Unpopular appeal: a book prize authors don't want to win

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  The Economist Hello, I'm Rosie Blore.

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  I host The Intelligence, our daily news and current affairs podcast.

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  Welcome to Editor's Picks.

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  Here's an article we've chosen from the latest edition of The Economist.

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  Would you be tempted to read highlights in the history of concrete?

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  If not,

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  the bookseller Diagram Prize for the oddest book title of the year offers other highlights,

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  such as the invaluable How to Avoid Huge Ships, 1992,

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  or 1993's winning and frankly mystifying American Bottom Archaeology.

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  This year's tasty pick, announced on December 6th,

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  is The Philosopher Fish, Sturgeon, Caviar, and the geography of desire.

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  The literary world has many august prizes, the Booker, the Pulitzer, the Bailey Gifford.

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  The Diagram Prize is not one of them.

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  Booker victors win tens of thousands of pounds and international fame.

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  Titles such as Wolf Hall and The Remains of the Day are to this day household names.

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  Diagram authors, by contrast, win nothing at all and do not become famous,

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  while its winning and shortlisted titles,

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  such as Reusing Old Graves, a report on popular British attitudes,

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  and Strip a Knit with Style, tend to languish in obscurity.

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  The prize dates to the Frankfurt Book Fair of 1978.

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