Giving up!

First of all you should know that I'm a huge fan of reading bingo:  I love finding books that fit each category, and filling in each and every square. And for the past couple of years Stacey at Unruly Reader has created a super fun book bingo card. And I've always gone for blackout. Until this year. With six categories left to fill on my card, I'm officially giving up. No book bingo blackout for me in 2017. I know there's still time before the end of the year, and that I could probably push and get it done, but frankly, I'm running out of steam. And there are other books I'd rather read more.

Here's the card I started off with:

And the books I read that fill the 19 categories I did manage to complete:

POP PSYCHOLOGY:  Aim True by Kathryn Budig

OUTLAW:  Surviving Home by A. American

DOOM AND GLOOM:  Lights Out by Ted Koppel

WATER:  Spring Tide by Cilla and Rolf Borjlind

THE JOURNEY:  God Grew Tired of Us by John Bul Dau

A BOOK I OWN:  Dance Night by Dawn Powell

HIGHBROW:  The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

WHERE I GREW UP:  Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall

CREATIVITY: Good Mail Day: A Primer For Making Eye-Popping Postal Art 

by Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee G. Wheeler

GUILTY PLEASURE: The Care and Feeding of Stray Vampires by Molly Harper

ASSIGNED READING: The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller

ESCAPE: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali

BOOKSTORE DISCOVERY: Thirteen Days to Midnight by Patrick Carman

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS: The Semester of Our Discontent by Cynthia Kuhn

AUTHOR'S NAME BEGINS WITH M: Arrowood by Laura McHugh

BEST IN CLASS: Lost by Michael Robotham

THE OUTDOORS: My Last Continent by Midge Raymond

HOT: The Definition of Wind by Ellen Block

UP IN THE AIR: The Immortal Circus by A.R. Kahler

And here are the six categories that will remain unread by me this year:

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE:

(Even though I own Russell Mean's autobiography Where White Men Fear To Tread, 

which has been sitting on my shelf for years and years waiting to be read.)

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS FICTION PRIZE:

(Even though I found and bought a copy of Marilynne Robinson's Lila at a library 

book sale just for this bingo category; it now sits in my room also waiting to be read.)

BOOMER LIT:

(I never had a book in mind for this category.)

ASIA:

(This category should've been an easy one for me seeing how much I love 

Haruki Murakami and other Japanese writers, but...)

BAD TITLE:

(This also sounds deceptively easy...but every book I attempted to read 

that fit the category ended up being too bad to finish. So...)

MID-CENTURY MODERN:

(Didn't even try!)

There you have it. My 2017 reading bingo journey. I did enjoy the books I read. And I had fun! And that's all that matters, right? Maybe next year I'll try for blackout again. Until then...

Happy Reading!

Reading Bingo Update...

I'm halfway to Book Bingo Blackout. Here's the bingo card courtesy of the Unruly Reader:

And here are the squares I've filled so far:

• 300 Pages or Fewer: Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith
• Published in the 70s: Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
• Book Cited in a Story: The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons
• Cover Attraction: Stoker's Manuscript by Royce Prouty
• War: Istanbul Intrigues by Barry Rubin
• Found Online: When She Was Gone by Gwendolyn Gross
• Graphic Novel: This One Summer by Jillian & Mariko Tamaki (which I didn't like and do not recommend!)
• Magical Realism: Girl On A Wire by Gwenda Bond (which I really liked and DO recommend)
• Recommended Book: Longbourn by Jo Baker
• Suspense: The Edge of Normal by Carla Norton
• Another Culture: Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani
• Unsettling: Deviant: The Shocking True Story of the Original Psycho by Harold Schechter
• Writing: The Shelf: From LEQ to LES by Phyllis Rose

Of the squares I have left to fill, I'm most worried about finding a Banned book and a Cult Classic that I actually want to read. (Any suggestions?) Celebrity worries me a little bit, too. The other categories should be fairly easy.  ...  I hope. It's not too late to print out a card and start reading for your own bookish bingo. It's a lot of fun!

Happy Reading!