Today’s Match      |      Previous Matches      |      TOB Brackets [PDF]      |      Judges      |      About      |      Buy the Books from Powells.com      |      Rooster T-Shirts
The Morning News and Powells Present
2006 Tournament of Books
TOURNAMENT ROUND 1
MARCH 21, 2006
Vs.
COMMENTARY BY TOB COMMISSIONER KEVIN GUILFOILE
Reading Choire’s assessment, one gets the feeling that if either of these competitors had been replaced with Pat Sajak’s Super Sudoku, Choire’s review wouldn’t change very much (“I like Pat Sajak. It’s a really nice book. And I guess my choice means Ms. Krauss’s book is a better book for me, not necessarily a better book, and so on it goes.”) And I’m not sure why Choire feels it necessary to apologize for watching American Idol. That competition is considerably less ridiculous than this one, don’t you think? At least the person who wins American Idol will be rich and famous, which won’t be the case for the winner of the Rooster, unless the winner already happens to be rich, which is no better than—wait let me count it—a 50-50 proposition at best. (It would be better than that, of course, if more of these authors were to marry each other.)

Speaking of which, the advancement of Nicole Krauss sets up a possible War of the Proses in round two between her and her husband Jonathan “Mad About” Safran Foer (should he win his round vs. Mary Gaitskill, of course, which I don’t mean to imply is any sort of gimme). Remember last year when everyone got their hair in knots because the finalists for the National Book Award all lived in New York? Just think how pissed America would have been if all five of them slept in the same bed?