2018 Reading Bingo

I love doing the reading bingo review of my reading this year! I did this last year too. I never read a book thinking of these squares – I just sit down at the end of the year and see if I can get a full house. Happily I’ve just managed it this year – though I got lucky with only having one book for a few categories.

 

 

A book with more than 500 pages.

Yes! Slayers and Vampires was 528 pages long. I was worried about this one because I saw two books that were around 495 pages!

 

 

 

 

A forgotten classic

I’m choosing In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan for this one because I had only heard about it recently. Mostly from The Lovely Eggs song Have You Ever Heard  Digital Accordion? but also they mentioned him on the Bookshambles podcast

 

 

 

A book that became a movie

I’m picking The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas for this. I haven’t seen the film yet, but I really want to!

 

 

 

 

A book published this year

Miss Nightingale’s Nurses by Kate Eastham was published this year. It’s a really good book about the origins of nursing as a profession, the Crimean War and Mary Seacole! Kate goes to a book club I’m in, and it really is a great book 😀

 

 

 

A book with a number in the title

The only books I read this year with a number in the title is A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. As a back up I did read Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller, which has a number in the title!

 

 

 

 

A book written by someone under thirty

Chloe Benjamin, who wrote The Immortalists, is 29 according to google! That’ll do for me!

 

 

 

 

 

A book with non-human characters

Jonathan Livingston Seagull has only seagulls!

 

 

 

 

 

A funny book

Heartburn by Nora Ephron had me laughing out loud.

 

 

 

 

 

A book by a female author

I mostly read books by female authors. I find this prompt a bit.. ughh.. because as if this should be a challenge! Annnnnyway, I’m using this one to highlight one of my favourite books of the year: Sight by Jessie Greengrass.

 

 

 

 

A book with a mystery

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi covers this one. The existence of the monster is a mystery, and this is also a great book.

 

 

 

 

 

A book with a one-word title

Crudo by Olivia Laing. A book I really enjoyed this year that just didn’t make it into my top ten.

 

 

 

 

A book of short stories

Motherhood by Helen Simpson – the only collection of short stories I read this year. Phew.

 

 

 

 

FREE SQUARE

I’m giving the free square to the best book I read this year on masculinity! So I award it to The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry.

 

 

 

 

A book set on a different continent

I can do better than that and choose Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. It is set on North America and Africa.

 

 

 

 

A book of non fiction  

I had a lot to choose from for this, but have gone with Rebecca Solnit’s The Mother of All Questions: Further Feminisms, because I looooooove Solnit and her writing.

 

 

 

 

The first book by a favourite author

I will have to choose The Pisces for this one because I know I will want to read any other books Melissa Broder writes.

 

 

 

 

A book you heard about online

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge is a book I heard people discussing on twitter and in other book blogs.

 

 

 

 

A best-selling book

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman is probably the most popular, best selling book I read this year.

 

 

 

 

A book based on a true story

I have to choose Wild by Cheryl Strayed for this one.  I’ve not yet done my review for it, but it’s a moving story about a very lost woman finding herself by going into the wilderness, alone, for 3 months.

 

 

 

A book at the bottom of your to be read pile

Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates is a book I’ve been meaning to get around to reading since it came out in 2012. There are many more books I’ve been meaning to read for a lot longer… maybe next year!

 

 

 

 

A book your friend loves

I’ve chosen Story by Robert McKee for this one because it’s the only book I read this year that was lent to me by a friend, because they loved it.

 

 

 

 

A book that scared you

Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata, is the nearest I came to a book that scared me. It left me very unsettled and I feared for what out main character could do after the book ends!

 

 

 

A book that’s more than 10 years old 

I didn’t read any very old books this year. Surprising because I usually try and read a few that I consider proper classics! I did read The Outsider by Albert Camus though, written in 1942.

 

 

 

 

The second book in a series

After You by Jojo Moyes, the sequel to Me Before You, and followed by Still Me.

 

 

 

 

 

A book with a blue cover

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig has a very blue cover and I actually had a physical copy of it to photograph!

 

 

 

 

BINGO!