If you haven't been following the Tournament of Books, the annual literary equivalent of March Madness staged by the smart folks over at The Morning News, then I apologize for the lack of a spoiler alert in the headline above. (The site has been promising to get a live rooster for the winner any year now.)

For his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz won the final round over Tom McCarthy's Remainder. The panel of 16 judges voted 12-4 in his favor. (That's a landslide, but the tournament officials might want to consider an odd number of judges next year -- this thing is just asking for an 8-8 controversy.)

Diaz's novel has been near the top of my to-read list since it came out last fall. I loved Drown, his debut collection of short stories, and he took a notoriously long time (by the standards of impatient, adoring fans) to finish this novel. I'm not trying to return the favor by not getting around to it -- just hasn't happened yet.