Why the Book Jacket Bracket Exists

Books deserve reverence—but also revelry.

The Book Jacket Bracket began with a simple conviction: that book covers are works of art unto themselves. They deserve to be celebrated, not just as marketing tools, but as the first steps into extraordinary worlds.

Each year, hundreds of remarkable books come and go, their covers vanishing into the algorithmic ether. Many are published by small presses. Some are overlooked debuts. Others are silent marvels, drowned out by louder releases.

This project is a lighthearted rebellion against that. A weekly, reader-powered tournament where covers compete—not for average star ratings or blessings from media powers, but for gut reactions and love. You click the one that sings to you. That’s it.

You vote. We tally. One cover ascends each week. By season’s end, we collectively lift one champion to the Shelf of Immortality, reminding us, with great melodrama, that books are essential.

Oh. And it's fun.

From Screen to Shelf

The Book Jacket Bracket now lives in the real world too. We’ve partnered with Perelandra Bookshop, a beloved independent bookstore in Fort Collins, Colorado, where you can find every weekly winner stocked on the shelves.

Translating virtual internet whimsy into a shared physical space deepens connection, strengthens community, and reminds us that beautiful books belong in our hands, not just on our feeds.

About the Creator

Will Pass is a former veterinarian who practiced in Las Vegas before turning to fiction. He is the author of The Second-Smartest Dog That Ever Lived, a genre-bending novel narrated by a hyperintelligent mutt named Rousseau.

Part existential comedy, part Quixotic acid trip, the book follows Rousseau and his dim but loyal companion Shakespeare the Pug as they escape captivity and search for meaning beyond the fences of human society. His second novel, The Whirlpool of Lebanon, is forthcoming in 2026, also from Thiessen Press.

Will also created booktrovert.org, a retro, haunted satire of book marketing where the same book has been featured every day since 1997 (his). The Book Jacket Bracket began there, before finding a home of its own.