The Christian Science Monitor had a recent article about the annual Diagram Prize for most bizarre book title*. This year’s winner was: Crocheting Adventures With Hypberbolic Planes.
I don’t think that Mormon books are immune from bizarre titles. True Mormon book mavens are well acquainted with the 1963 odd-ball The sex life of Brigham Young by Kishkuman Cooper.
I’m sure there are others, so tell me, what bizarre Mormon titles have you noticed?
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*HT Ardis Parshall.
A Motley Vision 
Here are some that come to mind:
Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians
Elementals: Auto-reductive Sonets [sic?] in Major and Minor Modes
Epyllion in Anamnesis: Remembery Taliesin: Two Cycles of Poems
Longshot: The Adventures of a Deaf Fundamentalist Mormon Kid and His Journey to the NBA
The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus
The Skeleton in Grandpa’s Barn and Other Stories of Growing Up in Utah
What I’d like to know is who, in any sort of good conscience would name their child Kishkumen!
And I wouldn’t put Pastwatch on the list – but your other ones are quite interesting.
Kishkuman Cooper was, of course, a pen name for author/scholar Cecil McGavin.
Most bizarre title for an article has to go to Meridian’s John Pratt for “Uranus Testifies of Jesus Christ.”
http://www.meridianmagazine.com/sci_rel/040618uranus.html
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He must’ve named that article on a dare.
I must admit that I don’t think I have ever seen bizarre titles to rival the ones on Katya’s list, (though like Daniel H I wouldn’t say Pastwatch is a bizarre title, particularly not for a sci-fi novel) where on earth do you find them?
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Dude. Katya knows everything.
This is more of a Strangite book, but _Harem Island_. Great title – and a great cover.
http://tinyurl.com/yc8ac2q
Going back to 1979… Brad Wilcox’s
The Super Baruba Success Book For Under-Achievers, Over-Expecters, and Other Ordinary People
… with the unforgettable chapter entitled
“There’s an Ethiopian Soccer Player in My Shower”
I still have no idea what a Baruba is.
— Lee
>5
I scanned through all of the article names on the Mormon Arts wiki and pulled out the ones that were book names. (I think that Theric added #s 2 and 3 to the wiki, though, which get my vote for the oddest.)
And it wasn’t the “Pastwatch” part of the title I thought was odd, but the “Redemption of Christopher Columbus” bit, but that may just be me.
My favorite Deseret Book title is probably, “Behold I Come Quickly” by Hoyt W. Brewster, Jr.
It always pays to have at least one guy on staff with a dirty mind to avoid such things.
I’m afraid my train of thought was like Tom’s. I’ve always gotten a kick out of “Show Me Your Rocky Mountains.”
Can’t forget “Bibliothica Scallawagiana” either.
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Oh! Oh! Oh! Like Nancy Goldberg Hilton’s My Burning Bush!
Theric, that’s a political title, right?
[Sorry, I couldn’t resist.]
>6
Is now a bad time to mention I was familiar with hyperbolic crocheting before I heard about this year’s Diagram Prize?
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I was too. But I think I heard about it from you.
I think the weirdest title is one that came out this year: How to Stuff a Wild Zucchini by Heather Horrocks.
Of course, it’s not serious fiction. So I don’t know if it qualifies. But I found it a little too suggestive… oddly suggestive. But maybe that’s just me.
Not just you, nosurfgirl. I’d mercifully forgotten about that title. Until now!