Let the Madness Begin!

When it comes to filling out my March Madness bracket, I embrace the “Not a sports fan” cliché and choose teams randomly. The way I see it, the less knowledge equals a better bracket, as evidenced by the number of times I’ve won competing against sports writers.

The first year I filled out a bracket, I sat next to a colleague who had folders of statistics. He’d review records and injury reports before making his decision. I chose Gonzaga because it sounds like Gonzo and I like The Muppets.

I won. He refused to let me play the following year.

When the Library decided to design a Book Madness bracket, I was thrilled. I know books! I could totally win this thing! But as the nominations started coming in, I got worried.

How could I choose between Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park and John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars?

Is it really fair to pit any series against Harry Potter?

I love Beloved! I love Atonement! I know too much! I can’t choose!

Sadly, though, we must. That’s the game.

Beginning Thursday, March 20, you can vote for your favorite title in our Book Madness brackets – there’s one for children’s books, and another for teens and adults. To start, we have 64 titles in four categories. Submit a vote for your favorite(s) – if you want to vote for just one book, you can, or you can choose 16 titles to move forward in the first two rounds; it’s up to you! – and watch as the titles progress.

Here are the dates to remember:

• First and Second Round: March 20 through March 23
• Sweet 16: March 27 and 28
• Elite 8: March 29 and 30
• Final 4: April 5
• Championship Game: April 7

(Given the large number of books, all votes must be made at the display in the Library. Once we reach Elite Eight status, we will allow for voting on our Facebook page.)

I visited with a Library patron, Rachel, as she studied the boards this morning. We don’t have printouts of the brackets, which do make excellent reading lists, so I promised to post all the nominations to 123 South Linn so she’d have access to them.

Did any of your favorites make the list?

What title do you think should win?

2014 BOOK MADNESS – CHILDREN’S

PICTURE BOOKS

• Clifford by Norma Bridwell
• Curious George by H.A. Rey and Margaret Rey
• Olivia by Ian Falconer
• Charlie and Lola by Lauren Child
• Max and Ruby by Rosemary Wells
• Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain
• Pete the Cat by James Dean
• Llama Llama by Anna Dewdney
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Maisy books by Lucy Cousins
• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
• Mother Goose
• Otis by Loren Long
• Little Critter by Mercer Mayer
• Five Little Monkeys stories by Eileen Christelow
• Pigeon books by Mo Willems

CHAPTER BOOKS

• Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
• Geronimo Stilton series by Geronimo Stilton
• Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
• Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park
• Ivy and Bean series by Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall
• Rainbow Magic Fairies series by Daily Meadows
• Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney
• Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey
• Judy Moody and Stink books by Megan McDonald
• Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
• EllRay Jakes series by Sally Warner
• American Girls Collection
• Nancy Drew books by Carolyn Keene
• Wonder by R.J. Palacio
• I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis

READERS

• Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
• Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems
• Amelia Bedelia books by Peggy Parish
• Fancy Nancy books by Jane O’Connor
• Mercy Watson books by Kate DiCamillo
• Biscuit books by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
• Cam Jansen series by David A. Adler
• Fly Guy books by Tedd Arnold
• Rotten Ralph books by Jack Gantos
• Little Bear books by Elsa Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak
• Minnie and Moo books by Denys Cazet
• Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa books by Erica Silverman
• Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel
• Henry and Mudge books by Cynthia Rylant
• Mr. Putter and Tabby series by Cynthia Rylant
• Dick and Jane series

NON-FICTION

• Lego/Ninjago
• Star Wars
• Garfield by Jim Davis
• Bone books by Jeff Smith
• Babymouse series by Jennifer Holm
• Pokemon
• Shel Silverstein poems
• Disney Princess stories
• Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
• Big Nate series by Lincoln Peirce
• Squish series by Jennifer L. Holm
• Smile by Raina Telgemeier
• Ologies series
• Dinosaurs! by Gail Gibbons
• Eyewitness books
• Lunch Lady series by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

2014 BOOK MADNESS – TEENS AND ADULTS

YOUNG ADULT

• The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
• Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
• Vampire Diaries series by L.J. Smith
• Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
• Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• Every Day by David Levithan
• Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
• The 5th Wave series by Rick Yancey
• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

NON-FICTION

• The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
• Me Talk Pretty One Day (or some other Sedaris) by David Sedaris
• Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield
• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
• The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger
• The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Dog Songs by Mary Oliver
• Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened … by Allie Brosh
• Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
• Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman
• Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
• The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
• The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure
• The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow

FICTION

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• Atonement: A Novel by Ian McEwan
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• The Shining by Stephen King
• Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
• State of Wonder: A Novel by Ann Patchett
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

MYSTERY/SCIENCE FICTION

• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Ender Wiggins Quartet by Orson Scott Card
• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
• Neuromancer by William Gibson
• Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson
• No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith
• Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich
• World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly
• Broken Harbor by Tana French
• Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin