Tournament of Books discussion
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2016 alt.TOB - General
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The alt-TOB Idea
So, on the Zombie idea:Generally, this is one aspect of the official TOB that drives me bonkers each year. Like... argh!
I am (truly) happy to go along with the consensus for our shadow tournament, but figured I would voice my 'I'd rather not' opinion. Heh! :)
I hate the zombie round in TOB because the winner will always be the least challenging/most popular 'literary' read of the year and the whole reason to have awards is to rise above the tyranny of the masses so to speak. book tournaments = the judicial branch of literatureBut possibly OUR "zombie round" could be just for people who have read all 16 books by the time the zombie round came 'round. I'd actually want to have "read all 16 books" be the qualification for getting to vote in our zombie. In the event we get people committed like that I think it would be fun.
We could decide in January actually. We can poll people to see how many made it through all 16. If we get say minimum of a baker's dozen of people who felt that reading 16 more books was like a great way to spend their December, a zombie would be meaningful, and might be fun.
If we go ahead with a zombie round, I like that approach, Poingu!!
While I don't post often, I'm constantly lurking in this group and tend to read close to 16 books in TOB. Count me in as a reader! Thanks to all who are making this happen.
I think we should just get started and let the zombie round either reveal itself as necessary or not as we get there. There will undoubtedly be some books losing along the way that will cause an outcry. My feeling is to keep it simple for greatest chance of this experiment working.
I can't wait to see the Sweet Sixteen!
Great, Carol! Great, Janet! Great, Susan! I'm so glad to have you all joining us.Jennifer and I are beginning to have an idea of what people go through who pick books for awards. Our list is at about three zillion titles just now.
Hey! I'm just catching up on this but I would love to be a judge! Or do anything else you need!
Katie wrote: "Hey! I'm just catching up on this but I would love to be a judge! Or do anything else you need!"Katie, fantastic! You're on for being a judge in the Final for sure if you're interested. Also it's very possible we'll have other judging opportunities open up as people start to get busier than expected or for any other reason.
I'm really getting very energized by everyone else's energy! The more of our 16 books we all read the more fun it will be in January.
1. Michele2. AmberBug
3. nomadreader
4. Karen Michele
5. Drew
6. Rebecca
7. Amy
8. Jane from B.C.
9. Jen
10. Ryan
11. Topher
12. Heather
13. jo
14. Gayla
_________________________
Finalist or alternate judge:
15. Jason
16. Ellen
17. Lljones
18. Katie
Wonderful! I left a job at a bookstore about three months ago and have been wanting to do something to feel like I'm back in a reader community again! I'm so excited about this!
2015 was my first year of following the TOB. I had some trouble getting hold of some of the books here in the UK and, although I now own an e-reader which may make things easier this year, I guess it could still happen again. So, I'm just posting to say that I'm appreciating the Alt. TOB idea, and the effort that Poingu and Jennifer are already putting in to make it work. And I'll be reading along from across the pond as much as I can.
Poingu wrote: "Jennifer and I are beginning to have an idea of what people go through who pick books for awards. Our list is at a..."Yes, I think one of the most fun aspects of this is getting a taste of what it's like to participate in the official TOB. For example, as a judge, I'm SUPER CURIOUS what books I'll be reading!
Slightly off topic, but I wholeheartedly agree: 10:04 was one of my favorites from 2014!!! :)
Arianna wrote: "Slightly off topic, but I wholeheartedly agree: 10:04 was one of my favorites from 2014!!! :)"I agree!
I don't think I can commit to judging, but I'm looking forward to reading the books and reading everyone's judgments! I love the TOB format of book versus book, and I'm excited to have more of it to enjoy. :D
That's great, Megan - so glad you are excited about our alt-TOB!! It will be wonderful to have you engaged in the discussions as the judgments are posted.
@ Katie and @ Llagullande -- so glad you are into the idea and will be following along with us!! I hope you will both jump on into the discussion as things progress. :)
Jason wrote: "Excellent. Look forward to seeing how this develops. (TOB long list in Dec, short list in Jan more than likely)"
Jason, welcome to Above the Line World--you are now an official alt.TOB judge:
1. Michele
2. AmberBug
3. nomadreader
4. Jason
5. Drew
6. Rebecca
7. Amy
8. Jane from B.C.
9. Jen
10. Ryan
11. Topher
12. Heather
13. jo
14. Gayla
_________________________
Finalist or alternate judge:
15. Rachel
16. Ellen
17. Lljones
18. Katie
19. Arianna
Please check the judge list and make sure I'm keeping up with the changes--if I have it wrong let me know. Thanks!
Jennifer wrote: "Since the subject of musicians has come up a few times... I feel I now need to let you all know that I play guitar and sing."
Aha! You are a musician, but are you Merrittesque? Can we count on you to discount a novel and berate its author based on one aspect you don't like? How did you feel about An Untamed State and All the Light We Cannot See? : )
Though I don't want to be an active participant in the Alt tournament, I am enjoying this discussion, and I'll be in the peanut gallery with Ed.
Aha! You are a musician, but are you Merrittesque? Can we count on you to discount a novel and berate its author based on one aspect you don't like? How did you feel about An Untamed State and All the Light We Cannot See? : )
Though I don't want to be an active participant in the Alt tournament, I am enjoying this discussion, and I'll be in the peanut gallery with Ed.
Late the the party as usual, but I'm thrilled about an alt-TOB. Honestly, my favorite part of TOB is when all of you extremely well-read group members lament books that were NOT included. Those are the ones I run and read first! I'll be joining the peanut gallery with Tina & Ed and am so thankful for the many volunteer judges and to Poingu and Jennifer for leading the charge. What a fun addition to the holiday season!
Poingu wrote: Jason, welcome to Above the Line World--you are now an official alt..."Woohoo. Looking forward to it.
It is really hard to keep up with this thread in digest format! Is the current plan to start in January?
Rachel wrote: "It is really hard to keep up with this thread in digest format! Is the current plan to start in January?"Rachel, as you can see we just have one thread for all alt.TOB topics just now. But Jennifer has asked and received permission to make both her and me "moderators" for the group as a whole so we'll be able to set up folders and manage discussions better.
Currently Jennifer and I are working on book selection and we'll have a long list up in a week and the final 16 shortly thereafter. We want to take the month of December to give everyone a chance to read as many as they like and will start the judged rounds in early January. I'm thinking we'll also set up discussion threads for each of the 16 books but ask judges not to post or review their books until the date they are given for releasing their "winner."
Questions are very welcome at this point since we've never done this before.
Oh My! Just back from holidays and look at what I have missed! The birth of something exciting ... I've got goosebumps reading through the posts.
I'm dying of curiosity to find out what's on the long list/short list. I can't imagine how you even start to narrow it down.
Katie wrote: "I'm dying of curiosity to find out what's on the long list/short list. I can't imagine how you even start to narrow it down."actually the "narrowing down" hasn't begun yet so I too am curious about it--just now the process more resembles a great widening up.
Hey, Poingu -- you got my message, right? With my e-mail?This is so exciting.
Ellen wrote: "Hey, Poingu -- you got my message, right? With my e-mail?..."Ellen - Yes. :) We have your email and you have been added to our spreadsheet of participants, and are shown as #16 on the list (comment # 171, above), as an finalist/alternate judge.
So glad you are excited about this!
Hey! If there's any way I can sneak in as a judge of any other position in this alt ToB, let me know! Regardless, looking forward to this version!
Darryl wrote: "Hey! If there's any way I can sneak in as a judge of any other position in this alt ToB, let me know! Regardless, looking forward to this version!"Hi Daryl. If you would like to send me a message with your email address, I can add you to the roster as an alternate. Thanks! :)
Darryl wrote: "Hey! If there's any way I can sneak in as a judge of any other position in this alt ToB, let me know! Regardless, looking forward to this version!"Darryl you are an official Finals Judge, if you choose to accept. And I'm very excited that people are stepping up to read these books with us too, because the more readers we have the more fun it will be.
1. Michele
2. AmberBug
3. nomadreader
4. Jason
5. Drew
6. Rebecca
7. Amy
8. Jane from B.C.
9. Jen
10. Ryan
11. Topher
12. Heather
13. jo
14. Gayla
_________________________
Finals Judges and/or Alternate Judges:
Rachel, Ellen, Lljones, Katie, Arianna, Darryl
I wholeheartedly accept and appreciate the offer! Looking forward to it!
I can't wait for the list. Similarly, I'm sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the National Book Award announcement on Friday. I'm such a geek.
The IMPAC Dublin longlist (160 titles!!) went up today (though pub. dates are kind of all over the place, so not all 2015 titles): http://www.dublinliteraryaward.ie/new...
Jennifer wrote: "The IMPAC Dublin longlist (160 titles!!) went up today (though pub. dates are kind of all over the place, so not all 2015 titles): http://www.dublinliteraryaward.ie/new......"Has one of my favorites The Barefoot Queen listed, and I haven't seen that one on any lists.
It kind of looks like it lists every book published for the past 2+ years.
Ellen wrote: "I can't wait for the list. Similarly, I'm sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the National Book Award announcement on Friday. I'm such a geek."Too bad in a way though that there has to be one winner in the end. The process Jennifer and I are going through right now is a very useful exercise. I've discovered very viscerally this week what I just suspected before, that we could easily find sixteen terrific tournament-worthy books that were all short story collections, or that were all novels about coming of age in a time of war, or all novels about being a first-generation American living in poverty, or many other themes where there are a lot of thoughtful writers working.
Even though these books belong superficially to a similar theme, they are completely different from one another in tone, writing style, setting, point of view, and outcomes. The only other similarities between them are they were published in the same year and are all great reads.
So I can just imagine Booker judges or NBA judges saying things behind closed doors like "well, we have to pick just ONE coming of age in time of war story for our longlist, people!" and in that moment one book gets elevated above the rest for reasons that have nothing to do with quality.
This makes me even more appreciative of TOB's Very Long Longlist, because you can see TOB people really want to call attention to the abundance of great books published every year.
Darryl wrote: "When does the list come out?"Our list? As soon as possible. I think Poingu is aiming for next week for both the longlist and - a few days later - the final 16. We want to give people as much time as possible for the reading, so we are working with that goal in mind.
*****
Heh! Yes -- Poingu speaks truth! Our lists are... awesome! But they are sprouting sublists. And sublists. I am enjoying the exercise very much!!
Thanks, Jennifer! It was the list for our ToB that I meant. Excited to see the list! As for the official ToB, I didn't know it existed until this year. I know the tourney itself takes place in March but when are the names of the contending books released?
Darryl wrote: "Thanks, Jennifer! It was the list for our ToB that I meant. Excited to see the list! As for the official ToB, I didn't know it existed until this year. I know the tourney itself takes place in March..."Historically, we get a teasing longlist in December, then the final 16 are announced January, to give people time to read.
Will the judges be privy to their two books before the brackets come out to get a head start? Preferably when the short list comes out. Or will you just release brackets with judges attached at the same time as short list?
Jason wrote: "Will the judges be privy to their two books before the brackets come out to get a head start? Preferably when the short list comes out. Or will you just release brackets with judges attached at the..."Good question, Jason! I have a survey I have created that I am going to send round to each of our jurors. In my mind, we would let the jurors know ahead of posting the brackets in the group. But I feel like the timing is going be fairly close together - like, Poingu and I may only finalize things the day before we share the brackets in the group.
I want to be as upfront with you all as possible, and as we go through the process, so please don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have.
We are concentrating on the lists right now... but will be having logistics discussions super-soon. :)
(And I would like to create a separate folder for logistics/how it will work, too. Once we are settled on all the details.)
Edited:
To remove comment about matching books to readers using the survey I have created. Not sure that we will do that and I hadn't really thought that bit through! Heh!! Does it feel like it's happening really quickly to you all too?? Or are you all chomping at the bit thinking it's not happening fast enough (WHERE'S THE LIST?! haha!!)
Poingu and I have a lot of logistical things to still talk about.
just update my previous comment a bit. :)
Is there any more room for an alternate/finals judge?
Jennifer wrote: "Jason wrote: "Will the judges be privy to their two books before the brackets come out to get a head start? Preferably when the short list comes out. Or will you just release brackets with judges a..."I also want to add that although we are being as thorough as possible, every day Jennifer and I are sending each other new gems we just found to consider that the other hasn't had time to read or frequently hasn't even heard of before. I've read six new-to-me books in the last six days and read the first several chapters of many more but pretty soon we'll just have to move on to step 2. So if your favorite read of all time doesn't make our very personal long list it's going to be because we didn't have time for it, not that we rejected it. I actually rejected a book last night from our longlist because the cover was pink. I feel guilty but not too guilty. If your most tournament-worthy read of the year has an all-pink cover please contact me off list and I'll read it!
I can't believe we've only been 6 days at this! You are all terrifically fun intrepid readers.
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Tournament of Books
Books mentioned in this topic
An Untamed State (other topics)All the Light We Cannot See (other topics)
The Barefoot Queen (other topics)
The Barefoot Queen (other topics)
All the Light We Cannot See (other topics)
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I'm hoping we have a lot of people who will want to try to read all 16 books, a warmup for our March tournament. The more judges who read them all the more fun we'll have along the way.
Also I have a feeling there will be a lot of roles to play. For instance I'm also thinking it would be fun to set up folders where spoilers are allowed so that people (not judges for these rounds please) can discuss the books in our tournament. It would be great to have people interested in moderating these.
Also we might benefit from someone with a meticulous sense of timing who can make sure to prod judges and to set up threads and even possible arrange to get the judgements emailed to them ahead of time and post at the same time on the day these are meant to "go up."
Zombie round? That's a possibility. Let's see if we have enough people reading all the books and having enough opinion to be able to vote for favorites.
There are a lot of things to figure out to make sure we have maximum fun. Let's keep sharing ideas.