The world's funniest book titles

Growing up in rural Nottinghamshire, and with a mother who thought I should be reading Ulysses by the age of seven, I spent a lot of my childhood in our local library (although Siouxsie And The Banshies cassettes and the latest issue of Just Seventeen took precedence over James Joyce).

My bookworm days were cut short, however, on the day I walked into the library to see that the latest must-read book on display was called How To Be A Bishop. It then that I realised that there were far better things that I could be doing with my time, such as sniffing glue and starting relationships with inappropriate boys.

I have never managed to beat that ecclesiastical tome’s winning title – until this morning, when the Bookseller announced the winner of its Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year. Greek Rural Postmen And Their Cancellation Numbers came top of the list for 2008, and past winners have included Bombproof Your Horse (2004), People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves To Unsuspecting Bystanders And What to Do About It (2005), and my personal favourite: Living With Crazy Buttocks (2002).

You can also find a list of the most hilarious titles in Top Ten For Men: Over 250 Lists That Matter, a compendium (with a clear-as-Ronseal title) of, er, over 250 lists about everything from the top ten most unusual deaths (Greek dramatist Aeschylus died after an eagle dropped a tortoise on his head in 456BC) to the top ten causes of marital discord (lack of communication leads the charge, obviously).

Top Ten For Men: Over 250 Lists That Matter by Russell Ash (Hamlyn, £10) is out now.