Round 2 has closed in Booketology, the Library’s 2012 Tournament of Books, and Round 3 has officially begun! Check the bracket below for the results, and cast your votes in the “Sweet 16” until midnight on Sunday, March 25.

If there’s a lesson to be gleaned so far from Booketology, it’s that genre classics trump newer contenders. Just look at Sci-Fi. Even with a much-hyped film backing The Hunger Games in theaters nationwide, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979) focused its Vogon planet destroyer beam on the blockbuster YA novel and blasted it off the bracketsphere. Sorry, kids. Go forth into the universe – and don’t forget your towel.

Meanwhile over in Horror, founding fathers Poe and Stoker brutalized the rookie competition (see: Twilight’s loss in the first round) to emerge as the finalists in our “Sweet 16” third round, which will determine the winners from each genre.

Oh and by the way, if you’re a Fantasy fan, you may wish to avert your eyes from this next round…

Check the updated bracket below, and follow the link to the next round of voting, which runs through midnight on Sunday, March 25.

Vote: Booketology Round 3 (Sweet 16 of Genres)

What's worse than the Nazgul?
Facing Harry Potter in the Sweet 16.

Other highlights:

Fantasy: Ouch. Sorcerer’s Stone beats Game of Thrones in Round 2, and Fellowship easily sinks Watership to lead to the Fantasy faceoff you’ve been dreading like an encounter with a Ringwraith. Time to take a side, folks. Harry or Frodo?

Horror: Is this really a contest of Dracula (the book that launched the vampire genre) versus Tell-Tale Heart (a story of a guy who kills his annoying roommate and buries him under the floorboards), or is it more about Bram Stoker versus Edgar Allan Poe? We’ll see come Monday which dead man is still walking.

Sci-Fi: We’ve already discussed Hitchhiker beating Hunger Games (by 57 percent of the votes, by the way). Now Douglas Adams is up against another genre hero: Philip K. Dick and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which made an inarguably better movie. But will that be enough?

Romance: No close Round 2 contests here. Bridget Jones defeated Waiting to Exhale 125 votes to 50. Devil whipped Good in Bed 122 to 51. Now the two novels that defined Chick Lit are in a grown-lady fight for Romance.

Mystery: In the biggest landslide so far, Orient Express absolutely slaughtered A Is for Alibi by 152 votes. Likewise, Sherlock silenced Silence of the Lambs. Now it’s another genre classics grudge match: Arthur Conan Doyle vs. Agatha Christie.

Literature: The Road continues to cannibalize the competition, though not by much; it defeated The Kite Runner by just six votes in Round 2. Similarly, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close came, yep, incredibly close – four votes –  in its victory over Picoult.

Nonfiction: Murder seems to be the preferred theme in Nonfiction, with In Cold Blood proving Henrietta Lacks not so immortal, and Midnight in the Garden putting down Seabiscuit. Whether Capote or Berendt advances past the Sweet 16, it’s two tears in a bucket, as they say down in Savannah.

The Sweet 16 is officially open. It’s up to you which books emerge as favorites in their genres. Just remember, as we told one fraught fan on Facebook: there’s no crying in bookball.

Don’t forget to submit your ballot for Round 3 by Sunday at midnight. We’ll have the winners here on KC Unbound by noon on Monday, March 26. And if you’re tweeting about the contest, be sure to tag us (@KCLibrary) and use the hashtag #Booketology.

Vote here: Booketology Round 3 (Sweet 16)

Latecomers: If you’re just now finding out about Booketology, don’t fret. Voting is open to all. Jump in anytime. Here are the rules.

About the Author

Jason Harper is the web content developer and social media manager at the Kansas City Public Library.