Baboons, colons and sieves compete for prize

A global perspective on soft cheese packaging, the summation of a lifetime's work on monkey-related philosophy, and the long-awaited book-length consideration of Large Sieves are among the books in contention for the Bookseller magazine's annual Diagram prize for oddest title, in a year that judges have declared outstandingly strange.

Announced this morning, the titles in contention include Curbside Consultation of the Colon, a handy guide for doctors, and the compulsively-readable sounding 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais.

Also in the running are the acclaimed Baboon Metaphysics, the product of years of close observation by its authors, the analytical The Large Sieve and its Applications, and Strip and Knit with Style. "No, not that kind of stripping. Strips of fabric! Get your mind out of the gutter and take your knitting to a whole new place," urges its publisher.



The final contender is Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring, from Woodhead Publishing, an imprint with a consistently strong Diagram showing which last year controversially lost out with the classic Cheese Problems Solved to the eventual winner If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs.

The Bookseller admitted that it had been particularly difficult to winnow entries down to a shortlist of six this year. "We received a huge number of entries this year and the debate was furious as to which would be included on the shortlist. Six seems such a cruelly low number given titles such as Excrement in the Late Middle Ages and All Dogs Have ADHD were rejected," said charts editor Philip Stone. "We also had to exclude a few titles because they were published before 2008 – Monumental Beginnings: Archaeology of the N4 Sligo Inner Relief Road and one of my personal favourites, Sketches of Hull Authors. The latter was first published back in 1879, but thanks to print on demand – the wonderful saviour of out-of-print books – you can still purchase copies to this day."

The prize was established in 1978, when it was won by Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice. This year's winner will be decided by a public vote at www.thebookseller.com, and will be announced on 27 March.