March Madness Reading Challenge!!

The Reader’s Room will be hosting our own version of a bookish March Madness, slated to begin with the start of the NCAA tournament (March 17th). Reading won’t start until March 17 and full instructions won’t be posted until March 1. However, this challenge requires us to do some preparation so it would be very helpful to us to get people signed up early. We hope you join us for this challenge!

Here’s an overview of what you will need to do in the next 10 days:

1. Let us know if you want to participate. Simply post a reply to this email saying you want to play. This doesn’t commit you to anything but will help us get a sense of general numbers.  You can sign up later too, but those who sign up early will have a chance to impact which books make the official cut.
2. Come up with the titles of three books from your TBR that you think stand a good chance of beating other books (either because others have rated them highly or because you think others will want to read those books). Books can be of any genre. Think strategically.
3. Submit your three book titles by 2/20/16. You can post them as replies here or email Jen (jenlane3@yahoo.com) so no one else steals your ideas.

In the near future:

1. We (Book Worm and I) will create a final list consisting of 64 books.
2. People (participants, readers of the blog, and other readers) will get a chance to vote on books.
3. Participants will then get to create and submit their own personal brackets with books they think will win.
4. Books will be ranked (using a secret formula) and matched with one of the NCAA men’s basketball teams.
5. To get points, you need to read and review WINNING books. This challenge is NOT about who can read the fastest or who can read the greatest number of books. It’s about strategy and luck. The winner could conceivably be a person who reads only 1 or 2 books.
6. Scoring will approximate the way points are calculated for NCAA brackets (1 point for round 1 winners, 2, for round two, etc.) Full instructions and details on scoring will be posted before you are required to pick your brackets (likely early March).

One grand prize winner will be selected to win awesome bookish prizes!

*NOTE: If you are a non-US reader and are unfamiliar with march madness tournaments, you can read more about what that is, here. It may sound complicated but it should be easy to figure out.