2015 Book of the Year Bracket Challenge: Bracket Reveal

The time has come! The 2015 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 2016, 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 2015. 

Today's job? Bracket reveals and eliminations to reduce the books down to 32 competitors. Here's the schedule for the challenge from here out:

January 20th : Initial eliminations. All rounds of eliminations needed to get the number of contestants reduced to 32. 

January 21st : Elimination to find the Sweet Sixteen.

January 22nd : Reducing challengers to eight books - the Elite Eight.

January 23rd : Quarterfinals. Determine your Final Four.

January 24th : Semi-Finals. Only two may enter the final arena.

         January 25th : Finals...the Champion will be determined. Announce your Book of the Year!

As usual, I'm using a randomized bracket. I read a total of 35 books last year, so I'll be using a 32-seed bracket. A few of the books in my completed list were textbooks, which makes things a bit of a snoozefest, so there were a couple of automatic eliminations. That leaves an actual competing field of 28 novels. That means 4 empty slots and some automatic byes.

Books were numbered based on order read and moved up in number for any eliminated books. Thus, if book #5 was an eliminated textbook, then book #6 became the #5 seed. The empty slots are books #29-32.

Here's my list of competitors (and their star ratings) for this year:

1. Looking for Alaska by John Green - 4 stars
2. The Duff by Kody Keplinger - 4 stars
3. Yes Please by Amy Poehler - 4 stars
4. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding - 3 stars
5. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare - 4 stars
6. Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham - 2 stars
7. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard - 5 stars
8. The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman - 4 stars
9. Summer Sisters by Judy Blume - 4 stars
10. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - 3 stars
11. Nothing Like Looking by Chris Van Hakes - 5 stars
12. The Hand That Feeds You by A.J. Rich - 4 stars
13. The Opposite of Maybe by Maddie Dawson - 3 stars
14. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon - 5 stars
15. The Color of the Sky by Amita Trasi - 3 stars
16. Things Unsaid by Diana Y. Paul - 2 stars
17. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins - 5 stars
18. Beowulf by Anonymous - 3 stars
19. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Anonymous - 3 stars
20. Othello by William Shakespeare - 3 stars
21. The Shore by Sara Taylor - 3 years
22. The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George - 5 stars
23. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - 5 stars
24. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll - 5 stars
25. Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson - 4 stars
26. The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood - 4 stars
27. The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster by Scott Wilbanks - 4 stars
28. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole - 3 stars

And this is where we'll begin for this year's bracket.

(Yes...the font came out a bit light. Don't worry...it will be fixed for the next round of eliminations.)

Tada! 28 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 2015 Book of the Year on January 25th. 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.

Visit the 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).

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

erraticprojectjunkie@gmail.com.