Baldwin: Yup, in the back room of a bar in Brooklyn, in Carroll Gardens. We decided that though we could appreciate literary awards, we found them absurd and pompous. We figured there should be an award for new books that was as meaningful (or meaningless) as the Pulitzer or the National Book Award, but was decided in a forum that was more fun and transparent. And we also love college basketball. Thus the Tournament of Books was born. 

Womack: After it looked like this thing was really going to happen, we decided we needed a name for the award we'd bestow on the winning book—like an Oscar or a Grammy or what have you. So, naturally, we met at a bar to discuss it and for some reason David Sedaris came up, and we've always loved that story he wrote about his brother, "You Can't Kill the Rooster." From there it was a short hop to naming the award the Rooster. About five seconds later we decided we'd try and send the winning author a live rooster. But rather than try to figure out a way around any laws that may restrict the shipping of live poultry, and unsure how many authors would know how to care for a chicken, we decided we'd make a donation to Heifer International—which provides chickens to families in developing nations—in the winner's name instead. As for the logo itself, we've had it since the second year of the Tournament, and it was designed by our friend Susan Everett. 

Baldwin: It's a balancing game. We want books that got a lot of hype and books that got little. Books that won other prizes and books that were ignored. Big publishers, little publishers, foreign favorites, populist favorites, and so on. Throughout the year, we keep track of reviews, critics' picks, blog attention, emails from readers and publishers and so forth, and that becomes the longlist of about 60 titles. Then it's a committee decision to reach the final 16 and it takes about a month to figure out. 

Have you both read all the books? How many books do you read a year? 

Womack: Going into the Tournament, I haven't read any of this year's books. My annual reading varies. In the first half of the 2000s I'd hover around 25 a year. Last year I read four books and became a father. This year I've read one book. So maybe I'm on an upswing. 

Baldwin: I read about two a week, but I've only read three of this year's titles so far. 

Womack: It's a spectator sport, so for anyone who's following along, reading any or all of the books is entirely optional; the judges do a good job of explaining what the books are about, and why one is perhaps better than another. For the judges, because the matches are bracketed out and a single judge decides each match, each Tournament judge only needs to read the two books in their round plus the two books that end up in the finals (which are decided by votes from all judges). 

Womack: People are reading, they're just not reading where they used to read. It was upon readers that newspaper and magazine empires were built. When readers switched to the internet for their reading material, those empires crumbled. To do that kind of damage, it must take a lot of readers.