LONDON — It may not be a best-seller, but “Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers” has won a literary accolade: oddest book title of the past 30 years.
The book topped a poll to find the weirdest-ever winner of Britain’s Diagram Prize for unusually monickered volumes.
It beat previous winners including “Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice” and “How Green Were the Nazis?” in an online vote. The results were announced Friday by trade magazine The Bookseller, which organizes the prize.
The runner-up was “People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead.” Third place went to “How To Avoid Huge Ships.”
The Bookseller’s charts editor, Philip Stone, said — possibly with tongue in cheek — that the winning book may have benefited from Britons’ concern about the closure of rural post offices.
“I sincerely believe that this title provides further proof to the current government that the British public are passionate about the maintenance and continuation of local mail delivery services,” he said. “And not just nationally, but internationally.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
