- Sue Kwong
Last March, as it does every year, the Morning News held its annual Tournament of Books to determine the best book that was published in 2013. It coincided, as it also does every year, with the NCAA tournament to give those of us who have no interest at all in college basketball or loyalty to any team participating in the tournament (either because we did not attend Division I schools, or because our Division I school is notoriously sucky at men’s basketball) something to get excited about during the last depressing, slushy, muddy month of winter.
To that purpose, we’ve recruited a crack team of judges whose judgment and writing we respect, a group of authors, editors, critics, booksellers, and scholars from the north, south, and west sides. They are:
Bill Savage, coeditor of Chicago by Day and Night: The Pleasure Seeker’s Guide to the Paris of America and the 50th anniversary critical edition of The Man With the Golden Arm, Northwestern professor, and bartender
Each judge has been assigned a bracket. (Check out the chart above to see who’s judging what.) He or she will read both books, decide which one deserves to advance, and prepare a summary of his or her judgment.
Judges will reveal the winner of each bracket in essays that we will begin publishing next Monday, November 24 and run every Monday until January 12. Voting for Round Two begins immediately afterward, on January 13 and running through January 18. The judges begin issuing judgments the following day. Voting for Round Three begins February 10 and runs through March 1; the judges will begin handing down their decisions on March 2. And, finally, voting on the ultimate greatest book begins March 10 and runs through April 5. We’ll reveal both winners, the greatest book, and the name of the lucky reader who gets to go to Mexico, in our Spring Books Issue on April 16.
