What is the Most Bizarre Book Title in Mormon Books?
By Kent Larsen | 3.30.10
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.
3.30.10 | 12:34 pm | comment permalink |
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
3.30.10 | 12:36 pm | comment permalink |
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.
3.30.10 | 1:31 pm | comment permalink |
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
3.30.10 | 2:14 pm | comment permalink |
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He must’ve named that article on a dare.
3.30.10 | 3:35 pm | comment permalink |
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?
3.30.10 | 4:15 pm | comment permalink |
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Dude. Katya knows everything.
3.30.10 | 4:35 pm | comment permalink |
This is more of a Strangite book, but _Harem Island_. Great title – and a great cover.
http://tinyurl.com/yc8ac2q
3.30.10 | 6:12 pm | comment permalink |
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
3.30.10 | 8:36 pm | comment permalink |
>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.
3.30.10 | 9:33 pm | comment permalink |
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.
3.30.10 | 9:44 pm | comment permalink |
I’m afraid my train of thought was like Tom’s. I’ve always gotten a kick out of “Show Me Your Rocky Mountains.”
3.30.10 | 9:48 pm | comment permalink |
Can’t forget “Bibliothica Scallawagiana” either.
3.30.10 | 10:38 pm | comment permalink |
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Oh! Oh! Oh! Like Nancy Goldberg Hilton’s My Burning Bush!
3.30.10 | 11:08 pm | comment permalink |
Theric, that’s a political title, right?
[Sorry, I couldn't resist.]
3.31.10 | 8:25 am | comment permalink |
>6
Is now a bad time to mention I was familiar with hyperbolic crocheting before I heard about this year’s Diagram Prize?
3.31.10 | 9:54 am | comment permalink |
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I was too. But I think I heard about it from you.
4.05.10 | 12:49 pm | comment permalink |
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.
4.05.10 | 2:28 pm | comment permalink |
Not just you, nosurfgirl. I’d mercifully forgotten about that title. Until now!