It’s Tournament of Books Time: Enjoy March Madness With Books (and cute pets)!

Hello everyone,

This Saturday, I have a fun event to share with you. It’s one I follow almost every year, and it is called the Tournament of Books! This fun competition highlights 16 books that came out in the previous year, and pits them against each-other in a March Madness style bracket. The books are often award winners, but often they include books that have been overlooked or seemed to “genre” to get major attention, so it is a fun mix. Most “face-offs” are a decision made by one reviewer who reads both books and decides which one they connect with most, so the decisions are specific and interesting.

What I love about this is that the reviews and commentary are about the reading experience rather than the “quality” of the book. No one is trying to pick the “best book”, which means the books that ultimately win almost always have a lot of heart and really engage you as a reader. However, no matter what book wins, you still get a sense of which books you may love based on the reviews. With one contest every day, I don’t find it overwhelming or too much to track either.

The tournament started Wednesday, so there is still time to tune in! The books in the tournament can be found HERE, and are found in the bracket above. I spent much of last year focusing on backlist, so I have only actually read one of these (Babel), although a few others are books I am excited about and will be looking for as the tournament progresses.

You can follow the action on their website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. In addition, this year, every day they showcase a cute pet mascot, like this cutie!

Come for the books, stay for the pets!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, and I look forward to sharing some great new award winners with you next week! The American Library Association and PEN America recently gave out their annual awards, so there are plenty of amazing books to check out!