A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path wins oddest book title of 2020

It beat off competition from ‘Introducing the Medieval Ass’

Dogs in Ukraine (Getty Images)

A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path has been named the oddest book title of the year.

The academic study beat off competition from other publications, including Introducing the Medieval Ass and Lawnmowers: An Illustrated History, to win the 42nd Diagram Prize, which is run by The Bookseller magazine.

A Dog Pissing was written by University of Alberta anthropologist Gregory Forth, and looks at how the Nage, indigenous peoples primarily living on the islands of Flores and Timor, understand metaphor, and use their knowledge of animals to shape specific expressions. The title itself is an idiom for someone who begins a task but is then distracted by other matters.  

The Diagram Prize administrator Horace Bent said: “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."

Author Forth added: “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.”

A Dog Pissing earned 49% of the public vote, for the prize that was first established in 1978.