The Biggest Game Of The Year
If you’re looking for an alternative to March Madness (ie, the college basketball tournament), there is a literary tournament going on. It’s called The Morning News Tournament of Books. Powell’s sponsors it. It’s described as: “…an annual battle royale amongst the top novels in ‘literary fiction’ published throughout the year.”
The Tournament is in the middle of the Semifinals right now. Something called the “Zombie Round” is next. I leave it to you to figure out exactly what that is.
In case you’re wondering, the contestants this year were (and I have read exactly one of these):
Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
One Good Turn, Kate Atkinson
Arthur and George, Julian Barnes
Brookland, Emily Barton
English, August, Upamanyu Chatterjee
The Lay of the Land, Richard Ford
Pride of Baghdad, Niko Henrichon, Brian K. Vaughan
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
The Emperor’s Children, Claire Messud
The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, Peter Orner
The Echo Maker, Richard Powers
Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon
Firmin, Sam Savage
Absurdistan, Gary Shteyngart
Alentejo Blue, Monica Ali
Apex Hides the Hurt, Colson Whitehead
Feel free to play along at home.
March 27th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
wow, you beat me, I haven’t read any.
March 27th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
I haven’t read any of them.
March 27th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Well, I read Pride of Baghdad if that’s the graphic novel one. It was actually pretty good, if a bit short.
March 28th, 2007 at 6:22 am
Have to start reading a few of these.
March 29th, 2007 at 5:29 am
Wow - what a great idea. I wish I’d had my bracket sheet.
March 29th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
wow i thought i was up to date on books but i am far behind..now i have a new list of books to read.
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:57 am
I read but “The Biggest Game of the Year” is the NCAA basketball tournament. I watch it on all of the days when it is on tv. It does not matter who is playing, I just want to see a good game and saw many once again during this tournament. Now I will go through basketball withdrawal and start reading. Don’t forget to enter me in your contest.