Rules of the tournament
How It Works
I.The Field
Sixty-four books we’ve read as a club, divided into four regions by genre— sixteen books each. Like the NCAA tournament, two regions sit on the left of the bracket and two on the right, and a book can only face another region’s books in the Final Four.
II.Seeding
Within each region, books are seeded 1 through 16 by their Goodreads average rating— the highest-rated book gets the #1 seed and opens against the #16. The bracket follows tournament convention, so the top seeds can’t meet until late. Upsets are not only possible, they’re encouraged.
III.Voting
When a round opens, go to Cast Votes and pick a winner in every matchup. Haven’t read one of the books? Sit that match out— abstaining doesn’t count against either side. Every pick saves automatically the moment you tap it, and you can come back and change any vote until the round closes. Nobody’s votes (or the running tally) are visible until the round ends, so vote your conscience, not the crowd.
IV.Rounds
Six rounds: Round of 64 → Round of 32 → Sweet Sixteen → Elite Eight (the regional finals) → Final Four → Championship. The commissioner opens each round and each stays open roughly 3–4 days — get your ballot in before it closes. When a round closes, the bracket updates with every tally and the winners advance.
V.Winning & Ties
Most votes wins, simple as that. If a match ends in a dead heat, the commissioner breaks the tie at their sole and unappealable discretion. Tie-broken results are marked with a gold ✶ on the bracket, so you’ll always know which wins came from the people and which came from the throne.
VI.The Champion
The last book standing takes the championship and eternal bragging rights for whoever championed it at club. Sixty-four books enter, only one can be champion.