A Unique Take on Best Books: Tournament of Books 2024

The Morning News' Tournament of Books is one of my favorite "best books" resources for a few reasons. 

Every year, I take a moment, after the competition is completed to remind you of what a great resource the ToB is to help your readers looking for thought provoking reads across the full spectrum of genres and storytelling styles.

Click here to see the 2024 list of books with summaries.

On the surface this appears to be just another list of "best books," so why do I think it such a valuable resource? Well you can read their full explanation here, on their "About" page here, but here is an excerpt that I think sums up why I like it so much:

But it’s not really a contest. We’re not even sure it’s a “tournament.” What the ToB has been and will be, as long as we’re putting it on, is a month-long conversation about novels and reading and writing and art that takes place on weekdays in March.

Here’s how it works. Throughout the year, we gather, read, and assess the works of fiction we think would make worthy Tournament competitors. In December we present our findings in the form of a "long list." We then cull it to a final shortlist of 16 or so books. (Some years we expand the list beyond the core 16 to include an extra set of two or more books that compete in a pre-Tournament play-in match.)

When the Tournament of Books begins in March, each weekday two works of fiction go head to head, with one of our judges deciding which book moves forward in the brackets, according to whatever criteria matters to them. Along the way, the judges reveal their biases and interests, any connections they have to the participating authors, and, most importantly, an elaborate explanation of how they decided between the two books.

The ToB is not your average book award and not only because it is a battle between the books as judged by other writers using a bracket system. With ToB we also get the most diverse list of “best books” you will see anywhere, both diverse in authorship and genre. 

And because it happens in March each year, but the books are from the year before-- so the 2024 ToB uses 2023 books--there are a lot of titles that are already off holds. So it's a current "best list" option of a wide range of best books, many of which are on the shelf.

With ToB you not only learn about great books and why they are wonderful, but you also learn about the judges themselves, also a very diverse group of people throughout the publishing industry. You can learn about the judges who always get their own page here. Just the list of judges alone makes for it's own resource to suggest books to readers.

Each “battle” has a full write up which gets to the heart of the two books’ appeal and structure. These essays give us valuable information on who would like the book and why. Readalikes are also often mentioned. This is the easiest link to use to pull up each match-up and enjoy it for fun while also learning something new and unique about these popular books. 

Oh and the comments. The readers who follow along religiously and have entire discussions about each pairing of books for pages and pages are THE BEST. Following just the comments is like reading a novel itself. Plus those are the comments of regular readers. There is even a running commentary on the battle itself by the tournament organizers. Again use this link and click on one of the matches to see what I mean.

And don’t forget the back list. From 2005 to the present. Each with their own full bank of the above mentioned information and more! It is no longer all on one page like it used to be but, if you want to see the archive of ToB from the old format from 2005-2020, click here and scroll to the bottom of the right gutter for all the links. And then click on the years for 2023, and 2024 to see the details of those tourneys. For 2021 and 2022, I cannot figure out the link (they don't do a full list with links to the matches after 2020), but you can see their announcement of the books for the 2021 and 2022 tourneys my clicking on the year.

ToB has also become my go-to resource for "literary fiction." Why? Because the ToB takes the idea of "literary" titles, titles worthy of being deemed as worth your time [which I hate, but it is a thing], and gives it a wide berth. I especially love using the backlist titles for book discussions. 

Speaking of backlist, I love the "Wall of Champions," which you can click here and scroll down to see. That page alone is an awesome "sure bet" resource.

In terms of actively using the ToB to help readers, beyond keeping the cache of suggestions readily available, you can stage your own ToB at any time. Use theirs as an inspiration. Here's an example, kick off Summer Reading by taking a look at your most circulated titles-- overall or in specific genres-- or stage a tourney based on your Summer Reading Theme. This is a great participatory display that can be put up in the building or online. Have your patrons vote yes, but also have your library workers do commentary. Get everyone on staff involved who wants to be and have fun with it. You will showcasing your staff's expertise and your collection.

I hope you use the ToB as a resource to get your patrons excited about reading. You can use all of the past years to create a diverse (in every way) display to attract a wide swatch of readers.

If you want to take a deeper dive, you can read "A Brief History of the Tournament of Books." 

If you want more "Rooster Events," scroll to the bottom of the "About" page to see the "Super Rooster" (a contest to decided the champion of champions), "Camp ToB" (a summer book club of past titles: 2023 event is here; archive is here), and "The Nonfiction Pop-Up" (a one time event).