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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Bracketology But Make It Bookish
The bracket is live for the 2025 Tournament of Books, set to begin on March 6. This year’s shortlist features many of the most-buzzed titles of the last year—James, Martyr!, Beautyland, The Book of Love—along with a few less well-known picks. In true ToB style, some of the biggest names are matched up against under-the-radar reads, and since each decision comes down to one judge’s idiosyncratic preferences, all kinds of things could happen. In a moment when James is set to (rightfully) sweep literary awards, you’d think the smart money would be on Percival Everett, but the ToB leans toward the Extremely Online, and I expect we’ll see some of the more Discourse-inspiring titles cause a few upsets. Among the first-round face-offs, I’m most interested in Martyr! versus Rejection: two remarkable and very different debuts that experiment with form (Rejection much more so) and are both fundamentally concerned with connection and art. As always, the ToB promises to be fun and occasionally maddening, perfect fodder for commentary and quibbling.
Turns Out Shakespeare is Safe
You’ve probably heard it theorized that on an infinite timeline, an infinite amount of monkeys pecking away at typewriters would eventually stumble onto reproducing all of Shakespeare. It’s known as the infinite monkey theorem—man, it’s great when science takes a silly thing seriously—and was first posited by French mathematician Émile Borel in 1913. Now, Stephen Woodcock, a mathematician at the University of Technology Sydney, has tested the theory—using PCs, not primates— and concluded that Shakespeare’s legacy is safe. “There is simply not enough time until the universe expires for a defined number of hypothetical primates to produce a faithful reproduction of “Curious George,” let alone “King Lear.”” Delightful.
New Year, New You?
A few things in life are promised: death, taxes, and that January will bring a tidal wave of self-improvement content. The editors of Oprah Daily have rounded up 12 of the best new self-help books of 2025, featuring some big names like Mel Robbins, Martha Beck, and Gretchen Rubin alongside newer voices. Take a peek if you’re looking for tips to help you manage your emotions, stop trying to manage everyone around you, get your finances in order, or find your purpose (a tall order for a book, but I’mma let you finish). And if bibliotherapy is of interest, you’ll be delighted to learn that it’s one of the big self-improvement trends of the year.
Heads Up!
You can’t swing a cat without hitting a most-anticipated books list this week, and we had to get in on the action. This week on the Book Riot Podcast, Jeff O’Neal and I highlight the books to watch in 2025—not necessarily the books we’re personally excited about , but the ones that folks who follow the publishing industry should have on their radar. Lucky for us, there’s a good bit of overlap in those categories! 2025 is starting off a little quiet, and that means lots of room for surprises.
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