The shortlist has been unveiled for the 2026 Bookseller's Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year. The award was conceived in 1978 by Trevor Bounford and Bruce Robertson, co-founders of the Diagram Group, as a way to avoid boredom at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The winning title is chosen by members of the public via an online vote, and a winner will be named on November 20. This year's shortlisted titles are:
Play Naked: Puta Economies Against Olympic Dispossession by Amanda De Lisio
The Museum as Large-Room Pinball Machine, edited by William J. Buxton
The Excremental Imagination: Disgust, Compassion, and Laughter in Medieval Japan by Rajyashree Pandey
Queering Economics: Reimagining the Dismal Science by Michael E Martell & Leanne Roncolato
Joan and Roger Alive in the Afterlife: More Than Two Years Later, Joan and Roger Continue to Appear Every Time I Turn on the SLS Camera, and They Communicate with Us by Jeremy Spillane
Six Dead German Composers and How They Got That Way by Robert Bakos
There is no prize for the winning author or publisher, but the traditional "passable bottle of claret" will be awarded to the person who nominated the winning entry.