A tournament? Of books?
The U.S. website The Morning News has announced its lineup of contenders for this year’s “Tournament of Books.” The annual event features a group of litbloggers and critics pitting 16 notable novels of the past year against each other, one at a time. Each judge reads two books, picks a winner, and the winner advances to face another judge in the next round – all until one book is left standing.
This year’s list includes plenty of usual suspects: the latest novels by Richard Ford, Cormac McCarthy, Kate Atkinson, and Julian Barnes, as well as entries by younger writers like Colson Whitehead and Gary Shteyngart, and attention-grabbing books like Claire Messud’s The Emperor’s Children. (No Canadian authors this time out; David Bergen’s The Time in Between was in the running last year, but was eliminated in the first round.) Readers are invited to vote online for their own favourites, which might make a bonus “zombie” round late in the tournament.
Yet to be announced are the judges, the schedule, and the “brackets.” (Which, for those of you arty types unfamiliar with college basketball, refers to which books face each other. At least, that’s how it’s been explained repeatedly to Quillblog.)
I tried to drum up some interest in doing a Canadian version of this a year ago. No takers. Too bad, because it’s a good stunt if it’s done right. The Morning News handles it well.