Book mixing math and crochet wins UK 'odd' prize

[March 26, 2010]  LONDON (AP) -- A book charting the frontier between handicrafts and geometry has won Britain's quirkiest literary award, the Diagram Prize for year's oddest book title.

"Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes" by mathematician Daina Taimina was named the winner Friday, beating runners-up "What Kind of Bean is This Chihuahua?" and "Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich."

Prize overseer Horace Bent says "the public proclivity towards non-Euclidian needlework" proved too strong for the competition.

Founded in 1978, the prize is run by trade magazine The Bookseller. The winner is decided by public vote.

The other finalists were "Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter," "Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots" and "The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease."

[Associated Press]

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