Vote in the Final 4 of the 2025 Literary Bracket

One day only!

Wow. We’re down to just four dynamic literary duos, and what an elite eight it was. While Frodo and Sam predictably defeated Merry and Pippin and Holmes and Watson dispatched Pole and Scrubb fairly easily, we had some drama in the right side of the bracket. First, Anne Shirley and Diana Barry’s run ends in surprising fashion at the hands of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, who move on to the final four. Who knew they were capable of such dramatic feats. Meanwhile, the matchup between Calvin and Hobbes and Frog and Toad ended in, quite literally, a tie. A true deadlock. As the tie-breaker I asked my wife, my kids, and a couple of my employees at the bookstore what they thought and, in the end, Calvin and Hobbes pulled it out by a single vote. Yes, one vote was the difference. That’s a first in the history of Close Reads brackets (don’t fact check me on that, I don’t actually know if that is true; I just think it is). Who doesn’t love a little history?

Anyway, here’s the final four. Vote away. I apologize to all who have been traumatized and broken-hearted at the various results of this bracket. I, too, wander the moor in mourning.

THE VOTING