We were intrigued to learn that there is a Bookseller/Diagram prize for the oddest book title of the year. Last year the winner was the best-seller People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves To Unsuspecting Bystanders and What To Do About It, by Gary Leon Hill, soon to be a major motion picture. Leading the pack this year are two books of environmental interest: How Green were the Nazis? by Thomas Zeller, Franz-Josef Bruggemeier and Mark Cioc - the first book to examine the environmental policies of the Third Reich, published by Ohio University Press. We found a review by John Alexander Williams that calls it a "valuable contribution to the ongoing study of naturist ideologies and movements in modern Germany". and concludes that "Intentionally or not, the essays in this volume leave the Nazis looking as brown as ever. The picture that emerges is of a regime that seemed intent early on to protect the environment yet abandoned conservation as soon as serious war preparation commenced in 1936. Only in wartime planning for the postwar imperial utopia do we find a current of arguably green thinking."

Although we are just recovering from the rigours of Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month, we are still interested in one of the other titles up for the award, "The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: a guide to field identification," by Julian Montague (published by Harry N. Abrams). Make liked it, and while one Amazon reviewer said Audubon? Peterson? Has-beens! another suggested that "Julian Montague needs to get a life, roaming round the North Eastern states snapping the death throes of shopping carts, indeed." ::BBC