The Oddest Book Title of the Year Prize goes to The Philosopher Fish.
In the narrowest win in the award’s history, the 2024 Bookseller’s Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year goes to The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire, a study of the mysterious and endangered fish, its eggs, and their significance by Richard Adams Carey.
Congratulations to Carey and Brandeis University Press on the win — an award’s an award, no matter how odd! Personally, I’m kicking myself that I didn’t follow through on my joke to bet my life savings on this book. It’s a good lesson to take more ill-advised risk’s in 2025.
The Philosopher Fish barely eked out a win with a mere 27% of the online public vote, barely beating out the competition. Second place with 24% of the vote went to How to Dungeon Master Parenting, third place with 22% went to Speculum: Examining the Women’s Health Movement, fourth with 14% to Killing the Buddha on the Appalachian Trail, fifth with 8% went to Boston’s Oldest Buildings and Where to Find Them, and in last place with 5% was Hell-Bent for Leather: Sex and Sexuality in the Weird Western.
I think Carey’s book deserves the win out of this shortlist, but I have to say, none of these titles strike me as that odd. They’re certainly atypical, but I hope publishing can do better next year.
So if you’ve got a project you’re about to send to the printer for a 2025 release, maybe take a second to brainstorm some odder titles — the Diagram Prize will thank you.
