Waking up with the sun just reaching the horizon, Athens Drive’s Battle of the Books club faced off in the annual county competition on Saturday, Feb 28. Battle of the Books, affectionately nicknamed “BOB,” is a team competition testing players’ knowledge of books they’ve read, selected from a yearly updated list. 

“This club helped me reach for books I might not have gravitated towards otherwise,” said Elizabeth Ray, teacher and co-advisor for Battle of the Books.

The club met every Wednesday at lunch to summarize the book of the week, as well as practice questions for the competition. Each question was formatted by asking a specific detail about a book, with teams given 20 seconds to discuss before submitting a book title (two points) and author (one point).

“Practice questions were my favorite part of the meetings,” said Zunairah Rashid, a student in the club, “I loved how competitive we got with each other.”

Rashid and other members were in high spirits for the competition as the team crept closer to the fabled date. 

“Students took it much more seriously [this year],” Ray said, “[I noticed so much] dedication to the practice, learning the authors, dedication to meeting every week!”

The team’s work led up to the competition at the end of February 2026. A total of six teams filed into Garner Magnet High School and were assigned to be pitted against each other with a total of 15 rounds, each team playing each other once. The Athens team buzzed with excitement as the nervous electricity crackled through the room. 

As the competition flew by, Athens was in the lead for first place, winning their first two matches with Apex and Garner. However, a weak ninth round led to Athens falling behind in their rankings.

With a very close ending competition, Athens finished in fourth place with a final score of 67 at the county competition. Apex High School ended in first with a final score of 74, Green Level second with a score of 70 and Wake Forest was third, ending with 69 points.

The Athens team is hopeful for progressing even further in the 2026-2027 school year, reaching for first place and regional competitions. With the next year’s book list coming out in April, club members are hoping to get a head start with summer reading. However, they mainly cherished the fun and laughter they had this year. The team enjoyed pizza parties, pre-competition Duck Donuts and a celebratory lunch following the competition.

“[My favorite part was] making new friends, creating new connections, and hanging out with the team!” said Ray.