Patrick, from Vroman’s Bookstore, recently wrote in a blog post, “If you don’t know Maud Newton, you don’t really know book blogs.”

Uh-oh.

I checked out Maud. How could I have missed this fantastic site? Within a few moments of being on Maud’s site, I found info about a very cool book competition she’s one of the judges for. It’s called the Tournament of Books and it’s put on by The Morning News (another site Patrick recommends). You know March Madness for College Basketball? Me neither. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not into the sports, but I do know the classic “bracket” structure that leads to one winner and that’s what the Tournament of Books does for literature! (The Rooster referenced in the title and seen over there is their logo. Cool, huh?)

This reminded me of a fun book I perused last year, called The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of Everything. Editors Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir oversee a group of experts as they winnow 32 wannabes down to a final winner in various fields: Roz Chast picks the best animated characters; Stefan Fatsis crowns the greatest Scrabble word; Mo Rocca looks at Political Hot Buttons. It’s lots of fun!

[This just in from the Small-World Department: The Tournament of Books "Commissioner" is Kevin Guilefoile, the author of a great thriller I read a few years ago, called Cast of Shadows. It's set in the near future and involves one of the ethical gray areas human cloning is sure to spawn.]
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