I am considering getting into TOB. It looks like it is 16 books from the previous year. I have been really confused about this event because they use pretty much the same symbol as the French Rugby team 😂
If you participate can you tell me what guy you into it and how much you participate? I read the website looks like random people are judges and 16 books are placed in brackets which the judges select a winner from.
ImperfectCJ There are two events each year, the main ToB in March and Camp ToB in the summer. During the main event, as I understand it, the judges are authors. During the summer event, it's just discussions led by fairly random people (I led one last August, and I'm fairly random). We usually have a shadow ToB on Litsy, which @BarbaraBB spearheads, I think. I usually try to read from the longlist and then try to complete the shortlist. 14h
ImperfectCJ I hope I'm not making up any of this. @Megabooks and @squirrelbrain are also involved a lot, if I remember correctly, but I cannot remember the hashtags to search and confirm, so hopefully others will correct my mistakes. 14h
Megabooks I'll chime in about what we do here on Litsy. So the ToB folks come up with a longlist, and we all get really excited(!) and start reading amazing books. Then about three weeks later they come out with the shortlist and those are seeded into brackets similar to the March Madness US NCAA basketball brackets. Most years @Barbarabb has taken their brackets and had Littens vote on the brackets the ToB chose and then we all have fun discussing 14h
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Megabooks their votes versus our votes etc. On the real ToB website they have judges (often famous authors) judge the battles and have side commentary, too. Last year, we were collectively so disappointed by the ones the official ToB chose, Barbara, @squirrelbrain and I ran a full parallel ToB where we made our own brackets (based on Littens input) then ran a whole separate ToB here. It remains to be seen whether we'll do that full parallel 14h
Megabooks ToB this year, but for now, we're just all having fun pursuing the longlist and over spending on books! 14h
ImperfectCJ @Megabooks Thank you so much for chiming in! I will enthusiastically second the "we all get really excited." I really have no idea why I get so into ToB as compared to other book events...maybe it's how accessible it is? It feels like we (the readers) are invited to participate as equals in a way that we aren't with other competitions (or "competitions," since ToB is kind of tongue-in-cheek). 14h
Bookwormjillk I like ToB because the books tend to be a little offbeat and it doesn‘t take itself too seriously. 13h
Ruthiella What I love is the transparency of the judgment and the commentary on the official website. You don‘t get that with other book prizes. The parallel ToB that @BarbaraBB @Megabooks and @squirrelbrain often organize on Litsy is also great because there is usually fantastic discussion and insight. It can make m understand better why I liked or even dislike a book. 11h
Megabooks @ImperfectCJ @Bookwormjillk @Ruthiella I love what you‘ve all said. ToB often picks a wide variety of offbeat books - some well known and others I have never heard of often in translation or from small presses. And it does have a very transparent and participatory vibe. It‘s just plain the most fun of any award! 11h
ChaoticMissAdventures @megabooks @ImperfectCJ @Bookwormjillk @Ruthiella Thank you all so much!! I am thinking I am going to need a lot of distractions this year, and ToB dropping the same time the Women's Prize is a lot. Maybe the perfect amount. I guess I can read a few men in March/April I was honestly offended 😂 to see that Chain Gang All Stars didn't get past the fist round this year in ToB I love that book so much, it would be amazing to talk/defend book to people 11h
Megabooks Yes! There are some short list completists 🙋🏻♀️, but even more people join on the books that interest them the most. There are no “rules” for participating on litsy. We just try to have the most fun possible! Very low key on participating but very engaging discussions too! 10h
BarbaraBB @ChaoticMissAdventures all said above makes me excited for another tournament! @Megabooks has explained it all: it‘s very low key and we read great books. And I am with @Ruthiella that our discussions add so much to the books. The shortlist will be dropped shortly so there‘s still a lot of time to read the 16 finalists - if you want. The tournament starts in March.if you‘re interested, we can tag you to keep you posted about our Litsy tob? (edited) 7h
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