Oh, you guys. I am beside myself with excitement. As you probably, hopefully know, each year The Morning News hosts the Tournament of Books. It is a March Madness style tournament held, appropriately, each March in which 16 books face off, leaving only one book standing as the champion. In their words, it’s “the granddaddy of highbrow bracketology.” And I can’t wait.
Though the tournament doesn’t start until March, the kind folks at The Morning News announced the finalists today, so that I have enough time to find and devour the books before “the Rooster” begins. (The nickname for the tournament stems from the fact that the winner gets a live rooster.)
Here are the finalists:
The 2013 Tournament of Books Finalists
- HHhH by Laurent Binet
- The Round House by Louise Erdrich
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
- Arcadia by Lauren Groff
- How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti
- May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes
- The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
- Ivyland by Miles Klee
- Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
- Dear Life by Alice Munro
- Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
- Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
- Building Stories by Chris Ware
- [Winner of the Pre-Tournament Playoff Round]
Pre-Tournament Playoff Round
- Fobbit by David Abrams
- Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
- The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers
Fortunately, I’ve already read two of the books on this list: The Fault in Our Stars and Gone Girl. I also own Arcadia, Bring Up the Bodies, and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. So that leaves a mere 13 for me to track down.
Have you read any of these books? Are you going to follow along with the tournament?
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
That is a fantastic list of books! I’ve read 9 of them and while they weren’t all to my taste I think they are all worthy of a place on this list. HHhH is my favorite book of the year so I hope you enjoy that. Arcadia was also wonderful. Enjoy your reading!
You’ve read 9 already! That’s awesome. I’m definitely looking forward to HHhH. In fact, I’m working on getting my hands on them now – my Amazon cart is at $175! Eek.
I haven’t read any of those books – but I also haven’t heard/read anything about them! Maybe they’re more popular in America?
Though I’m not going to try and track them down – I have enough on my TBR pile already :P
Some of them are very popular in America (THE ROUND HOUSE, for example, won our National Book Award this year), and some are rather obscure (IVYLAND doesn’t even appear to be in print). And I totally understand about the teetering TBR pile. :)
IVYLAND is absolutely in print.
http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/ivyland/
Yes, I did see that I could have OR Books print it for me, but it’s not available at Amazon, B&N, Powells, or my local bookstore in printed form. :(
Amazon’s got it.
http://www.amazon.com/Ivyland-Miles-Klee/dp/1935928619/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357068886&sr=1-1&keywords=ivyland
I could be me, but I still don’t see it for sale from Amazon or any major retailer in print form. Amazon has it for Kindle and will point you back to OR Books. But I’m glad that it’s out there in some form. Maybe being the in the Tournament of Books will prompt those in charge to make it more widely available.
What’s wrong with getting it in print from OR Books? Or buying a used copy on Amazon? I’ve also seen it in some New York bookstores — The Strand, McNally Jackson and Unnameable Books, to name a few. Anyway, just saying.
Nothing wrong with it at all. I just hope it finds a wider distribution. I think we can agree on that. :)
I feel like I have a head start since I have read 4 of the books. I usually look at lists like these and wonder how I’ve been spending my time since they hardly match up with y reading. I’ve read Gone Girl, Bring Up The Bodies, Where’d You Go Bernadette and Song of Achilles and out of these it would be a toss up of the last two for me. Good luck with your reading!
That IS a head start! I know how you feel with feeling like lists don’t match up with your reading. I feel that way too. But I had such a fun time with the Tournament of Books last year without having read any of them, that I think it’ll be even more fun to be able to really contribute to the discussions.
already I had HHhH on the list thanks to Jackie’s review, but I haven’t gotten to a one on the list yet. About half are familiar to me. Now to get a hold of them sooner than later. Thanks for the heads up!
~L (omphaloskepsis)
There were quite a few on the list that I was unfamiliar with as well. But I’m getting familiar! Good luck with your quest.
Wow, what a challenge – but a very worthwhile one – most of these are already on my TBR anyway but I definitely wouldn’t get through them all by March 16th!
We’ll see just how many I can get through before then too!
I haven’t heard of any of those books. I feel so behind. I might follow the tournament if you keep updating about it.
I think we’re all behind. There are just too many books! But you’ll definitely be hearing more about the tournament from me, so stay tuned!
I have only read Gone Girl and the Green book but really want to get to HHhH and the Achilles one!
The ebook of SONG OF ACHILLES is on sale for about $4 through 1/7! And I want to get to HHhH really badly. I may just have to cave and buy the hardback.
I can’t believe it – I’ve read three of these books! (I usually have never read any when it comes to these awards and such.) A few of the others, like Round House, are already on my TBR, so maybe I’ll get to them sooner rather than later.
Emily, thank you for being the person who alerted me to the fabulous Louise Erdrich. Your Erdrich month last year made me finally read something by her. I received THE ROUND HOUSE for Christmas, and I can’t wait to dive in.
I am so glad you started reading her work! I just about popped with joy when I found out The Round House won the National Book Award. She definitely deserves the win!