical Handbook y el salvaje Nessus, Snort and Ethereal Powertools.
Un justo y merecido ganador, incluso mejor que los pasados triunfadores: The joy of Chickens, Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice y The Theory of Lengthwise Rolling.