March Madness Bookish Brackets

Remember back in the 20th Century when only NCAA basketball went all "Mad" in March?

Well, thankfully, now the book world has caught the March Madness bug too.  There are three high profile bookish brackets circulating right now, using the popularity of the basketball tournament to get people excited about books.  Today, I will highlight them and provide you the links you need to follow any or all.

The Daddy of all bookish brackets is The Morning News' Tournament of Books which begins today.  Click here for the preview including rules, schedule, and judges.  Click here for today's battle which includes the blow-by-blow reasoning from the guest judge and then a commentary from the editors.  After 8 years, these guys really know what they are doing.  My suggestions, check in daily all month long.

While the Tournament of Books is mostly a battle of literary fiction with a few critically acclaimed genre titles thrown in, the "gals" (their word) over at Dear Author and Smart Bitches are in their second year of running an all romance bracket.  Their tourney is called DABWAHA.  The site is here.  It runs concurrent with March Madness.  Click through for details, titles, voting, and commentary.

I have saved the most fun bracket for last.  Over on Criminal Element, they are currently running one of their fabulous "Death Brackets."  Last year, I was glued to my computer as I followed their bracket pitting the Toughest Dicks vs the Baddest Thriller Heroes.  In fact, the best part of the bracket was how the writers told a story for each battle.  Each of the battle posts was like a great crime fiction story in and of itself.

This time the battle is over Cliches in Crime Fiction.  So you will see the following battles:

1. Hit Men vs. Serial Killers 

 2. Riding the coattails of Sherlock Holmes vs. “One Last Job”

3. The alcoholic P.I. vs. Old school Italian Mafia4. Paranormal Crime Solvers vs. Culinary Sleuths (who share recipes)

You can vote in the comments of this post.  Check back to see which cliche wins.

All of these brackets are making me think about trying to run a horror bracket next year over on RA for All: Horror.  I think I will float the idea around to fellow horror bloggers.  Maybe.  We'll see.

For now, enjoy the Madness.