2014 Book of the Year Bracket Challenge: Bracket Reveal

The time has come! The 2014 Book of the Year (BOTY) Bracket Challenge is finally underway! Did you keep track of the books you read last year? Are you ready to pit them against each other and see which one comes out on top? I sure am!

The Book of the Year Bracket Challenge is a blogging challenge open to all reading bloggers.  Participants set a goal for the number of books they wish to read in a year and then enter those books into an NCAA style bracket of any size and in any order they choose. During January 2015, all participating bloggers will begin working through their brackets, eliminating books and picking champions with the ultimate goal of naming their favorite book (book of the year) for 2014. 

Today's job? Bracket reveals. That's it...just put it all out there in the open. After today, the eliminations begin. Here's the schedule for the challenge from here out:

January 6th : Initial eliminations. All rounds of eliminations needed to get the number of contestants reduced to 32. 

January 8th : Elimination to find the Sweet Sixteen.

January 10th : Reducing challengers to eight books - the Elite Eight.

January 13th : Quarterfinals. Determine your Final Four.

January 15th : Semi-Finals. Only two may enter the final arena.

January 17th : Finals...the Champion will be determined. Announce your Book of the Year! 

I opted for a randomized bracket this year. Before I really got the ball rolling, I set a goal of 64 books and numbered a 64 slot NBAA style bracket using a random number generator. This is what it initially looked like.

I entered the books into the bracket in the order they were read. Here's my list of competitors (and their star ratings) for this year:

1. We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates - 2 stars
2. Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik - 5 stars
3. Daddy's Little Girl by Mary Higgins Clark - 3.5 stars
4. Divergent by Veronica Roth - 5 stars
5. Insurgent by Veronica Roth - 5 stars
6. The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks - 2.5 stars
7. Allegiant by Veronica Roth - 4 stars
8. Torment by Lauren Kate - 3 stars
9. Passion by Lauren Kate - 3 stars
10. Rapture by Lauren Kate - 4 stars
11. Where She Went by Gayle Forman - 5 stars
12. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson - 5 stars
13. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty - 4 stars
14. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell - 4 stars
15. The Undiscovered Goddess by Michelle Colston - 3 stars
16. Girls in Pants by Ann Brashares - 4 stars
17. Blackbird by Melanie Schulz - 4 stars
18. Acts of Contrition by Jennifer Handford - 5 stars
19. A Shining Space by Ailsa Fabian - 2 stars
20. Now I See You by Nicole C. Kear - 5 stars
21. The Right Thing by Amy Conner - 4 stars
22. Lucky Us by Amy Bloom - 2.5 stars
23. The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell - 4.5 stars
24. Of Scars and Stardust by Andrea Hannah - 3.5 stars
25. A Triple Knot by Emma Campion - 4 stars
26. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis - 2 stars
27. Before I Go by Colleen Oakley - 4 stars
28. This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales - 4 stars
29. Finding Alice by Melody Carlson - 5 stars
30. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart - 5 stars
31. Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt - 4 stars
32. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire - 3 stars
33. Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson - 5 stars
34. Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian - 4 stars
35. The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott - 3.5 stars
36. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - 2 stars
37. Glimmerglass by Jenna Black - 3 stars
38. The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin - 3 stars
39. Virgin by Radhika Sanghani - 4 stars
40. Lily Love by Maggi Myers - 3 stars
41. A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper - 3.5 stars
42. The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker - 3 stars
43. The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart - 5 stars
44. Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog - 4 stars
45. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult - 4 stars
46. How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr - 2.5 stars
47. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley - 4.5 stars
48. How to Love by Katie Cotugno - 5 stars
49. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - 4 stars
50. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han - 3.5 stars
51. Just One Day - 5 stars
52. Just One Year - 4.5 stars
53. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - 4 stars
54. The Last Breath - 3.5 stars
55. Speak - 3.5 stars
56. Carrie by Stephen King - 3.5 stars
57. Daughter of Smoke and Bone - 5 stars
58. The Boy Book - 4 stars
59. The Treasure Map of Boys - 4.5 stars
60. Real Live Boyfriends - 5 stars
61. Anathema - 4 stars
62. The Kitchen Boy - 4.5 stars
63. The Virgin Suicides - 3 stars
64. The Nanny Diaries - 3 stars
65. CraftFail - 4 stars
66. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer - 4.5 stars
67. Alice in Zombieland - 4 stars
68. Snow White and Rose Red - 3.5 stars
69. Landline by Rainbow Rowell - 5 stars

You'll notice that there are 69 books and only 64 slots. That meant that some alterations were needed to fit everyone in the bracket properly. In other words, five books needed to get the ax before I even started.

I dealt with this by taking out my five lowest ranked books for the year. They were replaced in order by books 65-69.

And this is where we'll begin for this year's bracket. I've abbreviated some of the book names to fit them in the spaces allowed, but it should be pretty easy to decipher them based on the list above. It will get easier to know what is what as the books get whittled down.

Tada! 64 books ready to duel to the death. From here forward, each subsequent post will reduce the number of challengers by half until I announce my 2014 Book of the Year on January 17th. I have an idea which book will be the winner, but I've been surprised before. 

Be sure to check out the other bloggers on the linky to see their progress on eliminations. I promise you there will be some really good reads pitted against one another.

Want to participate, but didn't sign up before the linky closed on Dec. 31st? No worries, I'm giving you all one more chance to take part in the fun. All you need to do is have your list of books read from 2014 ready and rated. The sign up linky will be reposted at the bottom of this post. (If you signed up previously, your blog should already show in the linky.) Visit the original sign up page to get all the specifics on the challenge and then go to the brackets page to get a blank template to use for your own challenge.

Official Sign-Up Linky

* Remember to include your a direct link to your sign up post, not your blog's main page. 

A direct link should look like this : http://yoururl.com/your-sign-up-post

* Sign up for the Challenge by entering your Name & Blog Name in the Linky at the end of this post 

(ie. Elle @ Erratic Project Junkie).

* Blogs who do not participate in an elimination post by January 10th, 2015, will be removed from the linky.

* If you have any questions regarding the Book of the Year Bracket Challenge, feel free to contact me at 

erraticprojectjunkie@gmail.com.