Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year 2011

This year's Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year has been awarded to a book advising dentists on how to run their practices Mongolian warlord style. The prize was decided by a public vote on The Bookseller's website.

"Managing a Dental Practice: The Genghis Khan Way" by former dentist Michael Young won the prize on Friday. The book offers a guide on empire-building in the dentistry field. Young argues that warmongering tenacity is required to build a successful business. The book includes chapters on managing conflicts, team-building and planning for disasters.

The book beat finalists including "8th International Friction Stir Welding Symposium Proceedings," which detailed a friction stir welding symposium that occurred in Germany last May, and a romance novel called "The Italian's One-Night Love Child" by Cathy Williams. Other books that were shortlisted for the vote were "What Color is Your Dog? Train Your Dog Based on His Personality 'Color'" (Yes, you read that correctly) by Joel Silverman, "Myth of the Social Volcano: Perceptions of Inequality and Distributive Injustice in Contemporary China" by Martin Whyte and "The Generosity of the Dead: A Sociology of Organ Procurement in France" by Graciela Nowenstein.

Last year's winner, "Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes" by Daina Taimina, saw its sales increase by 1,500% in the first month after winning the prize. Other past winners of the prize include "Living with Crazy Buttocks" by Kaz Cooke, "Greek Rural Postmen and their Cancellation Numbers" by Derek Willan, "Highlights in the History of Concrete" by C. C. Stanley and "Bombproof Your Horse" by Rick Pelicano and Lauren Tjaden.

Actual books, really. I looked them up. They really do exist, though some are expectedly out of print.

Run by trade magazine The Bookseller, the prize was founded in 1978. Its rules say the books must be serious and their titles cannot just be a gimmick.

Source: Mongol warrior’s tooth tips wins odd book title prize
Source: Genghis Khan dentistry book wins odd title prize

Mark Twain: Still on Top 100 Years Later

Mark Twain’s final book, The Autobiography of Mark Twain, has hit the No. 1 spot on Amazon due to an huge influx of preorders. The book was kept sealed away in the University of California archives for 100 years after the author’s death, as per his request. He died on April 21, 1910.

The unconventional author of course couldn't just write his autobiography like everyone else. Starting at about 1870, he made many attempts at starting it: he just hadn't gotten that far on the task. Then, more than 30 years later in 1904, the perfect method of autobiography writing came to him:

"Start it at no particular time of your life; wander at your free will all over your life. . . . It is the first time in history that the right plan has been hit upon."

And that's exactly what he did.  From 1906 to 1909, he spent many mornings in bed, dictating occurrences in his life to a secretary. Typescripts were made so Twain made notes and corrections, telling a future collaborator what to include and what not to. After his youngest daughter died in 1909, he stopped - just four months before his death.

At the time of his death, more than 2,500 pages were written, and scholars at first thought the collection was just another unfinished project by a writer notorious for them. But for six years, editors at Mark Twain Papers at University of California Berkeley worked to reconstruct the autobiography just as Twain wished it to be.  The autobiography is highly unconventional and very modern in many ways, as it shakes the format up from the usual linear story from birth to death.

Long, long before the writing was completed, Twain was quite pleased with himself and his idea to create the autobiography. In 1906, he said:

"The form of this book is one of the most memorable literary inventions of the ages. . . . It ranks with the steam engine, the printing press & the electric telegraph. I am the only person who has ever found out the right way to build an autobiography."

And modern minds have agreed:

Robert Hirst, general editor of the Bancroft Library's Mark Twain Papers and Project at Berkeley, says, "The thrill of seeing the entire work, as he intended it to be, is extraordinary."

Ben Griffin, associate editor of the Mark Twain Papers, calls it "the most complicated and vexing textual situation I've ever heard about." Hirst says, "It was a fascinating puzzle, puzzling beyond belief."

So what is inside the book so long held back from the public?  Twain was already pretty open about his feelings, but he let's loose quite a bit in his autobiography. This caused quite a stir among the friends and family he would inevitably end up writing about - hence the 100-year wait! The print embargo was also an extraordinary publicity ploy, as pre-orders have been pouring in. He truly was a man before his time.

In November, the 760-page first volume will be heading to the hands of eager readers. Within five years, two more volumes will appear, and the entire work, with variants and notes, will be available online.