Gregory Forth’s ‘A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path’ wins for the oddest book title of the year

Run by the magazine Bookseller, the prize was instituted in 1978 with the aim to to reward the year’s strangest book title. Forth’s volume won 49 per cent of the votes

Book titles might be illustrative, intriguing or downright odd. According to a report in The Independent, the book A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path has won the Diagram prize for oddest book title of the year. The same report informs the title was competing with other “odd titles” like Medieval Ass and Lawnmowers: An Illustrated History. Published in 2019, Gregory Forth’s winning work is an academic study wherein he looks at animal metaphors in a non-Western society. He examines the way the Nage, indigenous people living in Flores and Timor, comprehend these metaphor and employ their understanding to shape certain expressions.

Run by the magazine Bookseller, the prize was instituted in 1978 with the aim to to reward the year’s strangest book title. The winner is decided on by readers. Forth’s volume won 49 per cent of the votes. A report in The Guardian informs that its editor Jonathan Crago at McGill-Queen’s University Press proudly accepts the prize. Talking about the book, Crago was quoted as saying that is is “quite timely, given that pandemic screen time seems to be turning us all into distracted dogs straying from the path”.

“There has been little to shout about in a difficult year, but A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path is something to cherish, as long as you stay a good metre or two away and, perhaps, wear some stout wellies. Congratulations to Gregory Forth and McGill-Queen’s University Press: I am sure the champagne – or I guess something else – will certainly be flowing as they celebrate A Dog Pissing’s hard-earned victory,” the Diagram Prize administrator Horace Bent was quoted as saying in the Independent report.

“I’m naturally (zoologically?) pleased by this award, and many thanks to The Bookseller. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I hope prospective readers might be attracted to this one by its title. It is a serious book, but the animal metaphors it explores are often humorous as well – even in English,” Forth was quoted as saying.

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