A 114-page book about Thai cooking just got an unlikely push in promotion after winning the Diagram prize for oddest book title of the year.
The book is called “Cooking with Poo” and judging by the name, it could be the most unappetizing cooking companion in history.
Thankfully, in this case “poo” is just a Thai word for crab.
The book was written by chef Saiyuud Diwong – who also goes by the nickname Poo – and given her smiling photo on the cover, it’s difficult to tell whether she’s in on the joke or not.
Diwong runs a community cookery school nestled in a Bangkok’s Klong Toey slum and supported by the Urban Neighbors of Hope, a charitable organization that also published the book.
“Poo has sold 6,000 books and her classes are fully booked out,” said Anji Barker, a spokesperson for the Urban Neighbors of Hope. “She is not just helping to raise her own family out of poverty, but is employing 20 other poor slum residents.”
Diwong added in her own statement: “Thank you everyone. I am lucky to have such a funny nickname; it helps my business a lot!”
The Diagram prize is given out annually by The Bookseller magazine. And while the publication will not be giving any monetary reward to Diwong, they will make a donation to her charity.
“Cooking with Poo” beat out six other titles, including runner up “Mr Andoh’s Pennine Diary: Memoirs of a Japanese Chicken Sexer in 1935 Hebden Bridge” and “The Great Singapore Penis Panic and the Future of American Mass Hysteria,” which came in third.
“Given that this year the three most voted-for works contain the words ‘poo,’ ‘sexer,’ and ‘penis’ in the title, it appears that this year’s prize will go down in history as a blue year,” said Horace Bent, the award’s overseer.
Past winners include “Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis Khan Way” and “Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes.”