HOW TO WIN A PRIZE IN LITERATURE WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

The folks who bring us the annual World’s Oddest Book Title competition have celebrated the 30th anniversary of the prize by choosing the oddest book title of the past 30 years. And the winner is “Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers,” a thrilling tome which carefully records all of Greece’s postmen and postal routes. Somehow that title beat out competition from books like “People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead,” “How to Avoid Huge Ships,” “How to Bombproof Your Horse,” and my personal favourite “Cheese Problems Solved.” The prize was originally created as a joke 30 years ago in order to avoid boredom at the 1978 Frankfurt Book Fair. (TheBookseller.com)