WPF: Place Your "Bets" for Who's PBT's Favorite?

[Anita]

If you are participating in this year's Who's PBT's Favorite challenge, you may use the form below to select your winners. Please choose carefully because you will not be able to edit your choices once they are selected:

https://forms.gle/eSzCjLntcdfhojcJA

If you have no idea what we are talking about, you can learn more about the challenge here and here.

Please submit your choices no later than January 15th.

[Amy]

OK - I just began to try to figure out my picks. I have three brackets taken care of, with a projected winner, and a few runners up (just so I can see how I fared.) I am just having a tough time with Bracket B. I am down to five runners up and unable to yet predict the winner. For some reason, predicting the thoughts and feelings of this group feels hard for this particular bracket. I wonder how other people are faring with making their selections? I haven't even begun to think about how to match up the final four with one another.

[Theresa]

Amy wrote: "OK - I just began to try to figure out my picks. I have three brackets taken care of, with a projected winner, and a few runners up (just so I can see how I fared.) I am just having a tough time wi..."

I have not even started. Hope to have time and mental wherewithal to figure it all out once my work week ends.

[Amy]

I woke up in the middle of the night and figured out the rest. I may even be the first person to submit the darn form. This always happens to me. I try to make sure every possible loose end is taken care of before the new year begins. I have this crazy idea that strong executive functioning is the key or base for true creativity and spirituality. That it actually frees me. Like I can be a true ENFP, if I use my strong J to support it. I am a very strong J, but a much stronger P. Both approaches are always true for me. Anyway, we will see if my very strong N helps me here as well in this challenge. I am excited to see how I do. And to read a lot of these authors, many of whom I adore. Wouldn't it be wild and wacky if I were completely off.... I actually did not vote very high for this challenge, but I always find the challenges are really fun and great, even if they weren't the ones I initially voted for. So... thinking about it that way, maybe I don't know the hive mind of the group. I suppose we shall see.

[Joanne]

Amy wrote: "I woke up in the middle of the night and figured out the rest. I may even be the first person to submit the darn form. This always happens to me. I try to make sure every possible loose end is take..."

Ha! Sorry Amy I think I was first-sent mine off yesterday. I have a pretty good feel for this group, but you never know. The readers here surprise me a lot with their reading and reviews.

[Amy]

Isn’t it hard? I mean with 64 wide ranging authors! A few I knew who sent them in, but I think that top 16 is going to be tough. A couple, I thought I knew who voted them in for sure. Sharon Shinn is an author no one has ever heard of, except I have because she is Anna’s favorite! She has been trying to get me to read her for years. It’s even on my TBR by her recommendation. BC told us she was the Steinbeck vote, but I assumed she was also Isabelle Allende. It is neat how you get to know people and their likes. For I all I know, Allende was one of the authors voted in twice! Those were the only two I felt absolutely sure of other than our Doughgirl. But if Jason were playing, it would have been Frederick Backman for sure. Anyway, I think it’s going to be neat to see how well we really do know the group as a whole. I like that in part this is an intuition challenge. I think it’s a whole lot neater than I expected, and I’m really thrilled to be reading some of my favorite authors in the process.

[Anita]

I'm am so glad to see you are enjoying this challenge, Amy!! Love hearing all your thoughts . . .

The authors are a lot more wide ranging than I expected . . .a whole bunch that I don't know, but am looking forward to learning more about.

[Robin P]

Amy wrote: "I woke up in the middle of the night and figured out the rest. I may even be the first person to submit the darn form. This always happens to me. I try to make sure every possible loose end is take..."

I submitted mine yesterday as soon as I saw the form. I tend to do that, partly so I don't forget, mainly because I am impatient. This game is tough because I only know a few of the members who participate a lot. There might be many more voters who don't speak up. I always feel like an oddball in my tastes, so I assume that the popular authors will be those I don't read (King and Gabaldon, for instance, each of whom I read one book of and felt it was enough.)

It might be interesting to have a thread with a focus on some of the authors that are lesser known. We don't need it for Jane Austen, but there are quite a few that I had never even heard of! In that thread, people who have read that author could recommend which books are best and why they like the author. We might discover a new favorite!

[NancyJ]

Amy wrote: "I woke up in the middle of the night and figured out the rest. I may even be the first person to submit the darn form. This always happens to me. I try to make sure every possible loose end is take..."

I always start early when making decisions, but I often hold off to hit the button until the end, to allow my NT time to do it's thing.
I think the S's might have an edge in this game if they have always paid attention to details such as author's names when reading reviews.

[Amy]

I forgot that I also thought I “knew” Nancy’s Vote! I was sure of that one too. I figured she submitted Amy Harmon. Maybe I know you guys better than I think!

[Shelly]

I took the complete opposite approach. I just picked the 4 that I thought would come out on top without considering each match-up. I guess I just winged it! At some point I will have to go back and look at the brackets and work it backwards!

[NancyJ]

Robin P wrote: "Amy wrote: "I woke up in the middle of the night and figured out the rest. I may even be the first person to submit the darn form. This always happens to me. I try to make sure every possible loose..."

Robin, Anita heard you and set up a thread for this!

[Robin P]

Cool, thanks!

[LibraryCin]

Shelly wrote: "I took the complete opposite approach. I just picked the 4 that I thought would come out on top without considering each match-up. I guess I just winged it! At some point I will have to go back and..."

I haven't submitted mine yet, but that's what I did, as well. (Though I might still change my mind, since it's not yet submitted.) I suspect I won't guess correctly, but I also don't feel like I'm very good at figuring out how people are going to vote. Too much effort for me to try to go into that much detail to guess. :-)

[KateNZ]

Also winged it - three best guesses and one wishful thinking. I don’t think I’ll get any closer, no matter how much thought I put into it, lol!

[NancyJ]

I'm still going through the matchups trying to decide how I would vote in each round - and what to read early in the year.

The matchups that break my heart are:

John Boynes v William Kent Krueger - I think many of us loved both The Heart's Invisible Furies and This Tender Land

Amy Harmon v Elizabeth Strout - I love them both, though I know who will win

Elena Ferrante v Ruth Ozeki

Isabel Allende v Amor Towles. Their books are hard to compare.

Not a heartbreaker necessarily, but it would have been fun to debate in college:
Margaret Atwood v JRR Tolkien.

--
I really hope Gabaldon and Tolkien don't win. I think I read enough of both of them already, and I don't relish reading either in December. I might change my mind. Idk. I read most of Jane Austen and JK Rowling, but I'd be happier if one of them won.

[Joanne]

KateNZ wrote: "Also winged it - three best guesses and one wishful thinking. I don’t think I’ll get any closer, no matter how much thought I put into it, lol!"

Exactly Kate-I figure there is no reason to ponder it because no matter how hard and long I did that, I would still probably be wrong😂

[Sue]

I'm going with 1/2 intuition and 1/2 wishful thinking. Much like my actual March Madness brackets....I'm so glad there's no money at stake for the WPF brackets!

[Linda]

I voted, but I don't expect to win. It was hard because I have not read many of these authors. So they were mostly just guesses.

[SouthWestZippy]

I voted. :0)

[Peacejanz]

Now, I submitted my picks - and the form said something about voting again. I do not know where my set of rules is but do I get to vote again and again based on the books I read from our list of authors?
Also, will there ever be updates midway - such as number of votes for x or Y - like we get on TV during election nights?
Thanks, peace, janz

[NancyJ]

Peacejanz wrote: "Now, I submitted my picks - and the form said something about voting again. I do not know where my set of rules is but do I get to vote again and again based on the books I read from our list of au..."

Yes the rules and pictures of the tournament set-up are in the activities folder. These votes are to predict the winners. We'll start voting in the actual tournament around March 1. In round 1 we'll vote on the first 32 match-ups. The subsequent rounds are in May, July, Sept, etc.

[Rachel N.]

I have no idea who is going to win so I just winged my guess too. I'm excited for the game to start tomorrow.

[anarresa]

Final question in event of the tie, "votes in total" means throughout the tournament or only in that last head-to-head match up?
Not that I think it will come up, but for clarity.

[Anita]

Great question, anarresa. I did mean in the head to head match up (and including all earned votes cast).

[Charlotte]

Wow... that was tough! I'm excited to see how it plays out throughout the year.

[NancyJ]

anarresa wrote: "Final question in event of the tie, "votes in total" means throughout the tournament or only in that last head-to-head match up?
Not that I think it will come up, but for clarity."

I interpreted it as all votes, so my guess will be WAY too high.

[Book Concierge]

Anita wrote: "Great question, anarresa. I did mean in the head to head match up (and including all earned votes cast)."

Like Nancy, I read "total" as meaning all votes cast from beginning of challenge. Oh, well.

[Anita]

If you want to send me an edit for that question, Nancy or BC, I will accommodate that.

[Book Concierge]

Thanks ... I'll just leave it.

[NancyJ]

I'll just leave it too. I didn't even know how many players we'd have. So if we have more players that I estimated, and they hold their extra votes to the end, it could all average out.