Almost Book Tournament Time!!!

Guess what's great about tomorrow???! It's the first day of the Tournament of Books!!! That's right, folks, March 7th to March 30th is the readerly main event. I've made it a personal challenge to read my way through the 2012 Tournament contenders this year. I was making GREAT headway before I got a new job, and things have pretty much ground to a halt since then. But, I have read some great books thanks to this year's Tournament. These are the ones I have under my belt so far:

• The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah
• The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Given, I've missed out on some of the heaviest hitters: The Marriage Plot, The Art of Fielding, and Salvage the Bones remain unread, though I expect any of these books to have a great showing in the Tournament. The Marriage Plot and The Art of Fielding will probably end up pitted against one another in the second round, but either of them could re-emerge in the Zombie Round. Same thing with Salvage the Bones and The Sense of an Ending.

Who's going to take the cake??? Such a hard decision. I think there's a good chance State of Wonder or The Marriage Plot could take it all. We'll just have to see how it unfolds.

Who are you pulling for in the 2012 Tournament of Books? Do you have your author jersey and a platter of potato skins ready?!