I'm about two weeks behind on my RSS feeds, which is my flimsy excuse for why I only just noticed that the Tournament of Books is underway. Sorry, I suck at my job, and I'm sure you actually could do it better (assuming you could cope with constant sexual harassment, the sartorial scorn of Matt Davis, and occasionally being sharted on by Olive the Pug).

Anyway, every year the Morning News and Powell's team up to host a bracketed literary faceoff, pitting the year's best books against each other and asking other writers to be the judges. The best part, for those of you who aren't playing along at home, is that all of the contenders are 30% off at Powell's—and if nothing else, this is a stellar reading list (Hari Kunzru, Marilynne Robinson, Roberto Bolano). Go on, spend some money at your favorite bookstore already.