Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Books On the Nightstand Bingo

A week or so ago, Janani and Shaina declared their intent to participate in Books On the Nightstand Bingo, a summer reading project that randomly assigns people a grid packed with twenty-four categories they should try to read from between May 28th and September 1st.

Now, I ain't so big on reading challenges and projects and all that. I swore them off a couple years back, and I didn't imagine I'd change that policy in light of my goals for 2016 (ie, to read whatever the hell I want). I'm a sucker for anything that's also a game, though, so I decided to make a no-pressure exception for this one.

I hopped onto the fancy-dancy bingo card generation engine thing and ended up with the following categories:

A five by five bookish bingo card containing the categories listed below. All of the squares are daubed in purple.

Some of them are totally me. Some of them rarely show up on my reading lists.

I still plan to read whatever the hell I want, but I figure it might be interesting to see how many of the things I pick up according to whatever whim rules me this week naturally fit into these categories. I'll check my card every time I finish a book and update the list below as things qualify.

And hey, look! I filled my whole damned card just by reading whatever the hell I wanted!

Has been banned or challenged: BEYOND MAGENTA: TRANSGENDER TEENS SPEAK OUT, ed. by Susan Kuklin

With an ugly cover: THE SHARING KNIFE: BEGUILEMENT by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio cover)

A dark, upsetting, or sad book: A SILENT VOICE VOLUME ONE by Yoshitoki Oima

An alternate history:MONSTRESS VOLUME ONE: AWAKENING by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takada

Last book of an author before he/she died or retired: REFLECTIONS by Diana Wynne Jones1

A Booker Prize winner (or made the short list): HALF-BLOOD BLUES by Esi Edugyan

A non-human main character: BOMBSHELLS VOLUME ONE: ENLISTED by Marguerite Bennett and Marguerite Sauvage et al

Shortest book on your TBR: THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE by Neil Gaiman

About an epic journey: INTO THE BEAUTIFUL NORTH by Luis Alberto Urrea

Horror: BOOKBURNERS SEASON ONE by Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty, and Brian Francis Slattery

Romance or love story: WICKED AS THEY COME by Delilah S. Dawson

Nonfiction in graphic novel format: SOMETHING NEW by Lucy Knisley

Free Square: YEAR OF YES by Shonda Rhimes

A literary magazine or journal (of any genre): THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013, ed. by Gordon van Gelder

With any season of the year in the title: WINTER ORANGES by Marie Sexton

With only words on the cover: THE REGIONAL OFFICE IS UNDER ATTACK! by Manuel Gonzalez

Translation: WANDERING SON, VOLUME 5 by Shimura Takako

Published before 1970: BABEL-17 by Samuel R. Delany

By a Canadian author: CHILDREN OF EARTH AND SKY by Guy Gavriel Kay

Set in South America: THE DREAMER by Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sís

Fantasy: A TANGLE OF GOLD by Jaclyn Moriarty

Folklore or mythology: NECESSITY by Jo Walton

With a number in the title: THE FIFTH SEASON by N.K. Jemisin (close enough)

With a punctuation mark in the title: YOTSUBUA &! by Kiyohiko Azuma

Epistolary novel: THE SECRET DIARY OF LIZZIE BENNET by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick


  1. I'm counting REFLECTIONS as DWJ's final book because it's the last one she prepared before she died. It was published more than a year later, with commentary from the editor and two in memorium pieces by her sons. The last book she published before she died was ENCHANTED GLASS. Another, THE ISLANDS OF CHALDEA, was finished by her sister Ursula and published in 2014, a little more than three years posthumously.

10 comments:

  1. Ohhhh, this is an excellent card. I may like it even better than my card! Very excited to see how you do.

    Also, it started on May 28?! I didn't even know this. I might just count WHO FEARS DEATH!

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  2. Have fun! I always make a card but never actually print it off and join in... I am bad at challenges!

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    1. I printed my card out and everything! If only I still had a bingo dabber so I could be all official about it...

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  3. This sounds fun! I might participate myself

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  4. I love your bingo card! I'm excited to see you fill it out as the summer goes on. If I were doing this, my ugly cover book would be that book Gabi, A Girl in Pieces -- that Aarti reviewed recently? She loved it but the cover is sooooooo baaaaaaaad.

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    1. Ugh, yes. That's one ugly cover.

      I think I'm gonna count THE SHARING KNIFE: BEGUILEMENT for that square. The paperback cover isn't horrible, but I'm listening to the audiobook and I've got no idea what's going on with the audio cover.

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  5. I wonder how many of these it would be possible to hit in one book... :P

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