2018 Book of the Year: Bracket Reveal

The time has come! The 2018 Book of the Year (BOTY) Bracket Challenge is 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 February 2019, 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 2018. 

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:

February 1st: Initial eliminations. All rounds of eliminations needed to get the number of contestants reduced to 32. 

February 3rd: Elimination to find the Sweet Sixteen.

February 5th: Reducing challengers to eight books - the Elite Eight.

February 7th: Quarterfinals. Determine your Final Four.

February 9th: Semi-Finals. Only two may enter the final arena.

        February 11th: Finals...the Champion will be determined. Announce your BOTY!

As usual, I'm using a randomized bracket. I read a total of 36 books last year, so I'll be using a 32-seed bracket. Thus, 4 books will need to be eliminated prior to the beginning of the bracket construction.

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

1. Paper Towns by John Green - 4 stars
2. Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham - 3 stars
3. On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta - 4 stars
4. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby - 2 stars
5. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier - 4 stars
6. Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory - 4 stars
7. The Princess Bride by William Goldman - 4 stars
8. P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern - 3 stars
9. Beartown by Fredrik Backman - 4.5 stars

10. Caraval by Stephanie Garber - 4 stars
11. Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce - 3 stars
12. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett - 1 star
13. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson - 5 stars
14. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M.  
     Valente - 4 stars
15. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng - 5 stars
16. The Truth About Us  by Dalene Flannigan - 3 1/2 stars
17. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews - 2 stars
18. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas - 5 stars
19. Forever in Blue by Ann Brashares - 3 stars
20. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - 3 stars
21. Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige - 4 stars
22. The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige - 3 stars
23. Yellow Brick War by Danielle Paige - 3 stars
24. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson - 3 stars
25. Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm - 3 stars
26. Us Against You by Fredrik Backman - 4 stars
27. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh - 3 stars
28. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - 5 stars
29. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han - 4 stars
30. P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han - 4 stars
31. The Light of the Fireflies by Paul Pen - 4 stars
32. Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han - 4 stars
33. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood - 4 stars
34. Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares - 4 stars
35. The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye - 4.5 stars
36. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter - 4 stars

Elimination of 3 out of the 4 necessary books was easy. Adios to the 1 and 2-star rated books. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews are automatically out. That leaves a pool of 33 books.

Gah. Now...to eliminate one book in order to reduce down to bracket filling capacity. I considered all of the 3-star ratings and then chose the book that I felt was the lowest of that group (not an easy task). Thus, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne also gets the ax.

Books were then numbered based on order read and moved up in number for any eliminated books. Thus, if book #5 was an eliminated novel, then book #6 became the #5 seed. 

A number randomizer was utilized to generate the seed positions for the bracket. I enjoy the random approach, as you never know who will be pitted against who. It just makes things a little more fun.

Once numbered, this is what the bracket looks like to begin.

And after filling in book titles, this is where we will begin this year.

There we go! 32 novels ready to be picked off one by one until we have a winner!

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.