The Morning News Tournament of Books' Long List Is the Best "Best List" For Readers and an Awesome Resource for You to Help Them

I am on record (many times) writing and talking about how The Morning News Tournament of Books is the best best list for readers, plus it is a super fun way to present it. Also this "best" of 2024 list is presented as a short list now but the "winner" is not decided until March of 2025. I love that the dust will have settled on the year before these books are aired off in judged brackets.

But wait, I think I am getting a little ahead of myself here. Let's back up a bit.

What is the Tournament of Books? From the landing page for the current short list:

Coming March 6, 2025: the 21st year of the Tournament of Books.

Look, we’re surprised as much as you are. Going on two-plus decades, the fact that an event that began as a joke has become one of the web’s biggest cultural events—at the end of which we threaten to give one of our society’s greatest living authors a live rooster—is still startling. There are only a handful of us who organize this thing. There are tens of thousands of you playing along, and hundreds of smart, thoughtful, hardcore readers who participate voluminously in the discussion every day. And we really couldn’t ask for much more. 

A big reason all this has happened for so long is because of the tremendous support of our presenting sponsor Field Notes. If you love the ToB, please show that love to Field Notes, too! We recommend becoming annual subscribers, just like us, because the goods are, well, very good. 

The other big reason we’re here is our Sustaining Members. Their support truly makes this event take place. 

Think of it this way: How much did you pay to attend the Eras tour, or a Beyoncé concert, or a night with Charli XCX? The ToB is a month-long blast, but it requires about six months of pre-production—so we need you to join the crew today and play a role in keeping this event rolling. Sustaining Members also receive 50 percent off everything at the Tournament of Books store—and this year our top-tier supporters are going to receive something very covetable and new. (They also receive our deep affection.)

Here’s how the Tournament works. Each weekday, starting March 6, two books from the shortlist are read and evaluated by one of our judges. One book is chosen to advance to the next round, and the judge explains how they came to their decision, then the commentariat—folks like you—express their feelings and thoughts about that decision and the books themselves. And the next day we do it all over again. This goes on through the month of March, until our championship match, where all our judges convene to decide which of the finalists wins the Tournament of Books, and with it our prize, the Rooster. (No one’s ever accepted the actual live rooster we offer them, fwiw.)

One thing to note before we go: We need your Zombie vote before midnight Eastern on Thursday, Dec. 19. Because from the play-in round to the eight opening round matches, to the four quarterfinal matches, through the two semifinal matches, the field is whittled down to two finalists. However, before those books can enter the championship, they must endure a “Zombie Round,” which restores two books that were eliminated previously during gameplay. As to which books return, it’s determined by y’all, right here, right now, using the form below. 

We’ll have more to announce as the Tournament approaches, so make sure you’re signed up for the Rooster newsletter to stay up with all the news. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you soon!

Click here (and scroll down) to see the full list of titles that are competing this year.

The ToB is not your average book award or best list 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-- again the 2025 ToB uses 2024 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 whose information is after the books themselves on this page. Just the list of judges alone makes for its own resource to suggest books to readers.

Once the tourney begins 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.

To see what will come for 2025, use this link to the 2024 ToB to see what I mean. 

Speaking of last year-- 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 by 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 the backlist AGAIN, 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. And January is usually when we start seriously talking about Summer Reading planning, so the timing of my post right now, is just in time.

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."