I love the Tournament of Books and that's I found your newsletter. I've lost track of what year I discovered it. I printed the bracket this year and put it our family bulletin board. Now my kids want to know who is Margo and why will she win? I appreciate all the work you do. I even won notebooks and a t-shirt at the end of year! I prefer to imagine all judgements are written in March as the tournament happens, you're revealing what's behind the curtain. Thanks so much for all of your writing.
A few years ago there was some article that discussed some of the behind-the-scenes logistics, but because of the fact that the judges have to be given time to read the books, much of that has to happen in advance. But I can say that as the tournament goes, much more of what the color-commentators does happens in close to real-time, particularly as we get to the final.
I’ve long been a fan of the ToB. I usually read and recommend the final four-ish to friends who think I have great insight on books. I tell them “I just pulled it from this annual competition, you should check it out.” They respond with “Whatever. You have great taste for books.”
Thanks for this! I teach writing, but also use my book blog as an informal place to practice writing. This has motivated me to formalize my reviews a bit more and I appreciate this approach.
Love your explanations but not happy with your British spelling of "judgment." Can you tell I'm a retired English teacher? And, by the way, why do we have the different spellings of the same word?
I’ve got 4 books left to read for this year’s TOB. It’s my favorite book event and I too started reading your column as a result. But I did not know that The Biblioracle started as a TOB thing.
I always find at least one of my favorite books of the year at TOB. This year it is “The History of Sound” by Ben Shattuck. What a beautiful book! It’s a book of short stories taking place in New England over the last 300 years focusing on nature and music. What makes it unique is each topic has 2 paired stories from 2 points of view. Ok no more! I have to save my thoughts for the Commentariat where, incidentally, I have made more than one friend in real life.
I loved "The History of Sound" it was one of my nominees for the tournament and I was super excited it made the final cut. If you haven't seen my Q&A with Ben Shattuck, you might enjoy it: https://biblioracle.substack.com/p/observations-within-landscape?r=88v1q. It's incredible to hear about people who have met in the commentariat and gone on to not just be friends, but I know one case where they started a business together. It's really a testament to the power of conversation to bring people together.
I've followed the ToB since 2008, I think, though I've never joined the commentariat. This is the first year in quite a while that I've actually tried to read the books (it had been going in a more and more avant-garde direction with books that I can't imagine having any interest in, but this year feels more mainstream). I've only gotten to three so far; stuck on interminable library waitlists for the rest. Looking forward to March!
John, it reminds me of the Rebecca Caudill reading challenge back in the day. IDK if they still do it, but it was a yearly slate of 12 or so YA books, and students who read all of them could vote for their favorite. I did it once or twice when I was teaching middle school. I've read 2 of the ToB list, 💯% thanks to you, and may read a couple more. Very interesting post. 💜👍🏽🩷
I've read 12 of this year's books and am on a race to the finish! This made me realize that in a tight tournament I'm often so anxious to get to the judgement that I miss out on the pleasure of the review itself--which in this case was lovely in a way that is particularly appropriate for the matchup in question. I have THOUGHTS about some of this year's books. BIG THOUGHTS.
21 years! The Tournament of Books is now old enough to be a drinking game!
It’s not only homework, if you’re not on your toes, students turn to the LLMs for in class writing. Exercise books and pens for my classes
I love the Tournament of Books and that's I found your newsletter. I've lost track of what year I discovered it. I printed the bracket this year and put it our family bulletin board. Now my kids want to know who is Margo and why will she win? I appreciate all the work you do. I even won notebooks and a t-shirt at the end of year! I prefer to imagine all judgements are written in March as the tournament happens, you're revealing what's behind the curtain. Thanks so much for all of your writing.
A few years ago there was some article that discussed some of the behind-the-scenes logistics, but because of the fact that the judges have to be given time to read the books, much of that has to happen in advance. But I can say that as the tournament goes, much more of what the color-commentators does happens in close to real-time, particularly as we get to the final.
I’ve long been a fan of the ToB. I usually read and recommend the final four-ish to friends who think I have great insight on books. I tell them “I just pulled it from this annual competition, you should check it out.” They respond with “Whatever. You have great taste for books.”
Thanks for this! I teach writing, but also use my book blog as an informal place to practice writing. This has motivated me to formalize my reviews a bit more and I appreciate this approach.
Love your explanations but not happy with your British spelling of "judgment." Can you tell I'm a retired English teacher? And, by the way, why do we have the different spellings of the same word?
I've always preferred judgement to judgment, and I'm now glad that the spell checkers won't auto-correct me.
What a great story! I do a similar March Madness style competition with my students called March Book Madness. https://open.substack.com/pub/adrianneibauer/p/march-book-madness?utm_source=app-post-stats-page&r=gtvg8&utm_medium=ios
There is something about judging books alongside other books. The kids love it!
Fantastic!
I’ve got 4 books left to read for this year’s TOB. It’s my favorite book event and I too started reading your column as a result. But I did not know that The Biblioracle started as a TOB thing.
I always find at least one of my favorite books of the year at TOB. This year it is “The History of Sound” by Ben Shattuck. What a beautiful book! It’s a book of short stories taking place in New England over the last 300 years focusing on nature and music. What makes it unique is each topic has 2 paired stories from 2 points of view. Ok no more! I have to save my thoughts for the Commentariat where, incidentally, I have made more than one friend in real life.
I loved "The History of Sound" it was one of my nominees for the tournament and I was super excited it made the final cut. If you haven't seen my Q&A with Ben Shattuck, you might enjoy it: https://biblioracle.substack.com/p/observations-within-landscape?r=88v1q. It's incredible to hear about people who have met in the commentariat and gone on to not just be friends, but I know one case where they started a business together. It's really a testament to the power of conversation to bring people together.
I've followed the ToB since 2008, I think, though I've never joined the commentariat. This is the first year in quite a while that I've actually tried to read the books (it had been going in a more and more avant-garde direction with books that I can't imagine having any interest in, but this year feels more mainstream). I've only gotten to three so far; stuck on interminable library waitlists for the rest. Looking forward to March!
John, it reminds me of the Rebecca Caudill reading challenge back in the day. IDK if they still do it, but it was a yearly slate of 12 or so YA books, and students who read all of them could vote for their favorite. I did it once or twice when I was teaching middle school. I've read 2 of the ToB list, 💯% thanks to you, and may read a couple more. Very interesting post. 💜👍🏽🩷
I've read 12 of this year's books and am on a race to the finish! This made me realize that in a tight tournament I'm often so anxious to get to the judgement that I miss out on the pleasure of the review itself--which in this case was lovely in a way that is particularly appropriate for the matchup in question. I have THOUGHTS about some of this year's books. BIG THOUGHTS.
Soon...soon.