Book mixing maths and crochet wins UK ‘odd’ prize

A book charting the frontier between handicrafts and geometry has won Britain’s quirkiest literary award, the Diagram Prize for the year’s oddest book title.

“Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes” by mathematician Daina Taimina, was named the winner on 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.”