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2024 ToF - Schedule and Results
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Chrissy
(last edited Aug 07, 2024 10:10PM)
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Aug 07, 2024 10:14AM
We’ve entered the last 4 weeks of judging rounds for the tournament, which means we will start posting decisions on Sept 3 or 4! If you want to take part in discussions, it’s last call to get our 8 books (or as many as you want) read!
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Exciting, Chrissy! Thanks to everyone who’s doing the work to make this happen.
Thanks for the reminder that I have one more book to get to for this!
I am currently working on two of them! (Wellness + Bandit Queens) and will also hopefully get to Trespasses + North Woods this month. Hoping I can find a copy of End of Drum Time too. I also have a copy of Birnam Wood but it's not where am I'm at this month! argh
I've read them all, and with two exceptions, loved each one.
I am ready. And really looking forward to it! Thank you all for all of your time, dedication to reading, and hard work putting this together for us.
So grateful to Chrissy for organizing, for those who have volunteered to judge, and to my fellow ToF'ers who helped select this great slate. THANK YOU!
Can't wait for this tournament and the discussion. The books were SO. MUCH. BETTER. and more interesting than the Summer ToB books were...
Ellen wrote: "Can't wait for this tournament and the discussion. The books were SO. MUCH. BETTER. and more interesting than the Summer ToB books were..."Amen to that!
I had a really nice conversation with a woman who was reading The End of Drum Time while on a Disney cruise with the fam last week, so thanks to this group for introducing me to that book that I would not have read otherwise. Relatedly, I always am curious when I see people reading in public and tend to chat them up if it's something I have read, am interested in, or think looks intriguing. Hopefully most other readers are as keen to discuss books as I am, or maybe I'm just annoying someone during their quiet time, LOL
Adam wrote: "I had a really nice conversation with a woman who was reading The End of Drum Time while on a Disney cruise with the fam last week, so thanks to this group for introducing me to that book that I wo..."Yes, I love seeing other readers with books in public! The person next to me at the airport on Sunday was reading Pure Color, which I've been eyeing for a while. I was about to ask them about it, but then the airline finally called boarding after an hour's delay, so I missed my chance. ;)
I love it when a stranger comments to me about a book I am reading. It makes me think the world is a kinder place to know that there are other readers in it.
Ellen wrote: "Can't wait for this tournament and the discussion. The books were SO. MUCH. BETTER. and more interesting than the Summer ToB books were..."While I loved the first three, the second half of summer books aren't for me. I tried The Husbands since I was able to get the audio from the library in time, and it was... decent? I have mixed feelings. We'll discuss on Disqus soon.
Lauren wrote: "While I loved the first three, the second half of summer books aren't for me. I tried The Husbands since I was able to get the audio from the library in time, and it was... decent? I have mixed feelings. We'll discuss on Disqus soon."I’d already read James and Wandering Stars, and had no interest in the others, so I haven’t read anything else this summer. I wish they wouldn’t let the readers decide on the books. (I want to petition them to use Tim’s idea next year, but make the choices themselves.)
I at least attempted to read them all, and found them all uniformly meh except for The Book of Love, which I found unreadable (I did force myself through the 100 pp. that I have deemed necessary to decide to abandon a book). I've already read Harry Potter, The Magicians, and that R.F. Kuang book that was in the ToB last year, and it read exactly like those, except that I do love Harry Potter. Wandering Stars presupposed that I remembered more about There There than I do and James, though worthy, was not my favorite Everett. Anyway. The roster for the ToF is way better. I have a clear favorite in each round, and they are amongst the best books I've read in the past year.
Ellen wrote: "I at least attempted to read them all, and found them all uniformly meh except for The Book of Love, which I found unreadable (I did force myself through the 100 pp. that I have deemed necessary to..."I loved "James" and "Martyr!"
I felt about "Wandering Stars" the way you did about "James" - I thought it was fine (even beautiful in parts), but strongly preferred "There, There".
"All Fours" was, I think, a case of me being the wrong reader for the book.
"The Husbands" had so much potential, but was about 30-40% too long without enough character progression, for me, to justify those extra pages. It would have been a great novella.
I did not read the Kelly Link novel because, perhaps unfairly, I had read an excerpt that did nothing for me, and I just couldn't justify the time required to read a book of that length. So, tip of the hat to you for trying!
I was looking forward to Martyr! because there was so much love in here and in the commentariat in general for it -- and it left me ice cold, not to mention terminally bored. And James was fine, but I preferred The Trees, and even Telephone. Hard agree about The Husbands.
My favorite is Martyr! Wand Stars, James, Book of Love were all ok but I find they have just left my brain. My holds for All Fours and The Husbands haven’t come through yet. The choices are just lackluster to me. On the other hand I love the TOF choices as others have said. Now there’s some 5 star books!
Yup -- 4 5* books for me, one in each round!
Adam wrote: "I had a really nice conversation with a woman who was reading The End of Drum Time while on a Disney cruise with the fam last week, so thanks to this group for introducing me to that book that I wo..."OH, I definitely would have tripped over myself to ask someone about this book if I saw them reading - especially on a cruise. (Hope that doesn't give away any bias about a/typical cruisers?!) I have a friend reading TeoDT right now and I'm impatient for her to finish it.
Care wrote: "Adam wrote: "I had a really nice conversation with a woman who was reading The End of Drum Time while on a Disney cruise with the fam last week, so thanks to this group for introducing me to that b..."I have just started it. I am trying to stay patient because I've seen others say that it starts slowly. Hoping for good things as the novel progresses!
Laughing about the conversations with the other people on the cruise, because it reminded me I was on a train in Boston on my vacation and saw a guy across from me reading a thick book, then stopping periodically to text, then going back to the book, and when I finally got a look at the book it was 'A Little Life'. Like, yep, I bet you do need to have a conversation about that one.
I thought James and Martyr! were marvelous and books I look forward to rereading. I skipped Book of Love after a good friend told me she didn't like it -- I'll pick it up later probably.
Wandering Stars was fine, but, yeah, it paled next to There, There. I am glad it's getting so much love though.
And All Fours was, as Risa put it, not the book for me.
Now on to Husbands.
Caroline wrote: "Laughing about the conversations with the other people on the cruise, because it reminded me I was on a train in Boston on my vacation and saw a guy across from me reading a thick book, then stoppi..."That book... whew. It was definitely readable, I got through it very quickly, but "misery porn" seems an understatement.
(I did quite like "The People in the Trees" though.)
We are in the last week of judging! I have 3 (out of 8) responses for the initial rounds, and 3 for the final round - judges keep them coming!Over the weekend, I'll ping individual judges we haven't heard from yet - the plan is to start rolling out results here mid next week!
That is so exciting, Chrissy. Thank you! The tournament of favorites should take us nearly to the release of the long list for the tournament of books.
We'll have 9 days of results, probably split into initial round next week, round 2 and zombies the following week, and final round the 3rd week of Sept. BUT - If people want more time to finish reading, we can delay!
Round 1 of the ToF starts today! We will post the 4 decisions today/tomorrow and next Monday/Tuesday, each in the thread already set up for the match.
has the decision been posted or just the bracket?
Caroline wrote: "has the decision been posted or just the bracket?"The decision is posted here (message 24): https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
After the first 2 complete rounds, the elimated books that earned the most Zombie votes were....Wellness and Birnam Wood!
Next week will see 2 zombie decisions (Wellness vs. Let Us Descend and North Woods vs. Birnam Wood - the battle of the trees???)
aw, no -- my two faves, Wellness and Let Us Descend will knock each other out! Ideally, that would be my final two. :D
Chrissy wrote: "After the first 2 complete rounds, the elimated books that earned the most Zombie votes were....Wellness and Birnam Wood!
Next week will see 2 zombie decisions (Wellness vs. Let Us Descend and N..."
Aw, I voted for The End of Drum-Time ;D
Final votes are posted, and that's a wrap on ToF 2024! It was a pleasure to make this happen again, and I'm grateful to all the judges and folks who participated in the threads. Special thanks to Emily, my co-organizer, whose collaboration gave me confidence that I could do this, especially back in the spring!If anyone has thoughts on changes you'd like to see next year (while it's still fresh in your mind), leave them in this thread or message me directly.
And now it's the countdown to the ToB long list!!!
Congratulations to you and Emily on a job very well done.The only suggestion I'd make is to exclude from our future ToF consideration any book that has already been discussed in Camp ToB. This year, we had "Lone Women" in the ToF when some of us had already chewed on that one in Camp ToB. I would personally have preferred to have in its place a different book I'd not yet discussed with these good folks -- mainly because among the many great benefits of ToF is that it prompts us to pull books from our enormous TBR pile and get them read!
This year's ToF was an enormous pleasure. Thank you to all who helped make it happen.
Thanks to everyone! Chrissy did a great job of leading this effort, the judges submitted fabulous decisions and complied with all of the timelines, and the commentary for each round was a daily highlight. This is the first time (ToF or ToB) that I’ve read every single book. I really enjoyed reading along with all of you!
Risa, when we were planning the initial polls for selection, we considered leaving Lone Women out but figured that if people felt like it already had its chance, they just wouldn't vote for it. I don't feel strongly either way since I don't really follow the summer camp at ToB. What do others think?
Chrissy wrote: "Final votes are posted, and that's a wrap on ToF 2024! It was a pleasure to make this happen again, and I'm grateful to all the judges and folks who participated in the threads. Special thanks to E..."Thank you Chrissy! Thank you Emily!
Chrissy wrote: "Risa, when we were planning the initial polls for selection, we considered leaving Lone Women out but figured that if people felt like it already had its chance, they just wouldn't vote for it."I'm with Risa....
Chrissy wrote: "Risa, when we were planning the initial polls for selection, we considered leaving Lone Women out but figured that if people felt like it already had its chance, they just wouldn't vote for it. I d..."That makes sense, but I feel like TOF is really about the unsung gems that TOB missed. I’m okay either way we go, but that would be my preference too.
I’ve been a total lurker this year, but I’ve still enjoyed reading the judgments and comments and want to express my gratitude to Chrissy, Emily and all of you! Cheers and happy reading to all!
I'm excited to announce that the 2025 Tournament of Favorites will be all 1000+ page fantasy epics, each book either a sequel or a prequel to another three books you'll need to read before this one
Kyle wrote: "I'm excited to announce that the 2025 Tournament of Favorites will be all 1000+ page fantasy epics, each book either a sequel or a prequel to another three books you'll need to read before this one"I guess the one good thing about that plan is that none of us would be adding to our TBR.
This has been a great tournament + I thoroughly enjoyed being part of it!
Tournament of Books
Books mentioned in this topic
The Trees (other topics)Telephone (other topics)
Martyr! (other topics)
The Husbands (other topics)
James (other topics)
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