Competitive readers, it is time to wipe off your reading glasses, sharpen your pencils and put on the coffee: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is pleased to announce that Adult Battle of the Books, the book-based trivia showdown, will return for 2024. This year, you’ll be excited to learn that Adult Battle of the Books has expanded to more locations with an additional championship round.

What’s Different for 2024?

• Your team will sign up as one of the eight teams to compete at one of our four CLP locations in July.
• If you are the first or second place winner at one of the CLP locations, you will be invited to compete in the Championship Round in October

Get your team together and sign up for a night of competitive book trivia at CLP-Lawrenceville on Tuesday, July 16^th from 5 PM to 8 PM. If this location and date does not work for you, we will also host CLP battles at:

• CLP-East Liberty on Wednesday, July 10th – REGISTRATION FULL
• CLP-Squirrel Hill on Thursday, July 11th – REGISTRATION FULL
• CLP-Carrick on Wednesday, July 17th – REGISTRATION FULL

The event will begin at 5 PM with the game starting at 6 PM sharp. NOTE: You and your team can only sign up for one location event.

Adult Battle of the Books is a trivia game created by the career bookworms at CLP just for you, our book-loving city of literary champions. Teams of 3-5 readers have the summer to carefully read a list of five titles, then we gather in July for three rounds of trivia questions about the people, places, and plots of those books.

Here’s how you can join the fun:

1. Form Your Team: Teams should be 3-5 people and all players must be 18+. Each team should identify a Team Leader, who will be the main point of contact with the Library. Don’t forget to pick a name that will strike fear into the hearts of other readers.
2. Register for the Battle (below): Once you have your team, fill out our registration form below. Registration will remain open until Friday, April 19th but we will close registration early if the event fills up, which it has in all previous years. Register early!
3. Prepare for the Battle: Get copies of the battle books – check the library for lots of copies in a variety of formats. Make a strategy – will everyone read all the books, or will you split the list?
4. Let the Battle Begin: Arrive at your selected CLP location on the designated evening ready to compete! There will be three rounds of questions, plus a bonus round.

All of the questions will be taken from these five books*:

• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty
• The Guncle by Steven Rowley
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
• Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
• You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

*For full listing of all formats, including audio and large print, check the check out this Staff Picks booklist or visit the library catalog.

Register Your Team here!