Cast Your Vote: Estonian Socks!

The polls are open for the Diagram Prize, awarded yearly to the book with the oddest title.  Last year's winner was "Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis Khan Way."  I desperately hope this book includes some brilliant "tartar domination" puns, and information about crushing cavities, driving gingivitis from your mouth, and hearing the lamentations of your plaque-causing bacteria.  As the book predates the Westminster victory of Martha Stewart's chow, it's probably not about crunching a lot of milk bones.

Dr. Khan, DDS, with profuse apologies to Dr. Barton McGirl

 
Here's this year's shortlist of nominees (via sponsor Bookseller.com):

• A Century of Sand Dredging in the Bristol Channel: Volume Two by Peter Gosson (Amberley). A book that documents the sand trade from its inception in 1912 to the present day, focusing on the Welsh coast.
• Cooking with Poo by Saiyuud Diwong (Urban Neighbours of Hope). Thai cookbook. “Poo” is Thai for “crab” and is Diwong’s nickname.
• Estonian Sock Patterns All Around the World by Aino Praakli (Kirjastus Elmatar). Covers styles of socks and stockings found in Estonian knitting.
• The Great Singapore Penis Panic: And the Future of American Mass Hysteria by Scott D Mendelson (Createspace). An analysis of the “Koro” psychiatric epidemic that hit the island of Singapore in 1967.
• Mr Andoh's Pennine Diary: Memoirs of a Japanese Chicken Sexer in 1935 Hebden Bridge by Stephen Curry and Takayoshi Andoh (Royd Press). The story of Koichi Andoh, who travelled from Japan to Yorkshire in the 1930s to train workers at a hatchery business the art of determining the sex of one-day-old chicks.
• A Taxonomy of Office Chairs by Jonathan Olivares (Phaidon). Exhaustive overview of the evolution of the modern office chair.
• The Mushroom in Christian Art by John A Rush (North Atlantic Books). In which the author reveals that Jesus is a personification of the Holy Mushroom, Amanita Muscaria.

Horace Bent, the custodian of prize, said: "Never has the debate raged so fiercely as to which books should be put forward for the shortlist. Which is why this year we have selected seven shortlistees, rather than the traditional six. And what a shortlist we have."

Judging these books purely by their covers, I think "Estonian Socks" clearly deserves my vote.

Check out the other covers and cast your vote here.