Saturday, April 03, 2010

Oddest Book Title

According to the press release, the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year is an award conceived as a way to avoid boredom at the annual Frankfurt Book Fair. {via Go Fug Yourself} Frankly, I would have thought strolling the aisles of the world's largest book fair would have its own rewards. Instead, they have to make fun of the stitchers:

“I think what won it for Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes is that, very simply, the title is completely bonkers. On the one hand you have the typically feminine, gentle and wooly world of needlework and on the other, the exciting but incredibly un-wooly world of hyperbolic geometry and negative curvature. In Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes the two worlds collide—in a captivating and quite breathtaking way.

“One hopes that Dr Taimina’s win prompts other enlightened crocheters, knitters and embroiderers to produce similar works, so I look forward to seeing books such as Cross-stitching String Theory and Felting Feats with Phenomenology adorning bookshop shelves in the near future.”

I'm gonna cross-stitch them some string theory, but it ain't gonna be pretty.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Having done six day trade fairs in Frankfurt, I can see why people go a little bonkers (and in my field, I was surrounded by sharp knives ... the willpower I exerted was phenomenal, which is why I have none left for resisting chocolate...) *BUT NO ONE LAUGHS AT CRAFTERS!* - otherwise, all future gifts will come from regretsy.com...

riona said...

Do you remember the string art craze of the late 60s ... well I have this image of the reviewer pinned to a very large and heavy cork board, thoroughly enmeshed in a complex piece of string, unable to speak or to move ... capable only of a silent scream.

riona said...

That should be "thoroughly enmeshed in a complex piece of string art"

Chocolates4Breakfast (Terri ~ Boog) said...

You'd think the joy of being around all those books - all kinds of them, would be fun enough! But, I have to say that were I to run across that book somewhere, doubtful I'd even pick it up - just thinking about having to incorporate that much thinking into crochet would be way to much for me....

doris said...

I'm thinking those folks need a very impolite meeting with the business end of a needle.