Book Madness 2016

It’s time for the 4th annual UW-Madison Libraries Book Madness bracket tournament. 64 books need our community to decide who will be crowned champion this year. Get all the information, including this year’s bracket, a description of each book, and how to participate, at http://go.wisc.edu/uwbookmadness/

Modeled after the NCAA Basketball tournament, UW-Madison Librarians have picked 64 books worth reading, and set them up in 4 regions:

• Mean Streets & Park Avenue – Offers books that look at the grittier side of life, as well as books that look at how the upper-crust lives.
• Short Stories & Doorstops – Looking for something quick, there are 8 titles of reknown collections of short-stories. But for heavy readers, there are books with over 1,000 pages that, while tough to put down, are also tough to carry around.
• Modern Times & Timeless Issues – 2016 is an election year, and Modern Times covers many of issues that society is currently dealing with, whereas Timeless Issues focuses on stories written anywhere from 50 – 400 years ago, that are still relevant.
• Apple for Teacher & School Daze – This region includes books about our teachers and mentors, who can be both superhuman, and simply human. But don’t forget about those who are being taught – School Daze has stories from the student perspective.

There are two ways to participate in UW Book Madness. Prior to the tournament, anyone can fill out a bracket, attempting to predict which books will advance throughout the tournament.

Once the tournament begins, individuals can vote on which books should advance in the tournament. Twice a week – coinciding with the rounds of the basketball tournament – winning titles will advance to the next round, until the final title is crowned the 2016 Champion!

To participate in the pre-tournament, participants can print out a bracket or pick one up at many UW-Madison Library locations. Players must return a completed bracket by March 15 either to one of these locations in-person, or via snail-mail or email. The completed bracket with the highest score will win a gift card.

Visit http://go.wisc.edu/uwbookmadness for all Book Madness needs.

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Anyone can vote (but please limit yourself to once per round).