I love a (crossing-things-off-a-list type of) challenge! So when Retreat by Random House offered up Reading Bingo 2014, I was hooked.
I do try to experience a new or unusual-for-me author or subject or genre on occasion. But anything that makes me stretch even more, I’m all for!
So, here’s what the bingo card looks like to start with:
My goal is to see how much of the card I can cover by the end of the year. I’m fairly certain that I’ll knock off a majority of the squares just by reading the way I normally would (“female author,” “over 500 pages,” “different continent,” “heard about online,” “forgotten classic,” “published this year,” “non-fiction,” “bottom of the to-read pile” – all no brainers) or by reading some of the books teasing me from my to-read pile (“non-human characters,” “one-word title” and “author under 30” come to mind). A few squares intrigue me (“friend loves,” “scares you” and “second in the series” are probably going to have me reading things I otherwise wouldn’t have this year).
Retreat by Random House seems pretty flexible in the way of guidelines, but I am a “rules” gal, so I’ll make some up for myself:
- No repeats allowed – a book can only go on one square
- No moving books around from one square to another
- A book must be assigned to a square in the month in which I read it (so no coming back here in November and trying to cover a hard-to-complete square with something I read back in January)
- Squares can be completed in any order
- Print books and audiobooks both count
And, of course,
- I must provide updates!
With all those rules, I’ll definitely need to be strategic about this. For instance, I did already read a book by a female author that is a bestseller and is being made into a movie that is set on a different continent and that I heard about online… but I’m going to have to give some serious thought to which, if any, square I assign it to.
If all goes well, you’ll find updates here around the end of each month. If all goes REALLY well, you’ll try Reading Bingo, too!