by Sue Horner | Dec 10, 2024 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Voters have spoken: The oddest book title of 2024 is The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire, by Richard Adams Carey. While the title may be odd, the book itself looks at sturgeon, the fish from which caviar is harvested, and how the fish...
by Sue Horner | Dec 3, 2021 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Any contest (1) dealing with books and (2) awarding a prize to The Oddest Book Title of the Year is a winner. So if you’re a book lover too, you’ll be eager to find out the winner of the quirky Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title for 2021. Drumroll…. Is Superman...
by Sue Horner | Nov 19, 2021 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Festive lights and Christmas trees are already popping up in my neighbourhood. American Thanksgiving is fast approaching. The news is full of dire predictions for the availability of whatever it was you hoped to buy for Christmas gifts. Let’s get cracking, then,...
by Sue Horner | Nov 12, 2020 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Festive decorations filled store flyers and shelves even before Halloween was over. A local radio station started playing Christmas music ALL THE TIME on November 1. A spell of summery weather shortly afterwards had some of my neighbours putting up Christmas lights....
by Sue Horner | Apr 1, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
At a time when attention spans are shorter than ever, a long-running quirky contest fits right in. Yes, I’m talking about The Bookseller’s Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title. “We don’t judge books on the contents within or even by their covers, but by their purest,...
by Sue Horner | Sep 9, 2015 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
My sons were big readers growing up, and their teachers often commented that they could tell. Something about the vocabulary and the spelling, even though the boys didn’t actively try to learn new words. When parents read to and with their children, it just happens....
by Sue Horner | Dec 5, 2013 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Author Helen Fielding didn’t get the prize because her Mad About the Boy wasn’t deemed “cringeworthy” enough. The Fifty Shades books didn’t qualify either, because the prize doesn’t go to porn or erotic literature. The prize in...
by Sue Horner | Aug 2, 2013 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Especially given my last post, it’s time for another roundup of funny, interesting or just plain silly items found online, this time related to books: The Seattle Public Library staged the world’s longest book domino chain to promote its summer reading...
by Sue Horner | Dec 4, 2012 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
In absolutely shocking news, E.L. James and her Fifty Shades books did not even make the shortlist for the annual Bad Sex in Fiction award. Nor did J.K. Rowling for her adult novel, The Casual Vacancy. According to the Guardian’s Maev Kennedy, the Fifty Shades...
by Sue Horner | Jan 2, 2012 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Reading is one of my great pleasures, but 2011 was definitely not a stellar year for me and books. School is to blame, of course; between the required texts and assignments, I had very little time to read for the sheer enjoyment of reading. Still, I managed to sneak...
