Diagram Prize Shortlist for 2011!

In the middle of a dark and depressing winter, with political strife high, and even the possibly-happy string of mostly-peaceful overthrows of foreign dictators tainted by the fact that oil prices are about to skyrocket, we all need something to take our minds off of our troubles.

And that means it's time for the Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of 2010. As always, the prize is administered by the eternal Horace Bent of the UK's Bookseller magazine, and, as always, there is no actual prize for winning the Diagram Prize. But there is glory, and one of the six books on the shortlist will get all of it:

8th International Friction Stir Welding Symposium Proceedings
Various authors (TWI)
The Generosity of the Dead
Graciela Nowenstein (Ashgate)
The Italian's One-night Love Child
Cathy Williams (Mills & Boon)
Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis Khan Way
Michael R Young (Radcliffe)
Myth of the Social Volcano
Martin King Whyte (Stanford University Press)
What Color Is Your Dog?
Joel Silverman (Kennel Club)

Voting is now open at the Bookseller's homepage; go forth and make your voice known in the most democratic of book-world contests. For myself, I'm pulling for Myth of the Social Volcano, which is reminiscent of such great winners of the past as How to Shit in the Woods, The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America, and Greek Rural Postmen and their Cancellation Numbers.