So all the way back here I started a reading challenge called Book Bingo. It’s pretty simple, you get yourself a bingo card from Books On the Nightstand, then mark it off each time you finish a book that applies to a certain square. So how have I been going? Well here’s my bingo card as it currently stands:
And these are the books I’ve read:
- GIFTED TO YOU – How To Be Parisian Wherever You Are. This was a birthday gift from my sister. It was one of my favourite birthday gifts and it was awesome because although I hadn’t specifically asked for it, it was something I’d wanted to read for a while – but my sister didn’t know that! What a good sister I have.
- SET BEFORE 1800 – Crow Hollow by Michael Wallace. I didn’t love it, I didn’t hate. You can read my thoughts here.
- MIDDLE-GRADE BOOK – Warren the 13th and the All Seeing Eye. I got this on NetGalley before I started Book Bingo, so that was handy. It’s a cute book which I really enjoyed reading.
- BY AN AUTHOR OF A DIFFERENT GENDER – The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster by Scott Wilbanks. Another NetGalley book which I will be raving about in a review next month. It was SOOOOO good. It had time travel, you guys. TIME. TRAVEL.
- WESTERN – The Homesman by Glendon Swarthout. A bargain I picked up and hated at the start but couldn’t put down by the end. I nearly threw the book in front of a train. You can read about that here.
- PART OF A SERIES – Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith. This is the final book in the ‘Leo Demidov Trilogy’. It was ok.
- SIX WORDS OR MORE IN THE TITLE – The Dust That Falls From Dreams by Louis de Bernières. I actually sigh just thinking about how much I loved this. If ever a book was written just for me, that had absolutely everything in it I could ever want in a book, then this would be it. Read my gushing over it here.
I’m close to getting a bingo in a couple of rows, but I’m actively going out of my way to not get a bingo so I can read a few more different books. I do really want to read a speculative fiction book though, but I have no idea about genres (I just reads what I likes) and all of my research into spec-fic has just made me more confused. So if anyone has any recommendations, or can make the spec-fic genre a bit clearer that would be very much appreciated!
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I am in love with These Broken Stars, for speculative fiction. You might want to wait until the last of the trilogy comes out in December, though. I blew through the first two books and novella in a matter of days, and now I have to wait five months for the finale.
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Ugh. I hate when that happens. I read a book called The Passage ages ago when it first came out; it was amazing but I was really disappointed to learn at the end of it that there would be a sequel. So I had to wait a couple of years for the sequel and when it finally came out I devoured it, got to the end to discover there’d be a third book 😒 So annoying.
I just checked out These Broken Stars on Goodreads and I just want to say, Lilac LaRoux is just the best character name.
I’ll check this series out for sure – thanks for the rec!
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It is easily one of the most annoying things about being a voracious reader. I’ve made the mistake several times of thinking it was a one book thing, only to find out it’s a series. I actually thought the third book was out for the These Broken Stars series, because the cover had been revealed, and then when I went to buy it, I find out it doesn’t release until December. The worst!! But yes, Lilac LeRoux is only the start of the awesomeness. 🙂
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Sounds like so much fun! I think many of Margaret Atwood’s books would be considered Speculative Fiction 🙂
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It’s the kind of fun that only bookish people would understand 😁 I like that some of the squares are encouraging me to think a little more about genre, which really is something I’ve not though too much about in the past.
Thanks for recommending Margaret Atwood – I just realised she wrote The Handmaid’s Tale which is a book I’ve been meaning to read since forever, maybe that can be my spec-fic read. Thanks for recommending!
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I’ve been slacking hard on my book bingo – I haven’t read much in July, and almost none of the books I want to read now fits any of the squares! Happy to see how well you’re doing, though.
Spec-fic is great! Have you read Doomsday Book by Connie Willis? I think it could be a winner for you!
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I haven’t read Doomsday Book, but I just had a look at it on Goodreads and it looks pretty awesome. I like this: “Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering, and the indomitable will of the human spirit.” Sounds right up my alley. And it’s only $6.60 on Kindle.
I expect that my marking off of bingo squares will drop off over the next couple of weeks for the same reason as you. But maybe once I read them I’ll discover they can fit into a square.
I’m still trying to organise my thoughts on Citizen. There’s so much I want to say but I can’t seem to articulate it properly (I think I can classify that as the book that challenges me).
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That’s exactly the book I used for that square, too! 🙂
And yay! I hope you enjoy Doomsday Book, if you end up going for it. You seem to be a fan of historical fiction, and Connie Willis blends sci-fi/spec-fic and hist-fic like a pro.
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I do like historical fiction – very much. I just had a look at some of Connie Willis’ other books on Goodreads and Doomsday Book is part of a series, and I see you’ve read another one of them. Was that good as well? I do enjoy a good sci-fi series.
I’m so glad you guys could recommend something. I googled spec-fic to see what it was about, and there were like a million sub genres that seemed like they could be classified as spec-fic. It was very confusing.
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I ran off a bunch of them for my AP class-can’t wait to use them.
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Some of the squares are a bit harder than the others – especially if you’re like me and don’t really think about genres much!
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These students love challenges–perfect!
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I love this!
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It’s pretty fun, and it’s encouraging me to look outside what I would usually read (and to think more about what I do read).
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