Style Invitational Week 971: Double booking — put two books under one cover

Front cover: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Back cover: The Very Full Robin

Front: The Hobbit
Back: The Bobbitt, a shorter tale

The Style Invitational

The Style Invitational is The Post’s weekly humor/wordplay contest, serving up since 1993 an irreverent mix of highbrow and lowbrow -- haughty and potty -- in genres ranging from neologisms to cartoon captions to elaborate song parodies. A new contest appears at washingtonpost.com/styleinvitational every Friday.

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The author Yann Martel, a couple of years ago, planned to publish what he called a “flip book,” but he didn’t mean the kind you pull your thumb across to watch the pictures move. He meant that he’d write two complementary books inside the same covers — one starting in front, the other on the back. (Martel evidently changed his mind, although he did end up writing a book about an author who did this.) Anyway, as Loser Kevin Dopart suggests: Come up with a double book with a humorous connection; the first title must be an actual book, while the other may be your own fictitious title (as in Kevin’s examples above) or a second real book. Feel free to add a short description if that enhances the humor.

Winner gets the Inkin’ Memorial, the Style Invitational trophy. Second place wins a very special item, created by Jolene Mosley and donated by Andrea Kelly; it is like the ones sent to male members of Congress during the recent all-male hearing on birth control funding. Loser Anne Paris describes it as “a lovely hand-knitted replica of intimate female parts, suggesting what Martha Stewart would be inspired to create if she went to the gynecologist while stoned,” while fellow Loser Craig Dykstra calls it a “she-cozy.” (You may choose a standard runner-up prize instead.)

Other runners-up win their choice of a coveted Style Invitational Loser T-shirt, a yearned-for Loser Mug or the new, ardently desired Grossery Bag. Honorable mentions get a lusted-after Loser magnet. First Offenders get a smelly, tree-shaped air “freshener” (Fir Stink for their first ink). E-mail entries to losers@washpost.com or fax to 202-334-4312. Deadline is Monday, May 21; results published June 10 (online June 8). No more than 25 entries per entrant per week. Include “Week 971” in your e-mail subject line or it might be ignored as spam. Include your real name, postal address and phone number with your entry. See contest rules and guidelines at wapo.st/StyleInv. The subhead for this week’s honorable mentions is by Mae Scanlan; the alternative headline in the “Next week” line is by Judy Blanchard. Join the Style Invitational Devotees on Facebook at on.fb.me/invdev .

Report from Week 967

in which we asked you to create a new “portmanteau” phrase by combining two overlapping phrases or names that each contained two or more words: Even though the Empress deigned to allow hyphenated terms as two words, lots of Losers still were inept at the task of counting to 2, and instead combined two single words, such as Microsoft and softball. This week they get to count to zero.

The winner of the Inkin’ Memorial

Player piano player: Someone who doesn’t realize he’s entirely useless. (Mae Scanlan, Washington)

2. Winner of the Laotian liquor with a big scorpion inside: Bed, Bath & Beyond the Pale: “Now she’s even decorating the garage!” (Mark Richardson, Washington)

3. Presidential debate-and-switch: “Thank you for that thoughtful question. I’ll now pretend to respond while answering an entirely different, self-serving question.” (Melissa Balmain, Rochester, N.Y.)