Today Salon.com looked at four reading tournaments mounted every March for books–contests where readers compare texts like sports teams.
The article focused on the romance-centric DABWAHA tournament (Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors) tournament, the sci-fi and fantasy-focused BSCreview tournament, the World’s Favorite Detective tournament, and The Morning News’ Tournament of Books (ToB).
Here’s an excerpt from the article: “Because the competition itself is essentially meaningless, ToB is a Trojan horse. Under the guise of a sports conceit, it encourages people to read outside their comfort zones and reflect on the often knee-jerk judgments they make about books they’ve never even cracked open.”
Voting is still open at all these tournaments, so let your voice be heard. We must confess to be fascinated with the World’s Greatest Detective, where readers are currently voting on such unlikely match-ups as Alex Cross vs. Sherlock Holmes and Phillip Marlowe vs. Spenser.