I’ve mentioned this tournament before but I am so excited when they announce the book list for the coming year. Beginning in March, these books will be matched-up against one another and will duke it out until a winner has been chosen. The judges for each match are usually very funny and extremely well-read and they change every year.
Even if you choose not to follow the tournament itself, what a great book list. Everyone loves a good list.
The 2013 Tournament of Books Finalists
- HHhHÂ 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. Who will it be??]
Pre-Tournament Playoff Round
- Fobbit by David Abrams
- Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
- The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers
For more information, visit their website.
Book Chatter 
Wow…I can’t even begin to figure this one out…I am off to their site to try!
Nothing to figure out. In March, the books are matched-up and the judges push for their fave. They win in rounds, like a boxing match.
This looks like real fun. Nothing like a great list. Thanks for sharing. Love it.
I’ve only read 4 of the books, but I’m gonna root for Song of Achilles. (It’s like football, I pick a team just to make it more interesting.)
I love reading lists of books!! there are some on there that I have on my 2013 list!!
I’ve only read two of those, but several of the others are on my list of books to read. It will be fun to see how they do in the tournament.
For the past few years, I had been hoping to do the tournament. But something always came in the way. I hope I can do it this year! The book list is awesome!
I’m gonna go with The Yellow Birds for that round!
May vote is for the halftime walk book. Haven’t read it but I had to choose it to make it interesting 😉
Hehe… I actually want to read that too. Do they say when they choose that last book? I looked at the website and the current book list but didn’t find a schedule anywhere.
The entire schedule will be posted sometime in March. There isn’t a set date but as soon as it is, I will post about it.
I’ve read 4 and would have to vote for The Round House based on what I’ve read. It’ll be interesting.
I’m SO excited that I actually read books on the list this year. This has never happened. There are some tough choices on that list, but I will definitely be curious to see how far Gone Girl and TFIOS goes.
To date, I’ve read four on the list but there are at least four others that I had planned to read this year. I can’t wait to hear the comments for Gone Girl.
What a great list! I’d love to read many of them. I’ve read, The Fault in our Stars and The Song of Achilles, both of which I loved. Gone Girl really didn’t do it for me.
Yellow Birds for the pre-tournament contest?! This is a good list and I have Round House.
I’ve read quite a few of these, and need to read more of them. I particularly want to read Round House soon after reading a quite a few positive reviews of it. I can’t wait to see how this goes. This is one competition that I follow from beginning to end!
Oh cool! Some good books on the list! Some I’ve read and some are on my list.