The Final Four of Everything

by Mark Reiter (Editor), Richard Sandomir (Editor)

In American Bracketology , Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir take the elegant art of “bracketology” and use it as an eye- opening and hilarious tool to celebrate everything that’s good, bad, and silly in our American way of life. • It’s great Americans have an insatiable appetite for knowing what is good, better, and best in their world. If the issue is historical, they want their knowledge base refined. If the issue is sociopolitical, they want their preferences acknowledged. If the issue is popular culture, they want to be entertained. If it’s a consumer issue, they don’t want to be cheated. For the uninitiated, bracketol- ogy is, literally, “the study of brackets.” It derives from the bracket format used to rank the top sixty-four basketball teams in the annual NCAA tournament known as March Madness. That knockout tournament format, the subject of heated debate among hundreds of thousands of people participating in office pools around the land, gave birth to the term bracketology. This is a book that allows Americans to play this game on a much bigger field. The authors have assigned more than 150 brackets—tackling challenges from the serious to the comic, the vital to the trivial—to the finest experts, writers, and personalities this country has on tap. • It’s So Gail Collins on First Ladies, Walter Isaacson on Ben Franklin Wisdom, David Remnick on Pound-for-Pound-fighters, Calvin Trillin on Sandwiches—you get the picture. Frank Rick on The Underserving Hall of Fame, Kevin Conley on Greatest Movie Stunts, Paul Slansky on the Lucky Sperm Club.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Sports, Reference

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2007

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone asks you, "What's your favorite food?"; you quickly answer "Spaghetti", because it's at the tip of your tongue. But then you start thinking...what about pizza? what about cheese fondue? what about donuts (and are they actually "doughnuts")? This is where you need bracketology. Yes, the system used in sports playoffs. With bracketology, you can put pizza against cheese fondue (and all of your other favorites) and really get to the heart of which is your absolute favorite, which favorite knocks all other favorites out of the bracket.

This is, of course, a silly book. It ranks cheeses, beers, speeches in history, dogs, golfers, cartoon characters, and much, much more. For a topic you care about, the bracket is fascinating. For those that you don't, well, pages turn for a reason. The editor invited guest experts to create the brackets, so you're not reading one guy's take on all of these disparate subjects. It gives one lots to argue with, and--if you're like me--a "to do" list of cheeses to try.

[Jerry Jares · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a clever book; it puts movies, cheeses, and lines up against the competition and names a winner. Using the March Madness bracketed tournament idea, over 100 subjects are compared. Lest you fear that one person is giving you his/her opinions on everything, the subjects are introduced and winners declared from someone scholarly or associated with the subject.

As others have opined, this book leads to cheery challenges or bloody bruising among readers. I've had the most fun reading it with friends; we argue why our favorite hasn't been included.

Here are a few of the interesting subjects bracketed for comparison:

Where Were You When Moments
Animation Characters
Ad Slogans
Candy Bars

Chick Flicks
Conspiracy Theories
Film Deaths
Jock Films

Indie Rock Albums
NASCAR Phrases
Plastic Surgery Disasters
Scrabble Words

Tell Me Again Why They're Famous
Wedding Gifts
Shakespeare Insults

On the negative side, some of the comparisons were not very interesting. I couldn't muster much interest in Golf Swing Thoughts or Game Show Catchphrases. As you can see by my choices, what you see as entertainment is very subjective. 4 stars

[Darian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me

[Christiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I looked at this mostly to help with our teen question of the week questions, and I think it delivers on that. I think the answers are mostly arguable and arbitrary, but that's ok. That's why it's a coffee table book. My favorites were:

• Favorite animated character (#3)
• Emoticons (29)
• Popular hairstyles (45)
• Most likely item to survive the 21st century (meaning an invention we’ll still use in the future, no matter what) (#51)
• Best sidekick (82)

[Mark Dickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of the bracketing was silliness, but there were a few

best white/red wines
cheeses
American brews
mondegreens (misheard song lyrics)
American plays
Shakespeare plays adapted for film

that made the brackets fun! Lots of sports, music, and movie trivia that would make good party games.

[Hoyadaisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the brackets are really, really funny. I did end up skimming because so many of the brackets were just not interesting to me. Note to the editor: Maybe do individual bracket books on themes (sports, sex, literature); also do fewer brackets because it's the commentary that's the funny part (the way this is done you get four or five comments for the whole bracket).

[Monica Quintanilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, the idea of pitting all your favorites against each other March Madness style. Experts on subjects outlining the choices, like best bald guy, dog, and wine. It's kind of addictive, after I read it, it was hard not to think of things in those terms.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was on the bookshelf in the beach house we stayed in on vacation. It was fun, light reading. We found that we didn't always agree with the author's choices though. It makes for some fun discussion!

[april k · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn't what I was expecting, but it a delightful little book. I've used it a couple of times to work out a few problems and just to have a delightful fun time. I think if you wanna have fun get it. You'll enjoy it.

[Kendra]

Just got this as a birthday gift. It will undoubtedly fuel my complete obsession with my favorite sports contest -- the NCAA men's basketbal tourney. Bring on your picks!

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't remember why I bought this book, but I do
know that I wish I didn't. I guess I thought it might
be cute, but it actually turns out to be trifling.

Even too trifling for a coffee table.

[Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept is fun... and it's worth a quick flip through, but most of the seedings and "results" seem far too arbitrary to warrant further attention.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not all of the topics covered in this book were interesting, but some made me laugh pretty hard. At the very least, this book could spark some good conversations.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting to find out what will "win" in these brackets. Kind of crazy stuff mentioned, but entertaining.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable, perfect-for-the-commode time-waster. There's something here for everybody. Don't like one of the topics? There are 149 others to pick from. Plain fun.

[Gospodyina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strangely fun. The fruit bracket alone caused big discussions in our household. If you're a person with books in their bathroom, this is entirely reasonable to put there.

[Kevin Hodgson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and humorous look at topics -- in style of March Madness brackets

[Laela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, but somewhat dated at this point.