Tournament of Books discussion

news today (per the Rooster mail list ) .... Longlist should be delivered within the next 2 weeks as our Thanksgiving present! This is much earlier than our typical "early Dec" longlist. Should be nice for planning your holiday reading.

let the predictions begin!
..... Update 11/20/17 longlist is heeeerrrreeee!
https://themorningnews.org/article/th...

"Expanded" longlist - because the usual ones evidently weren't applying enough pressure.

Drew, hahahahahaha!!

Amy, thanks for setting this thread up!!

The longlist this year will actually just be a list of every book published in the last 12 months. ;)

Sara wrote: "The longlist this year will actually just be a list of every book published in the last 12 months. ;)"

Oh, nooooooooooo!!

My first prediction - The Golden House. I loved it. Low hanging fruit, but still.......

Nadine wrote: "My first prediction - The Golden House. I loved it. Low hanging fruit, but still......."

Thanks, Nadine! I've been resisting this one, but just added it to my TBR based on your rec. I'm picking Midnight's Children as my summer challenge read, so The Golden House can be my warmup.

Early list! AWESOME. I can't wait and it is motivating to get through more books beforehand. :D Also, I thought I was set up with the Rooster e-mails but I never got it (I do get a general Morning News e-mail though).

Has anyone done the data mining to see if TOB includes authors more than once? (I feel like this has been asked and answered before - apologies). I'm wondering if Manhattan Beach is a contender --- it's being touted as the "Great American Novel" and Egan was a darling of the tourney with "A Visit from the Goon Squad." I like it and I disliked Goon Squad.

Amy wrote: "Has anyone done the data mining to see if TOB includes authors more than once? (I feel like this has been asked and answered before - apologies). I'm wondering if Manhattan Beach is a contender ---..."
Yes, Manhattan Beach is a contender! I might have missed a few but I found:
Julian Barnes included for Arthur & George in 2007 and A Sense of an Ending in 2012

Colson Whitehead for Apex Hides the Hurt in 2007 and The Underground Railroad in 2017

Hillary Mantel for Wolf Hall in 2010 and Bring Up the Bodies in 2013

Ann Patchett for Run 2008 and State of Wonder in 2012

Lauren Groff for Arcadia in 2013 Fates & Furies in 2016

Hana Yanagihara for The People in the Trees in 2014 and A Little Life in 2016

Jumpa Lahiri for The Lowland in 2014 and Unaccustomed Earth in 2009

Also, off the top of my head, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Bone Clocks were also included.

So is whatever was mentioned in the e-mail about ToB not on their website? I can't see it there.

I don't think so. I'll copy and paste the salient points when I get home tonight!

From today's mail (I've edited it for just the portions pertaining to TOB):
It’s been eight months since we launched our membership drive, and we wanted to update you on everything your support has made possible, including:

Our first-ever Rooster Summer Reading Challenge
An earlier, expanded ToB longlist (coming in two weeks)
A Rooster newsletter
Our new Member Store (with 50 percent discount for members)
None of this would have been feasible without your support—thank you for everything you’ve made possible. Now let’s move onto the updates:

1. In June, we introduced the Rooster Summer Reading Challenge. Each month this summer we read a pair of novels and were joined by a visiting novelist, with whom we discussed each book, and who decided which of the pair would head on to our summer final. It was then that our readers decided which of our final three books would win an automatic entry to the 2018 Tournament of Books. We’re already working on ways to make next summer’s Reading Challenge even more fun, and we hope you’ll join us.

2. In other Rooster news, as we speak we’re at work preparing our 2017 ToB longlist (you can see last year’s edition here) and are publishing it earlier than ever before—in fact, you can expect to see it within the next two weeks.

3. We also introduced a Rooster newsletter to keep everyone up to date on all ToB-related news. Sign up here to get notified when we release the longlist, as well as to find out about the latest Rooster happenings.

During and after last year’s Tournament, many of you expressed interest in purchasing Rooster merch. For a couple of years now, about a week before the Tournament begins each March, we’ve announced a new Rooster design and then made that design available on various merchandise, including shirts and mugs. However, we suspended last year’s merch campaigns when we launched the membership drive; at that point, the future of the ToB and TMN had suddenly become uncertain. To continue, we needed direct support, you came through, and now we’re ready to make merchandise available once again.

Today we’re introducing our Member Store, launching with TMN and ToB shirts, mugs, and a tote. This is a public store, available to everyone, no login required. However, as Sustaining Members you’ll receive a 50 percent discount on anything you purchase. To access your discounts, you’ll need to use the links in this email.

Expanded... longlist?

I'm choosing to believe that that means that the longlist will include more information about the books, not that it will include more books. Yes. That's what I'm holding on to.

Why does all this organization and fervor at Morning News make me feel a little sad? TOB is growing up I guess.

poingu wrote: "Why does all this organization and fervor at Morning News make me feel a little sad? TOB is growing up I guess."

:) yeah, you look at the first few years of TOB and there are <10 comments under decisions and write-ups. (sort of like the Summer version this year). They've come a long way... even have swag!

Amy wrote: ":) yeah, you look at the first few years of TOB and there are <10 comments under decisions and write-ups. (sort of like the Summer version this year). They've come a long way... even have swag! ..."

Yes and in these first couple of years everyone--judges, organizers, participants, authors--knew how silly it was to pit wildly different books against one another. That was the point, to make fun of awards. It feels different now. I feel like I need some other touchstone in my culture to remind myself not to take things so seriously.

poingu wrote: "Why does all this organization and fervor at Morning News make me feel a little sad? TOB is growing up I guess."

yes, why sad? i like it a lot. lots of off-the-radar authors getting exposures. powell's getting $$$. what's not to like? the ONLY thing i'm sad about is that we won't have our alt version. it was so very much fun. (wait, will we?)

Amy wrote: "I don't think so. I'll copy and paste the salient points when I get home tonight!"

Thanks very much for posting that Amy, I feel extra informed. :D

Wait a minute...
There’s an alt version??

jo wrote: "poingu wrote: "Why does all this organization and fervor at Morning News make me feel a little sad? TOB is growing up I guess."

yes, why sad? i like it a lot. lots of off-the-radar authors getting..."

Haha, Poingu, I take books pretty seriously :-), so I love that it's evolved into a Real Tournament, only a transparent one with audience participation, judges who explain their thinking, and tons of interesting books. Plus, yes, Powell's!

But I agree, the Alt Tourney (Beth, that's a user-run summer tourney that Amy, AmberBug, Jason and Poingu (am I remembering right, you guys?) did the summer of 2016) was something special. I don't see a way to do it without it conflicting with the TOB Summer tourney and/or overloading ourselves with too much scheduled reading.

I hereby declare myself today's Queen of the Run-on Sentence. You may lead me to my throne. :-)

Jan wrote: "jo wrote: "poingu wrote: "Why does all this organization and fervor at Morning News make me feel a little sad? TOB is growing up I guess."

yes, why sad? i like it a lot. lots of off-the-radar auth..."

i'm reading bolaño so if you think that your sentences even register as long, yeah, no. try harder my darling.

I am terribly grumpy today. sorry!

Beth wrote: "Wait a minute...
There’s an alt version??"

:) There were two actually; this group couldn't wait for the 2016 TOB and poingu & Jennifer did a crap ton of work to host an alternative tourney in November '15 via this group (as judges and commentators). Five books of that tourney actually made it into the 'real' TOB and our final show-down ran between Delicious Foods and Sweetland with Delicious Foods by James Hannaham as the winner.

We pulled in the alt-tourney to late summer of 2016 to balance the calendar a bit & only selected 2 eventual shortlisters from that round. Final showdown was: Han King's The Vegetarian vs. Vodolazkin's Laurus (two works in translation!)

I was a judge in the first Alt ToB! (*buffs nails on shirtfront proudly*)

How freaking cool! This year was my first ToB and I’m still learning cool things about it. I hope there’s another alt with the upcoming round. Thanks!

I adored getting to judge in and participate in the 2nd alt-ToB. I was hoping to participate in the official summer TOB but it wasn't in the cards for me. Maybe I'll get to some of those books eventually!

I've been reading so much less new stuff this year. The earlier longlist may be helpful to organizing & spurring me on, but I'll definitely need the curatorial knowledge of y'all here to view it through.

Do we think the earlier release of the longlist might presage an earlier release of the shortlist? (fingers crossed)

jo wrote: "i'm reading bolaño so if you think that your sentences even register as long, yeah, no. try harder my darlings" ..."

Best laugh of the day, Jo. Also, I absolutely love the "yeah, no" construct, but do you or any of our esteemed colleagues here know its origins? (I'm asking because I want to know, not because I'm about to reveal a tantalizing bit of trivia.)

Jan wrote: "jo wrote: "i'm reading bolaño so if you think that your sentences even register as long, yeah, no. try harder my darlings" ..."

Best laugh of the day, Jo. Also, I absolutely love the "yeah, no" co..."

i don't know!!!!!!!!! it may prove very hard indeed to find it. i love it tooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was sure it was Australian, where it mostly means no but can sometimes mean yes. Or New Zealand where it can mean yes, no or maybe.
You can imagine the communication chaos in my life as I'm an Aussie married to a Kiwi.

Ace wrote: "I was sure it was Australian, where it mostly means no but can sometimes mean yes. Or New Zealand where it can mean yes, no or maybe.
You can imagine the communication chaos in my life as I'm an Au..."

in spanglish you have "yes, no" to mean no, and "no, yes" to mean yes. very funny imo. italian also starts many sentences (colloquially) with "no, ...."

i am pointing these as influences, too.

Proud two-time Alt-TOB judge, here. Don't hate me cuz I'm awesome. Also, someone mentioned not getting the email (about when the longlist would come out). I didn't see it in my inbox, or in my spam folder, but when I did a search for The Morning News it came up. Mysterious.

So this reminds me, I read most of the summer ToB books but never saw who won?

I checked out their merch page and the ToB stuff is dated, 2017. I wish they had non-specific ToB stuff!

The winner was Fever Dream, which wouldn't have been my pick.

Heather wrote: "The winner was Fever Dream, which wouldn't have been my pick."

Ah. Same. And I read books I wouldn't have read otherwise!

Jan wrote: "jo wrote: "i'm reading bolaño so if you think that your sentences even register as long, yeah, no. try harder my darlings" ..."

Best laugh of the day, Jo. Also, I absolutely love the "yeah, no" co..."

Jan wrote: "jo wrote: "i'm reading bolaño so if you think that your sentences even register as long, yeah, no. try harder my darlings" ..."

Best laugh of the day, Jo. Also, I absolutely love the "yeah, no" co..."


I've mostly just been lurking here, but I had to share that there's a New Yorker article about that very subject! It's from 2015: www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/w...

Purficklyclean wrote: "Jan wrote: "jo wrote: "i'm reading bolaño so if you think that your sentences even register as long, yeah, no. try harder my darlings" ..."

Best laugh of the day, Jo. Also, I absolutely love the "..."

Really interesting read. Thank you!

Purficklyclean wrote: "Jan wrote: "jo wrote: "i'm reading bolaño so if you think that your sentences even register as long, yeah, no. try harder my darlings" ..."

Best laugh of the day, Jo. Also, I absolutely love the "..."

goodness, and the linked article introduces mathematical analysis of the frequency over age and gender this occurs!

TMN confirmed the 20th as the release date for the Longlist on Facebook!

Tiffany wrote: "TMN confirmed the 20th as the release date for the Longlist on Facebook!"

AH! awesome. I wouldn't have seen that. Thanks! It's motivation to get reading!

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Heather wrote: "The winner was Fever Dream, which wouldn't have been my pick."

Ah. Same. And I read books I wouldn't have read otherwise!"

But isn't that part of the joy of the ToB? Well, not if you hate the books but there's always the prospect of a hidden gem.

Drew wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Heather wrote: "The winner was Fever Dream, which wouldn't have been my pick."

Ah. Same. And I read books I wouldn't have read otherwise!"

But isn't that part of the ..."

Yes, that was what I was trying to communicate via my exclamation point haha

Drew wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Heather wrote: "The winner was Fever Dream, which wouldn't have been my pick."

Ah. Same. And I read books I wouldn't have read otherwise!"

But isn't that part of the ..."

I think Jenny was saying that Fever Dream was not her favorite either, and that she ended up enjoying some of the others more, which were books that she wouldn't have otherwise read. I don't think she was complaining about it...

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Yes, that was what I was trying to communicate via my exclamation point haha."

Oh, yes, now I see. More coffee, please!

Ellen wrote: "Expanded... longlist?

I'm choosing to believe that that means that the longlist will include more information about the books, not that it will include more books. Yes. That's what I'm holding on..."

I hope you are right. The longlist has grown each year of the tournament, topping out at a massive 120 titles last year. I would prefer a curated list, rather than everything but the kitchen sink.

Amy wrote: "From today's mail (I've edited it for just the portions pertaining to TOB):
It’s been eight months since we launched our membership drive, and we wanted to update you on everything your support has..."

Thank you so much for posting this! As someone who does not have a Facebook account, I really appreciate it. 😊

Happy Longlist-is-coming's Eve, everyone!

Heather wrote: "Happy Longlist-is-coming"s Eve, everyone!"

I will not be distracted from my end of year reading
I will not be distracted from my end of year reading

Ah hell.