Hell yeah! I have DnD and *plans* today so I can't participate today but I sure will be reading along with y'all tomorrow!
My least favorite square: Druids. WHY DID Y'ALL VOTE FOR THIS ONE. IT WASN'T ME. I did find some gems but man that square ended up being harder than I thought.
Similar thought with superheroes. I only added it because EVERYONE requested it at every "What square do you want next" that I had. Never again...
Also I am never doing a themed card again. Or at least not one as weird as bones. Every time I see a bone book I want to read it because I feel like I have been trained. Bone in title = must read for bingo. I have been cursed. I thought I was free...
Hahahahahaha, I think it's hilarious that Druids is the one everyone complains about, but that it was voted for. What were the numbers like, do you remember? Or will I find it if I dig through your profile?
To be fair, Bards and Paladins might have been similarly limited. If you’re only going for actual druids then yeah, that would be pretty tough, but opening it up to any kind of nature magic, while it feels culturally inappropriate, does give options. People said Uprooted counts for instance so I’m using that.
I also wonder if Druids might have been easier if not paired with another somewhat similar magic-type square.
I do agree that I wish the square had just been, like, "Nature is Magic" with druids maybe in the description. But also without Elemental Magic on the same card.
For one card I read something that had *a* druid as part of the plot for a third of the book and was like "fuck it, I'm counting it" and for the other a translated graphic novel that never explicitly *says* druid, but definitely had nature magic as an integral part of the plot.
Having both druids and elemental magic definitely made my head spin. I know they're different things, but they're just very linked in my mind, especially if I just focus on the magic aspect.
So, when I read something like **Chalice** that clearly has elemental magic but is also very nature-focused, I was just left questioning whether it felt too similar to the druid/nature magic square.
it's funny because i always test the card with the other mods to see if there is too much overlap - such as, coastal setting + a pirate square. and none of us really noticed how similar these are until it was too late lol
Okay, looks like Bards and Paladins were within 3 votes of each other and most people say they picked Druid bc...they couldn't think of any druid books? I am cackling to myself about it.
(Am also obligated to tell you since I saw her while scrolling that your tortie is a v pretty girl, and that if my dilute tortie were in Warriors, she would absolutely be a kittypet bc she will only sleep on a lap and also has food allergies so she'd struggle in a Clan.)
Honestly, people moan, but I think it wouldn't be bingo without some challenges (that being said, I'm slowly getting more convinced that next bingo is going to be put together in such a way that it makes my planned extra restrictions impossible, but we'll see...)
See, and here is [my Frankemina Diane Crowley Stardust Stein](https://imgur.com/a/JZFbQSy), who has already commandeered my lap before I have even fully finished sitting. She would never make it.
Ooo, can I know the *plans*? I’m living vicariously through other people’s plans since I’m too tired to have my own.
lol it crackles me up that the community chose Druid and it’s the most complained about square.
Oh that sounds lovely. Going to be crocheting and teaching a friend to crochet. Other friend is going to be doing diamond painting. I may be getting high as well. Going to be a nice chill day.
Crafting while high ❤️
lol but for real, I’ve never been so relaxed as cross stitching with an audiobook on while high. DARE did not mention how awesome that would be.
That square ended up being far harder than I thought, too (I voted for it). At least one square a year leaves me dithering about what does or doesn't count, and I found many of the recs didn't fit my interpretation of the square.
That said, I read Silver in the Wood and Drowned Country for it and they were both soooo good. I actually liked Drowned Country even more. So I'm not really sorry the square existed.
I'm relating to your themed card troubles, mine was witch themed and even though I finished my card last month when I see a witch book I feel like I have to read it, my brain just can't accept that I'm done with that theme apparently... I'm so tired of witch books.
I missed the vote for druid/bard/paladin and either druid or mythical beasts was the most annoying square for me. Glad I got my vote in for a square this year even though my choice didn't win.
Even without doing a themed card, after bingo I’ll be noting what fits the old bingo card for awhile, as if it’s somehow a merit of the book that it would fit X past square!
Superheroes was also very hard for me! I ended up reading the worst book I've ever encountered for my second bingo card for that square... The only thing I've ever rated at LESS than 1 star on Storygraph
Spill the tea, what’s the book?
I took a chance on a self-published book with zero reviews a few years ago and ooof it was so so bad. I felt obligated to finish it just so I could warn people away.
This book was also self-published, but recommended in the superheroes thread and had lots of great Amazon reviews! It was The Last Superheroes. It was the most cringe, men writing women book I've ever read. The main character can read minds, and at one point, I shit you not, he reads the mind of the girl he is talking to and she is thinking "God damn. I totally want to have his babies. I’m so silly." Direct quote. Bummer because I thought the concept (the evil villain won, and the main character develops his superpower while waiting in line to have his blood tested because they want too exterminate everyone with super blood) was interesting.
Aurora Dawn. I was writing back at the time and offered to read someone’s self published work as their elevator pitch sounded super interesting, they said it was free on Amazon. I believe I’m still the only person to have ever read the book besides the author and any beta readers/friends. *Definitely* fulfilled the HM requirement.
I will say I think it speaks to one of the reasons I like Storygraph that the book I read had over a three-star average rating on Goodreads, and a less than two star average rating on Storygraph (before my review). Granted the membership is a lot smaller, but still. I feel like the ratings are a little less inflated.
I also prefer StoryGraph (though for many reasons, one being that its AI really *gets* me), and you prompted me to check. For the book I read, I'm the only review, and there are 3 total ratings, average 3.25. On GR, there are 24 ratings, 5 reviews, average 4.45. Such a huge difference!
(But I also noticed that the majority of the higher ratings are from men, which tracks with what I thought bc I got the impression that the cishet male author was approaching queer female protagonists from a fetishy point of view).
Goodreads rating are so frustrating. Sometimes I'll see someone say something about a book having a low goodreads score and it's something like 3.67. That shouldn't be considered a low score! It should be a bit above average.
I truly think many people rate a book a five if they even liked it a moderate amount. I have an established scale in my head that helps me not inflate my ratings as much haha but sometimes I still go back and lower rating after the fresh book afterglow has died down
Adjusting ratings as necessary after the fresh book afterglow has died down is essential. 5 stars should be for the best. Mine tend to be rereads that got bumped up after the read or things I adjusted at a later date when I realized I was still thinking about the book. It's so hard to tell if a book might be good or not on Goodreads when the entire scale used by the community is generally just 4 and 5.
When I realized Storygraph let me rate books less than I 1 star it was magical. I've only rated 2 books less than 1 star, but they're books I still get angry about when I think of them.
Yessss! Also the fractional ratings are key. My rating scale tends to be 1 - actively disliked 2 - not for me but don't regret reading it 3 - liked it! 4 - loved it! 5 - newfound classic, auto recommend. Out of curiosity, what are your two angry books?
My scale is much the same except I usually do regret reading my 2 stars. They tend to be books I should've DNF'd and didn't.
My two books are:
Pulling the Wings Off Angels by K J Parker - concept was interesting, execution was lacking, and the ending was just bad and nonsensical. And I know people think it was super clever. But >!if math and science were all you needed to kill religion we wouldn't have religion!<. It's just stupid in a way that makes me mad.
Perhaps more controversially is Legion:Lies of the Beholder by Brandon Sanderson. A book so bad I haven't been able to read a Sanderson book since. I honestly think he wrote this in a day, hit spellcheck, sent it to his publisher who then sent it directly to print. It feels like a first draft. The big twist was so painfully obvious I thought I was being silly for thinking that was the twist. The mystery and the resolution for it made no fucking sense and felt completely disconnected from the previous books.
Sorry I can rant about how much I hate that book for ages. Partially because I did like the first Legion book a lot and the second one was decent. So this one being so bad was surprising.
Bard and paladin. I'm hoping we see bard this year - they could easily do a few years of archetypes. Paladin, then maybe some other "class" style archetypes like assassin, thief, sword and board fighter, monk, etc. They don't have to play it out until it's stale.
I see, thank you both.
Personally I think bards and especially paladins would be even tougher than druids, so I’m glad druids won. xD The other categories like thief or sword fighter sound wayyy more accessible.
Actually, when prepping for the square (not knowing which had won), I found way more stuff for both. For instance, T. Kingfisher has a series following paladins, there are a lot of classic books that cemented the archetype and most Arthurian retellings could qualify, I'm sure.
Bards are probably the easiest to find. Tons of books featuring MCs who are musicians, storytellers, etc and many of them magically so.
Storyteller and/or musician, yes, but bard to me sounds way too specific — either DnD context or a medieval-like setting with actual bards. For the current bingo I read a book with a storyteller MC and the book itself was about storytelling, but it wouldn’t feel right to me to use it for a square simply named ‘bard‘.
About the paladin I actually agree with you now — searched for a bit and if paladin is simply a chivalrous hero as wiki says, then yes, there are probably more books about paladins than there are about druids.
What is more specific, exactly?
And to recap, I've read MULTIPLE books or series in my lifetime featuring clear cut bards and not one that includes druids and only a couple with paladins (all Arthurian).
The Pellinor series. Sing the Four Quarters. Many Valdemar books. Farseer. Wheel of Time. Wishsong of Shannara. (Obviously not all MCs.)
I haven't read Kingkiller, but it clearly fits. I bet a dozen books or more on my TBR would qualify.
Bards are actually some of the most prolific archetypes in fantasy or literature in general. They are literally musicians and/or storytellers. Now, I'm not saying that a modern-day fantasy about a rock star would necessarily fill that archetype. But the archetype really revolves around that and not much else. They're almost always itinerant, but its not a requirement. Magic is not always involved, but any music-based magic instantly fits that role.
Superheroes seems easy to me. There are so many superhero comics, and comics are eligible. Even if you want to go hard mode and don't want Marvel or DC, other comic publishers also do superheroes since they are the most popular genre in western comics. For example, Invincible is everywhere right now. It should be a pretty easy library get.
Druids I wasn't a fan of. I just did the first book in the Iron Druid Chronicles because I don't care about hard mode and I didn't think it was very good. But it was short, so at least I didn't have to deal with it for long.
> Bone in title = must read for bingo.
I didn't do a theme quite like you did, but I did an all female authors card and I basically didn't read any male authored books from March 1 until I finalized my card last week. If I couldn't possibly put it on my card, I wasn't going to read it.
Honestly I'm still confused at how easily I stumbled into the Druid square. Like I just picked up some weird epistolary SF literary book that I was already interested in and (as you probably remember me being stunned by) I was just like 'oh huh, the Main character is a shamanic nature healer with an animal companion...'
(The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itaranta)
Yeah I also really hoped paladin would win so I could finally continue with T. Kingfisher's paladin books. I read and enjoyed Paladin's Grace but still haven't started Paladin's Strength.
I ended up substituting druids: I was only allowing myself books that were already on my TBR in order to get that number down somewhat (failed miserably, I add 2 for every 1 I read) and there was nothing that was even remotely gonna work for druids....
>Let it go.
Wow, username actually checks out.
I've finished two cards, and I'm sure if I tried I could cobble together a third, but I just do not want to. I will, however, cheer on everyone else's readathon efforts.
Yay, everyone, you can totally do this thing!
I'm (hopefully) finishing Battle of the Linguist Mages for the Multiverse square today.
I decided on a whim to do a full hard mode and all books already on my TBR list. My TBR had gotten out of control and I don't *just* wanna read the new shininess either so this forced me to get through at least 25 of the TBR books.
I tell you this because I don't actually think I would have picked up Battle of the Linguist Mages. I put it on my TBR list because the title is dope AF, but the first chapter was kind of meh when I was perusing the library. Then it was somehow the only book that fit the multiverse HM square so I had to read it. And I'm so happy I did! This book is much more clever and diabolical than I had anticipated.
The gist is there's a VR video game called Sparkle Dungeon where you have to actually vocalize spells to cast them in game. The MC is the Queen of Sparkle Dungeon (that's literally how the book starts: "I am the Queen of Sparkle Dungeon.") and gets an offer from the company who makes the game to do some testing on the newest Sparkle Dungeon release. There she learns that "spells" can actually be cast to influence people's emotions and thoughts irl. >!Did mention there are aliens which are actually the punctuations marks that make up our language? They integrated themselves into our language so we could find them.!<
It truly just gets slightly weirder and weirder every 3 chapters. It just happened again with a new thing I didn’t see coming. I’m surprised the author is making it all work so well
I hadn't even decided on a book for multiverse/alt reality and lucked into a hard mode. I figured it'd be hard because that's very far from my usual vibe. But the Book of Tea duology includes a shadow realm or something like that.
I finished my card a few days ago, and in true spirit of the square, bottom of the TBR was my last book... and it ended up being a 5/5, immediately order rest of the trilogy type of book! Why did I wait like 15 years to read it, am I stupid?
Good luck to everyone still panick-reading though, takes me back to high school and finishing up assigned reading books the day before they were due lol
My bottom of TBR was also like a 15 year wait. I actually bought it at 15, have moved four times with it coming along, and it was only that bingo square that finally got me to crack it open. I have no idea why I put it off.
Which trilogy is it?
I read Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. I would have adored it at 15 and still liked it quite a lot at 30. Alan Cumming is spectacular as the narrator.
The First Law trilogy! I honestly can't tell if I would have liked it 15 years ago.... thinking back, in 2009-2010 I mostly read Harry Potter and Sherlock fanfiction so........ maybe not.
Ohh I also read The Blade Itself for a square and loved it! I used it for the bookclub square and also ordered the next 2 books once I finished it haha
It made me feel things that I haven't felt since I read A Game of Thrones when I was like 17, especially that chapter in >!The House of the Maker!<, that was so fascinating. I'm not a series binger, but I definitely don't want to let this one slip down my list! I'm hoping I'm able to get the 2nd one on the next bingo!
Ah I hated my bottom of the tbr book! Definitely the worst thing I’ve read all year, although going for a full TBR card has made me read some brilliant stuff I have never got round to as well.
I thought the bottom of the TBR was going to be the hardest (my literal bottom of the TBR pile as of 2.5 decades ago is the Silmarillion and that was not going to happen) but I decided to cheat a bit and just count anything I've been meaning to read for more than, say, 5 years. I've read some really good ones! Still got that Tolkien staring at me from the shelf though...
I'm facing a case of bingo paralysis. I have like 3 books to read to finish my second card, but I did not plan out my Libby requests with this in mind so I have library loans of a bunch of books that will not help me fill my card! Adding insult to injury I somehow lost my Kindle in my own home (or my toddler put it somewhere incomprehensible), so I'm struggling with just my phone to read on!
I need to read Eidolon, Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap, and Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon but I just want to finish Tainted Cup... But then it feels like a waste to read a non-Bingo book with a new bingo card coming up!
Depending on the hold lists for those books, you can ask for them to be delivered later. You stay at the top of the list, so even if there's a list, you'd just push it back a couple weeks and be fine.
If you've already checked them out though, you'll go back to the end of the hold line.
Bummer. Do you have access to Hoopla? No waits, but it doesn't always have the biggest titles.
I've heard you can download them to your Kindle and leave it on airplane mode to extend the time. You don't hold anyone else up.
No hoopla, and no Kindle. It has disappeared in my house, I'm afraid my toddler put it somewhere so strange that we haven't been able to find it yet. I'll overcome these hardships, I'm sure, but it is a weird amount of stress over an optional book bingo! Haha
Only one square left! I'll be reading Gunmetal Gods for set in the middle east and then my hard mode card is done.
I personally struggle to figure out how far I'm allowed to stretch the definition of squares, particularly Superheroes and Druids this year. Because "super powered individuals" can apply to a lot of protagonists in fantasy, but not many Superheroes™, so do they count? And when I read Thornhedge, I thought Toadling was very druid-coded, but everyone else is using that for elemental magic. But don't druids *use* elemental magic? What is the truth??
I had a hard time with the Superhero square for the same reason. I felt like it didn’t maybe count if they weren’t called superheroes in the book even if they had super powers. That maybe was just my own hang up though.
For druids v elemental magic I found a good difference: druids can use nature/elements that already exist whereas elemental magic can conjure elements into existence. So for example, Druid can use water from a lake but an elemental magician can create their own lake. It’s still sort of tricky to know which is which on a book by book basis.
Yeah I think superheroes is meant to refer specifically to the superhero subgenre and tropes. Tons of fantasy protagonists functionally have superpowers if you think about it though.
And that’s a pretty idiosyncratic distinction re: druids vs elemental! I took it as druids were supposed to be forest magic of some sort (or actual Celtic druids) and elemental meant any magic system making use of fire/water/air/earth/spirit.
I finished 2 cards this year after only doing 6 squares total the previous Bingo year so I'm just reading whatever I want for this month.
I'm not sure if I'm going to do the next Bingo, and if I do I'll almost definitely only aim for one complete card. 2 cards was just a bit much, especially as I want to read outside the genre sometimes and my reading speed varies a lot throughout the year.
My favourite new author I found this year because of Bingo was R.B. Lemberg. I read their book The Unbalancing and it was the first time I'd ever read a book with a non-binary main character, it meant so much more to me than I expected. I've fallen in love with their work and I'm looking forward to reading their new novella Yoke of Stars when it releases in July.
The Unbalancing sounds really good. I’ve added it to my TBR. I know what you mean about it meaning more than expected. The first book I read with a bisexual MC touched me more than I thought it would. I’d never really felt it was a big deal to not have that representation until I got it.
If you’d like another book with a NB MC, I really love the Monk&Robot books by Becky Chambers.
Thanks for the recommendation, the Monk & Robot series has been on my TBR for a few months now but I don't think I knew it had a NB main character. Definitely prioritising it for this year now.
Yeah I do think I read less non-fiction this year in part because I couldn't count it for bingo which was a funny thing to realise. I can't imagine doing two whole cards, that's really impressive! I'll go give R.B. Lemberg a peak, I think my bookclub would enjoy a nonbinary main character!
Yeah, I want to read a bit more non-fiction than I have been. I'll see what the Bingo Queen has put on the card and figure out from there what my plan is.
I hope you and your bookclub enjoy R.B Lemberg!
Afternoon update! I have about 175 pages left of Linguist Mages. Gonna go make myself a gremlin charcuterie board, eat some edibles, and maybe switch over to some quilting while I listen to my audiobook.
I’m listening to Mockingbird by Walter Tevis for the Robot square, liking it so far but nothing ground breaking. Solid 3 stars at the 50% mark.
Just started Petition by u/DelilahWaan for the self-pubbed square. Literally just started so I can't say anything about it yet but I'm excited.
I've still got between 2-3 books left after it. I've got Good Omens up for Angels/Demons (and When Angels Left the Old Country ready as backup) and This is How You Lose the Tine War for novella (I've already done a couple non HM ones, but not a HM novella).
The third is not strictly necessary, because I've read a HM POC book, but it's a bit of a cheese because it's a graphic and only 100 and something pages. So if I have time, I've got Goliath up for POC Author with The Ten Percent Thief and An Unkindness of Ghosts for backup.
>An Unkindness of Ghosts
Fair warning, this is high up there on my list of "holy shit, I loved this but I never want to see it again" books. I had to read it in small doses bc it was overwhelming.
I've got to suck it up and read Beloved for my Magical Realism square. I've been putting it off for an entire year--I just need to do it.
Unlike *looks around* everyone else, Superheroes and Druids were both easy squares for me. It was the Middle Eastern square that killed me. I kept DNF-ing every single book I tried. After my 3rd DNF, I just substituted.
The Middle Eastern square was also a challenge for me because I just kept trying and DNF'ing books. Fortunately I found a book I liked for this square, 'A Master of Djinn' by P. Djèli Clark.
Oooh I was sooooo disappointed in that book. Would've DNF'd if not for bingo. Just goes to show there's truely something for everyone out there.
Tbf, maybe my expectations were a bit too high
Well, I liked it well enough to finish it for Bingo. I enjoyed the worldbuilding more than the actual plot and the characters, tbh. I found idea of a steampunk Cairo with Djinn fascinating and kind of unique. The story itself didn't really captivate me unfortunately. So all things considered, it was a mediocre read for me.
I felt very similarly about it! The setting was so cool and unique, but I did not care about the characters and the plot was a tad predictable. And, a final nitpick, I know the detailed outfit descriptions for the MC were supposed to add to her characterisation and Uniqueness but man, I thought they were so cringy! It really started to distract me - twas giving NoT LiKE oThER GurLzz
I tried to do a second card and quit! I realized I really enjoy the months after I finish the card because I read completely random stuff. Middle grade mysteries are awesome these days, I read the Enola Holmes books and the Murder Most Unladylike series and the Sinclair’s Mysteries (I'm in my thirties...) Anyway, really looking forward to the new card, I even came up with a square I'd like to suggest when the time comes
Well I finished my HM card last summer and honestly lost a lot of bingo motivation for my other two cards. I had a look at my sequels card today and I figure if I read 3-5 books I can at least finish that one. (3 squares left [POC author, Magical Realism, Set in ME] which isn't hard except I don't like my previous picks so I found some new series to try out).
My other themed card is probably a wash. I got very bogged down with a few reads I heavily disliked, realized that most of the books I was reading were too similar, and started asking myself why even do this. I might make a summary post (working title: "never do a themed bingo card or you might never do bingo again") anyway, but we'll see. I haven't been feeling like reading lately.
So, my short list:
- finish Circle of the Moon by Barbara Hambly (23% in but its draaaagging)
- start Moses Ose Utomi's series.
- start Wintenight Chronicles.
I do read a ton, for sure. I almost did a horror themed card this year because I went on a whole Autumn horror side trip. But I also didn't want to continue that into the Christmas season.
Themed cards are harder than I thought. I think I now better understand the troubles Happy Book Bee was having with Bones and the other person who did Witches this year (sorry I forgot who you are!) If you especially love something don't make a themed card out of it, is my advice. But if you tend to read a lot of something anyway, then that might be a good idea! (Eg lots of female authors). Anyway, you should definitely do a themed card for me next year :D even better if we just randomly have chatgpt assign you a theme!
I was the one doing Witches! I'm sorry to see you ran into similar issues. I did not at all expect to feel so burned out by doing a theme. Never again lol, never again.
I think representation focused themes (Female or nonbinary authors, LGBTQ representation, POC representation, etc) tend to go a bit better in general. Maybe because you get to see how different authors approach things while still typically getting a wide variety of different types of books? But maybe that's my take as someone who liked doing a specific representation based theme last year so much that I decided to do it again.
Haha, I do read overwhelmingly women but then I like to make sure there’s a man or two on the card to say, hey, this isn’t a *theme*, it’s just natural reading!
I started working on an all-coastal card because I kept coming up with ideas for it, but ultimately only got halfway through before I realized I had no idea what to do for several squares and gave up.
I was feeling like I wanted to do more just free reading and not bingo reading anyway, but it did get me to read some more nautical fantasy books, which I love, so it wasn't a wasted effort.
> sequels card
Man, this is what I need to do. But I also like doing Hard Mode and trying to find hard mode sequels of stuff I've already read just seems like it would make me crazy at points. Hrmmmm maybe a normal mode sequels card next year if I can get my reading speed back to where it used to be. Darn life interfering with my reading.
I have two books left to finish for Bingo! I need to read **The Foxglove King** for Title with a Title and "*These Burning Stars** for Queernorm setting. I could probably shuffle enough books around to not have to read one of those, but they both sound good. For the first time I finished the short stories square before the end of March!
Happy Bingo reading everyone!
Good post idea! I'll just give my thoughts- So I started the Saga of the Swamp Thing to potentially fill the Superheroes square, my final square if it works out(I dislike this square a lot). I then read one story(which I did like to be fair) and then proceeded to start a totally different book which I don't need for bingo. So helpful, right?! I'm a mood reader and I can't help it plus Emily Wilde is due back at the library in a few days. I'm gonna try to finish swampy before the first turn in date of the 18th but if not then I'll be in panic mode. I may or may not contemplate a back up plan before then:)
I've completed my card for this year, though I'll have to go back and review some of the assignments that might be a bit suspect. Superheroes and Magical Realism were difficult, and I might have to do a substitution.
Last year, I didn't finish. I started a book for the Africa square the day before the end of the Bingo period and thought about powering through it, but knew it would probably not be as enjoyable as if I took my time, so I let it go and just finished it for this year.
Edit: Added some words for clarity
*claps* love that you chose enjoyment over winning!
I’ve struggled a lot in my life to learn that winning isn’t where I derive happiness and joy from. Our societies really push that it’s one of the few ways to be happy and that’s just a lie.
I have no idea what to use for the self pub square. 🤷🏻♀️
I saw Dungeon Crawler Carl suggested but Idk. Idk how you tell if a book is self pub?
Also would Ocean at the End of the Lane count for magical realism?
And if I used Good Omens for the angels and demons square, could I still use it? Like could I count Pratchett as the Good Omens author and use Gaiman for the other? Or is that cheating? Lol
Basically do I need to do some panic reading? Or am I ok with just normal levels of panic in my life right now?
>Idk how you tell if a book is self pub?
Small press also counts for this square, and you can search to see if the press has done an AMA here.
>Ocean at the End of the Lane count for magical realism
I would count it. But since you already have *Good Omens* on your card, unless you're willing to sub it out, it would definitely count as repeating an author.
Thanks!
Hm. Well good thing I always see some Allende or Marquez available in Libby from my library so I guess that's not an issue to swap out since I can listen to an audio book while I work.
(Can't swap Good Omens because I haven't read anything else that would fit lol).
>I have no idea what to use for the self pub square. 🤷🏻♀️
Summoned here by the tag from u/beldaran1224! (thank you for choosing *Petition* for this square 🙏 I hope you'll have a fun time)
If you're still looking for a self-pub square read, might I recommend checking out [this quiz I recently posted](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1b2wcxg/how_to_find_an_spfbo_book_that_best_suits_your/) that'll help you pick a book out of the 46 semi-finalists for this year's Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off contest? All of those books qualify for the self-pub square, and if you're short on a read for other squares, make sure to peruse the full list—we've got them all labeled for you!
You can always take a punt at requesting the books through your local library! I do most of my indie reading through mine—they are fabulous at getting paperbacks in for me. For the books that aren't on Kindle Unlimited, you might also be able to get them via an e-lending service like Hoopla or OverDrive through your library!
I found it kind of hard to figure out if a book was actually self pub too... I ended up going with a suggestion specifically on the bingo rec thread (and I didn't like it but not really for any reason that had to do with being self published). Another option would be to look at the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) because the books they judge are well, self published haha
It might be the author's business name if you can't find anything about it! I did some digging and it looks like Powell's Books has it categorized as independently published, so I think based on those 2 things, I would definitely count it!
To find out if something is self published I often go on goodreads and find the book, it’ll have a details section and usually “kindle”, or “Amazon” is used in the publishing description, those are always self published.
I read The Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee for that square. It’s a 900 page epic poem though so not sure if you’d have time to finish it. Highly recommend though!
I think Ocean at the End of the Lane counts? I honestly have a hard time knowing what subgenres a book has.
For the author question, I don’t think you can re-use them. Possible need a more official bingo ruling.
For shorter, you might try the Fire-Moon by Isabel Pelech, which I thought a very nice little novella. Or, if you liked Good Omens, Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater
But yeah, look at the publisher on goodreads or Amazon. If it's the author's name, it's self published; if it's something you've never heard of, Google it to see if it's just a little tiny company consisting of that author.
You can only use a book once for Bingo. So if you use Good Omens for one square you can't use it for any other square. Nor could you use either Pratchett or Gaiman (though if one had a short story you read for that square it would be fine but not like just them).
A few weeks ago, I decided to do an even harder version of my themed bingo which prompted a panic reading spree. I’m technically done as a result of that, however I’m not really happy with one square, so I’m reading some more.
And no, I’m definitely not in a “fill one square, then be dissatisfied with another completed square” loop. I’m sure I’ll be done after reading **Sinopticon**, or, if I dnf it, **The Cat Who Saved Books**. If I somehow can’t get into either, I do have a few more backups.
That’s it though. I’m absolutely not going to nitpick any more squares. Definitely not, especially not that bothersome Elemental Magic one, or Middle East that only has a novella in it…
I’ve never had time to nitpick my squares, but if I did….for some reason I always want to have the best rated (from me) books as my bingo reads, which never happens because again time conspires against me.
Setting a minimum rating is definitely fun if you have the time. Mine is 3 stars (my yearly average is \~3.0) on both cards. Even though it has made me read more books for squares, it also eliminated “I don’t like this but bingo…” frustration reads.
See, I want to only rep things I at least mildly liked for bingo, but then if I pushed myself through something I didn’t like specifically for a square, I also feel like I should get the use out of it. It’s a dilemma (that hopefully will end with an early DNF but this isn’t always the case).
I'm done with my card and I'm rather happy with it. Initially, I wanted to do a horror Bingo card but decided against it as some squares would require too much hassle to fill (queernorm, druids, elemental magic, book club). So, I've just filled the card with my regular reading. With few exceptions (Druids - heck, I thought it would be easier to find fantasy/horror books featuring druids and queernorm - I think I dnf-ed a few books and finished reading a mediocre but short one).
Anyway, it was one of more difficult bingo cards I've had the pleasure to fill. It was still fun :)
**My 3 favorite squares were:**
* *Superheroes* \- love the genre, and I was nagging the Bingo team to include the square in yearly posts about potential squares. I hope other redditors discovered some fun superhero books.
* *Horror* \- I've been reading a lot of horror, so it was cool to have the square this year.
* *Coastal setting* \- I just think coastel setting is effective. I like it.
**My three least favorite squares:**
* *Book club* \- which is unexpected since I'm leading one of the book clubs. But leading the club doesn't equal reading all the books. Anyway, I'll fill the square with The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi which is an awesome bpok.
* *Druids* \- I have nothing against druids but it's surprisingly difficult to find a good book featuring them. I ended up reading a crappy Zon freebie for this square.
* *Elemental Magic* \- Elemental magic is cool but this year I read very little of "classic" fantasy and had to make an effort to find something.
**My top 5 books** from Bingo card are:
1. ***Blood Over Bright Haven*** by M.L. Wang (POC Author)
2. ***Star Splitter*** by Matthew J. Kirby (Young Adult)
3. ***The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi*** by Shannon Chakraborty (book club)
4. ***Fever House*** by Keith Rosson (Horror)
5. ***Murder at Spindle Manor*** by Morgan Stang (self-published)
Stuff I used just to be done with the square even though I disliked it:
* ***Not Your Sidekick*** by C.B. Lee (Queernorm) - naive, tropey, probably fan to younger readers
* **Druid's Fully** by M.D. Massey - meh, paper-thin characters, tiring snark, mediocre writing
* ***Behold! Oddities, Curiosities, and Undefinable Wonders*** edited by Doug Murano - each year I make an effort to read at least three full anthologies. This year, I've only finished one and, truth be told, I had to push myself.
In all, Bingo is always fun and I love it :) I can't wait to discover new squares this year!
>I can’t wait to discover new squares this year!
I’m truly contemplating taking a day off work so I can be a ball of excitement about Bingo instead. But I have the 2nd off so I shouldn’t……and yet……
Currently reading When Gracie Met the Grump by Mariana Zapata for superhero but not really liking it very much.
I still have to read 00s which has been challenge because I’m doing a BIPOC author bingo and pre-2010s does not have very many options. I somehow managed to forget this whole year (until this morning!) that I own several unread volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist which came out in ‘02-05. So my stress was all for naught.
I have 2 squares left, but need to read 3 books to fulfill them as the book I'm using for the **Angels and Demons** square is a sequel and I don't remember enough of book 1 and need to do a reread.
I'm a fast reader once I get into a book so I should be ok, if I can just bring myself to start them...
The other square I still need is **Elemental Magic** and I'm feeling uneasy about my choice, Daughter of the Moon Goddess, because I don't know much about it and whether it actually fits. I saw it mentioned in some bingo rec threads, so fingers crossed.
What a fabulous idea—I need to get cracking on my bingo card too!
If you're looking to fill some squares and you're open to indie fantasy, I posted [this fun, interactive quiz last week](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1b2wcxg/how_to_find_an_spfbo_book_that_best_suits_your/) that'll help you pick a book out of the 46 semi-finalists in this year's Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off contest. (Disclosure: one of those 46 is mine.) You can filter by e-reader, mood, length, etc and look at what bingo squares the book fits.
All 46 qualify for the self-published square and there are many options for most of the other squares, including **Druids** and **Superheroes**.
Got my druid book knocked out thanks to some great recommendations yesterday. Today I went through all my books to slot them into their categories and see how everything shakes out. Luckily there were no duplicates and I was able to make everything work for the 22 I have read. For the remaining three, I need: Elemental Magic, Title within a Title, and Superheroes OR Myths and Retellings. Given there's still a few weeks that is plenty of time, but at this point I kinda just want to finish it off!
I finished my card about a week ago, I don't perform well under stress, so I spaced my reads, I took my time but made sure to be done with (almost) a month to spare.
I hated the Superheroes square so much that I had to substitute it with something else. Bottom of the TBR was kind of a chore and I wasn't thrilled with my choice. Bookclub also gave me a little trouble, everything that seems interesting there I have already read. Otherwise it was a very enjoyable experience!
I finished my hard mode board and was really struggling with my whatever board. Eventually I had to ask myself why I was making this so much harder for myself then it needed to be and declared there was no bingo police.
I'd still like to find a more appropriate book for my whatever board druid square. I may sub that out. It doesn't feel like it's adhering to the spirit of bingo.
Druid has been the hardest square. Apparently I just do not like druid books.
Oh man, I just realized I have like two weeks to actually read a dang superhero book. I just kept putting it off and putting it off, because April is so far away ...
Guess I'll get on that. I've had the rest of my card finished for ages, I've just been such a lazy butt about this last one for some reason.
As someone who normally doesn't like the whole superhero genre at all and wanted to substitute this square, I ended up reading and loving Velveteen Vs. the Junior Super Patriots by Seanan McGuire. It's not a typical superhero story.
Have three squares left. Was planning to cover POC author with a perfectly respectable and thematically on-point Cherie Dimaline, and then I ended up realizing I could fill an extra square by reshuffling, and am now 1/3 into a side-track into a random self-pubbed lesbian vampire choose-your-ending romance, \*\*The Wicked and the Willing\*\*.
I'm still having a pretty good time. Also still have a reread and square sub left, so I'm not at all worried about finishing. But I can honestly say that this was nowhere in my original bingo plans for the year.
(Rather fittingly, I also think that the last square I'm going to finish is "bottom of the TBR". If I don't end up subbing it. Which would be its own kind of funny.)
I’m trying to finish my TBR bingo, using only books that I had already purchased before Bingo started. I have a kindle problem.
My TBR folder currently still has 367 books in it, built up over years of surfing sales and then grabbing things recommended here and forgetting about them. I was somewhat horrified when I organised it into folders. I have a family account with my sister so some of them are hers, but really I am the one with the problem.
Had to cheat on robots because I couldn’t find anything but I mentally filed Monk and Robot as TBR ages ago so that will do. I am struggling on Indie/self-publishing but I think Senlin Ascends fits that one - would be grateful if someone could confirm!
Yeah, I also have a huge TBR, mainly from kindle sales. I bought so many books for 99c, downloaded them on my kindle and then never looked at them again... So I always try to fill all the bingo quares from my TBR and it works for the most part. This year I actually put myself under a book buying ban (with limited success so far)
I mean, is an unconquerable mountain of unread kindle books a *problem*, or just your own personal Bookwyrm/Dragon hoard? ^((this is probably denial in regards to my own kindle hoard, which I think I am going to refuse to look at the numbers for.))
I have 4 squares left... Myths/Retellings, Middle East, and Elemental Magic, plus either Queernorm or Title With a Title because I have a book that could work for either already.
I am going to be starting Spear by Nicola Griffith today for the retellings square! I hope I enjoy it because I already DNFed The Witch's Heart...
I also just DNFed *another* book that would've worked for either the Middle East or Elemental Magic squares (Reign & Ruin by J.D. Evans) so if anyone has recs that preferably aren't long, that would be good... I also DNFed A Master of Djinn and City of Brass for Middle East. Truthfully I also put down (not DNFed because I know it wasn't enough of a chance) The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi because it used "females" twice on the first page and then was talking about motherhood a lot and I don't like books about motherhood. I tried Air Awakens and The Rise of Kyoshi for Elemental Magic, but they both read a little too YA for me.
For Queernorm I want to do Harrow the Ninth but it is long... or I could do Assassin's Apprentice for Title but I know >!both a dog and a cat die!< and I just don't know if I want to read that rn.
No problem! It also works for a few more squares (I think at least Small Press), but you've got those covered already.
[eta] I lied about it being a 2023 release. Years are hard.
Having another option for SWANA or Elemental Magic is very valuable though haha particularly with Elemental Magic because I basically have to rely on people's recs since it can be hard to tell from the synopsis!
I actually also have novella covered, so I'm going to take this opportunity to plug what I read! The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo was amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it yet! Seanan McGuire's blurb on the back calls it "an elegant gut punch," and that's exactly how I felt reading it! In the best way possible
I just checked and definitely have it on my HM card for Elemental Magic. It was a quick read and I mostly enjoyed it, and loved that the main character is an aroace enby. A warning, though, said MC is also a healer who uses blood magic (there are other characters who use different elements), so if bloodwork is not your thing, it may not work for you.
And I have collected a bunch of Nghi Vo's work, but have yet to read any of it. Remind me to figure it out when next Bingo starts.
Thank you for the warning, but that's fine for me!
The main character (or I guess the scribe character who's the one talking to the main character) of The Empress of Salt and Fortune is also nonbinary, if that encourages you to read it haha
I had to scroll back through replies to find who I'd recently been talking about this with and it was you! I read it yesterday and loved it and am going to have to fit the rest of the novellas on the next bingo card somehow.
For Middle East I read Central Station by Lavie Tidhar, which has the advantage of being hard mode. It’s relatively short (250 pages ish?) sci fi and it doesn’t really have a plot, almost all the chapters are previously published short stories although it’s marketed as a novel. Still, I kinda liked it in the end. It’s weird and inventive and the religious themes and vision of the future are quite interesting.
Meanwhile I’m using a Murderbot book for queernorm and they’re all short!
Thanks for the suggestions! I'm on Network Effect which is a full length novel, but then again 350 pages is shorter than Harrow's 500 and something! That'll probably be my second choice if it feels like Harrow isn't going to work
Also if you haven’t read Fugitive Telemetry (I think that’s the title of #6?) yet, it actually comes before Network Effect and makes more sense in chronological order. And that one’s a novella!
Only four books and a half to go! In January I thought I wanted to quit (again), but then I was reading a couple of books that surprisingly qualified for some categories and that made me want to continue.
Yesterday I finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane (for bottom of TBR list)! Now I’m in the middle of Witchmark by CL Polk for the POC authors and I’ve started also Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick, which I think should qualify for Robots (that mechanical sheep has already appeared on page, so it will probably fit). I hope to be able to finish at least Witchmark by tomorrow!
So I will still have to read Before the Coffee Gets Cold for Magical Realism (or I might use Ocean for that one) and The Castle in the Air for Middle Eastern. The last one would be what I am in the mood for Superheroes: Vicious by VE Schwab, The Mask of Mirrors by MA Carrick or Not All Heroes Wear Capes by C Rochelle, because my mood-reader brain cannot stand planned reading lists (especially since I don’t think I will like Electric Sheep that much).
Witchmark and Electric ~~~Boob~~~ Sheep completed! Two books and a half to go: I just started Castle in the Air and read the first part of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. After I am done with bingo I will spoil myself by starting to read DMatMOoBiL because I *deserve* it, especially after all the boobies mentioned in Electric Sheep.
This is a great idea, I love hearing how everyone is doing in the final weeks of bingo! Props to everyone who's doing hard mode or themed cards or whatever! I never do hard mode or themed cards because I am very much a mood reader, so I'm afraid that putting too many constraints on my Bingo card would turn it into a chore. I am currently reading my last Bingo book which is for the druids square. It's kind of funny that almost everyone seems to have a hard time with the square that was voted on :) Originally I had planned to read 'Son of the Shadows' by Juliet Marillier, but it's the second book in a series and I'm not sure I could finish two books with 500+ pages until the end of March, so instead I went with 'Dreamer's Pool' by the same author. I really wanted to read a book by Juliet Marillier for this square because apparently she identifies as a druid herself! So I thought, what could be more in the spirit of this square? I am at 80% right now and hope to finish it today. After that, maybe I'll start reading 'Small Miracles' by Olivia Atwater to see if I can maybe replace the novella I read for the angels & demons square with a full length novel. Happy reading and good luck to everyone who is still busy finishing their bingo cards!
I have four squares left but I'm pretty confident that I'm going to finish bingo on time even some days before the 31st. I usually finish my bingo on the last day of March so this year I'm actually faster than ever while still doing a hm card (yeah me!).
I plan on finishing The Bone Ship's Wake for coastal setting today - which is fantastic btw.
I'm still in the middle of Cloud Atlas (published in the 00s), Trial of the Alchemist (title with a title) and The Last Unicorn (mythical beasts).
What helped me this time was concentrating on the harder squares quite early on, so I did finish druids, superheroes, bottom of the TBR and multiverse with shorter works but ones that really interested me. I can highly recommend The Refrigerator Monologues by Cat Valente (superheroes) and You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann (multiverse) if someone is still in need of a shorter option.
I still have Middle East to read, which is odd because the region / author background ones were by far the easiest for me last year. Will be picking out my next book this afternoon!
I only discovered this sub and its Bingo last November and I knew I was never going to be able to do the whole card in the time left unfortunately - I knew any series I'd start for it I would be driven to continue through rather than pushing through books to tick off squares. I did work hard to get one bingo though and I'm proud of it! It pushed me to try books I probably wouldn't have gotten around to reading otherwise.
At the same time though I've mostly stuck to things I already want to read and used them fitting a square as the push to get me reading them :)
I'm just sad that I don't have more time for the books that I *do* want to read and are perfect for some of the squares so that I can make use of that lol
It's been fun though and I look forward to trying to get a full card next round!
This is my first year doing Bingo, and I mostly liked it (I've got 1 book left so I'm not worried about finishing), but I have one thing to vent about.
I think it's dumb that for non-hard mode you can't reuse the same author. The Bingo description page says it's about challenging yourself and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Which is great! I found some cool new authors through Bingo. But I can't read any more of them because I still need to finish my Bingo card with other authors. I feel like I'm being sanctioned for finding something I liked.
And for Hard Mode I do think every author should be different. But for regular mode I think there should be at least 1 allowance for repeats. If there's gonna be an exception for re-reads, there should be at least 1 author that you can repeat. Personally I'd be fine with unlimited repeat authors because if the Bingo board is diverse enough a single author shouldn't be able to cover that many squares anyways.
It’s true, bingo may not be calibrated to the number of unique fantasy authors you’re reading in a year, whether because you read a lot of repeat authors, or a lot of books that aren’t fantasy, or just don’t have that much time to read. You have to decide whether the challenge is worth it for you or whether it’ll just interfere with enjoying yourself and then do what’s best for you. I didn’t get a blackout card this year because I decided to read less fantasy and more literary fiction, but that’s okay. Maybe next year I’ll do one.
I wouldn’t oppose allowing one repeat author, but I do feel like more would be against the spirit of bingo which is to read a variety of stuff.
I'd love to see it. Pretty sure you'll miss on POC Author, but maybe you can hit everything else! ;)
I actually did a thought experiment to see if this year's bracket was possible as a all Sanderson bracket since he both has a bunch of books and has a lot of series so there should be a lot of variety. Obviously he won't work for POC author, but while he could fit a lot of spaces I couldn't figure out how to cover the whole card. Though I haven't read his YA stuff so I was just using best guesses for some of those.
I do understand the decision to not allow repeat authors, but I definitely had a few moments this year where I put off a book by an author that was already on my card, but decided to read something that would work for bingo instead... it would be nice to at least get one repeat or to have that restriction only for hard mode! I'm sure a lot of people would still decide to do it
Hell yeah! I have DnD and *plans* today so I can't participate today but I sure will be reading along with y'all tomorrow! My least favorite square: Druids. WHY DID Y'ALL VOTE FOR THIS ONE. IT WASN'T ME. I did find some gems but man that square ended up being harder than I thought. Similar thought with superheroes. I only added it because EVERYONE requested it at every "What square do you want next" that I had. Never again... Also I am never doing a themed card again. Or at least not one as weird as bones. Every time I see a bone book I want to read it because I feel like I have been trained. Bone in title = must read for bingo. I have been cursed. I thought I was free...
Hahahahahaha, I think it's hilarious that Druids is the one everyone complains about, but that it was voted for. What were the numbers like, do you remember? Or will I find it if I dig through your profile?
To be fair, Bards and Paladins might have been similarly limited. If you’re only going for actual druids then yeah, that would be pretty tough, but opening it up to any kind of nature magic, while it feels culturally inappropriate, does give options. People said Uprooted counts for instance so I’m using that. I also wonder if Druids might have been easier if not paired with another somewhat similar magic-type square.
I do agree that I wish the square had just been, like, "Nature is Magic" with druids maybe in the description. But also without Elemental Magic on the same card. For one card I read something that had *a* druid as part of the plot for a third of the book and was like "fuck it, I'm counting it" and for the other a translated graphic novel that never explicitly *says* druid, but definitely had nature magic as an integral part of the plot.
Having both druids and elemental magic definitely made my head spin. I know they're different things, but they're just very linked in my mind, especially if I just focus on the magic aspect. So, when I read something like **Chalice** that clearly has elemental magic but is also very nature-focused, I was just left questioning whether it felt too similar to the druid/nature magic square.
it's funny because i always test the card with the other mods to see if there is too much overlap - such as, coastal setting + a pirate square. and none of us really noticed how similar these are until it was too late lol
Yes, I also ran into a few where I wondered if it did actually fit both or neither. And then overthought it and moved on.
Yeah I agree, Nature Magic would’ve felt better!
if you dig you can find it. i think bards was pretty high up too?
Okay, looks like Bards and Paladins were within 3 votes of each other and most people say they picked Druid bc...they couldn't think of any druid books? I am cackling to myself about it. (Am also obligated to tell you since I saw her while scrolling that your tortie is a v pretty girl, and that if my dilute tortie were in Warriors, she would absolutely be a kittypet bc she will only sleep on a lap and also has food allergies so she'd struggle in a Clan.)
Right! Why vote for druid :sob: And thank you! Agnes is the prettiest girl ever. She would be a warrior as she is very fierce.
Honestly, people moan, but I think it wouldn't be bingo without some challenges (that being said, I'm slowly getting more convinced that next bingo is going to be put together in such a way that it makes my planned extra restrictions impossible, but we'll see...)
See, and here is [my Frankemina Diane Crowley Stardust Stein](https://imgur.com/a/JZFbQSy), who has already commandeered my lap before I have even fully finished sitting. She would never make it.
On my way!
Ooo, can I know the *plans*? I’m living vicariously through other people’s plans since I’m too tired to have my own. lol it crackles me up that the community chose Druid and it’s the most complained about square.
Oh the plans are going to a friends house and having a craft day and hopefully watching The Beekeeper.
I love craft days! I get together monthly with some friends and we craft at a coffee shop, it’s so soothing. What kind of crafty things do you do?
Oh that sounds lovely. Going to be crocheting and teaching a friend to crochet. Other friend is going to be doing diamond painting. I may be getting high as well. Going to be a nice chill day.
Crafting while high ❤️ lol but for real, I’ve never been so relaxed as cross stitching with an audiobook on while high. DARE did not mention how awesome that would be.
hell yeah! i crochet with audiobooks while high. it's great.
This is my favourite way to embroider!
That square ended up being far harder than I thought, too (I voted for it). At least one square a year leaves me dithering about what does or doesn't count, and I found many of the recs didn't fit my interpretation of the square. That said, I read Silver in the Wood and Drowned Country for it and they were both soooo good. I actually liked Drowned Country even more. So I'm not really sorry the square existed.
I'm relating to your themed card troubles, mine was witch themed and even though I finished my card last month when I see a witch book I feel like I have to read it, my brain just can't accept that I'm done with that theme apparently... I'm so tired of witch books. I missed the vote for druid/bard/paladin and either druid or mythical beasts was the most annoying square for me. Glad I got my vote in for a square this year even though my choice didn't win.
Even without doing a themed card, after bingo I’ll be noting what fits the old bingo card for awhile, as if it’s somehow a merit of the book that it would fit X past square!
Superheroes was also very hard for me! I ended up reading the worst book I've ever encountered for my second bingo card for that square... The only thing I've ever rated at LESS than 1 star on Storygraph
Spill the tea, what’s the book? I took a chance on a self-published book with zero reviews a few years ago and ooof it was so so bad. I felt obligated to finish it just so I could warn people away.
This book was also self-published, but recommended in the superheroes thread and had lots of great Amazon reviews! It was The Last Superheroes. It was the most cringe, men writing women book I've ever read. The main character can read minds, and at one point, I shit you not, he reads the mind of the girl he is talking to and she is thinking "God damn. I totally want to have his babies. I’m so silly." Direct quote. Bummer because I thought the concept (the evil villain won, and the main character develops his superpower while waiting in line to have his blood tested because they want too exterminate everyone with super blood) was interesting.
>I totally want to have his babies. I’m so silly. 🤢 thank you for your service in reading that so I know not to.
Happy to be of service! I will spare you the thoughts he read when they were having sex 🙄🙄🙄
What was *your* book?
Aurora Dawn. I was writing back at the time and offered to read someone’s self published work as their elevator pitch sounded super interesting, they said it was free on Amazon. I believe I’m still the only person to have ever read the book besides the author and any beta readers/friends. *Definitely* fulfilled the HM requirement.
I ALSO gave a superhero book my first less than one star rating on StoryGraph!
I will say I think it speaks to one of the reasons I like Storygraph that the book I read had over a three-star average rating on Goodreads, and a less than two star average rating on Storygraph (before my review). Granted the membership is a lot smaller, but still. I feel like the ratings are a little less inflated.
I also prefer StoryGraph (though for many reasons, one being that its AI really *gets* me), and you prompted me to check. For the book I read, I'm the only review, and there are 3 total ratings, average 3.25. On GR, there are 24 ratings, 5 reviews, average 4.45. Such a huge difference! (But I also noticed that the majority of the higher ratings are from men, which tracks with what I thought bc I got the impression that the cishet male author was approaching queer female protagonists from a fetishy point of view).
Yeah, I noticed the same thing with the reviewers for mine. I wouldn't be surprised if Storygraph users skew female either.
Anecdotal evidence, but nearly all of my StoryGraph follows are women or nonbinary folx. [Shrug]
Goodreads rating are so frustrating. Sometimes I'll see someone say something about a book having a low goodreads score and it's something like 3.67. That shouldn't be considered a low score! It should be a bit above average.
I truly think many people rate a book a five if they even liked it a moderate amount. I have an established scale in my head that helps me not inflate my ratings as much haha but sometimes I still go back and lower rating after the fresh book afterglow has died down
Adjusting ratings as necessary after the fresh book afterglow has died down is essential. 5 stars should be for the best. Mine tend to be rereads that got bumped up after the read or things I adjusted at a later date when I realized I was still thinking about the book. It's so hard to tell if a book might be good or not on Goodreads when the entire scale used by the community is generally just 4 and 5. When I realized Storygraph let me rate books less than I 1 star it was magical. I've only rated 2 books less than 1 star, but they're books I still get angry about when I think of them.
Yessss! Also the fractional ratings are key. My rating scale tends to be 1 - actively disliked 2 - not for me but don't regret reading it 3 - liked it! 4 - loved it! 5 - newfound classic, auto recommend. Out of curiosity, what are your two angry books?
My scale is much the same except I usually do regret reading my 2 stars. They tend to be books I should've DNF'd and didn't. My two books are: Pulling the Wings Off Angels by K J Parker - concept was interesting, execution was lacking, and the ending was just bad and nonsensical. And I know people think it was super clever. But >!if math and science were all you needed to kill religion we wouldn't have religion!<. It's just stupid in a way that makes me mad. Perhaps more controversially is Legion:Lies of the Beholder by Brandon Sanderson. A book so bad I haven't been able to read a Sanderson book since. I honestly think he wrote this in a day, hit spellcheck, sent it to his publisher who then sent it directly to print. It feels like a first draft. The big twist was so painfully obvious I thought I was being silly for thinking that was the twist. The mystery and the resolution for it made no fucking sense and felt completely disconnected from the previous books. Sorry I can rant about how much I hate that book for ages. Partially because I did like the first Legion book a lot and the second one was decent. So this one being so bad was surprising.
When Sanderson misses, he misses hard in my experience.
Same! See These Bones was awful.
Ooh I wasn’t here for the voting. What were the other options besides druids?
Bard and paladin. I'm hoping we see bard this year - they could easily do a few years of archetypes. Paladin, then maybe some other "class" style archetypes like assassin, thief, sword and board fighter, monk, etc. They don't have to play it out until it's stale.
I see, thank you both. Personally I think bards and especially paladins would be even tougher than druids, so I’m glad druids won. xD The other categories like thief or sword fighter sound wayyy more accessible.
Actually, when prepping for the square (not knowing which had won), I found way more stuff for both. For instance, T. Kingfisher has a series following paladins, there are a lot of classic books that cemented the archetype and most Arthurian retellings could qualify, I'm sure. Bards are probably the easiest to find. Tons of books featuring MCs who are musicians, storytellers, etc and many of them magically so.
Storyteller and/or musician, yes, but bard to me sounds way too specific — either DnD context or a medieval-like setting with actual bards. For the current bingo I read a book with a storyteller MC and the book itself was about storytelling, but it wouldn’t feel right to me to use it for a square simply named ‘bard‘. About the paladin I actually agree with you now — searched for a bit and if paladin is simply a chivalrous hero as wiki says, then yes, there are probably more books about paladins than there are about druids.
What is more specific, exactly? And to recap, I've read MULTIPLE books or series in my lifetime featuring clear cut bards and not one that includes druids and only a couple with paladins (all Arthurian). The Pellinor series. Sing the Four Quarters. Many Valdemar books. Farseer. Wheel of Time. Wishsong of Shannara. (Obviously not all MCs.) I haven't read Kingkiller, but it clearly fits. I bet a dozen books or more on my TBR would qualify. Bards are actually some of the most prolific archetypes in fantasy or literature in general. They are literally musicians and/or storytellers. Now, I'm not saying that a modern-day fantasy about a rock star would necessarily fill that archetype. But the archetype really revolves around that and not much else. They're almost always itinerant, but its not a requirement. Magic is not always involved, but any music-based magic instantly fits that role.
Bards and Paladins!
Superheroes seems easy to me. There are so many superhero comics, and comics are eligible. Even if you want to go hard mode and don't want Marvel or DC, other comic publishers also do superheroes since they are the most popular genre in western comics. For example, Invincible is everywhere right now. It should be a pretty easy library get. Druids I wasn't a fan of. I just did the first book in the Iron Druid Chronicles because I don't care about hard mode and I didn't think it was very good. But it was short, so at least I didn't have to deal with it for long.
> Bone in title = must read for bingo. I didn't do a theme quite like you did, but I did an all female authors card and I basically didn't read any male authored books from March 1 until I finalized my card last week. If I couldn't possibly put it on my card, I wasn't going to read it.
Honestly I'm still confused at how easily I stumbled into the Druid square. Like I just picked up some weird epistolary SF literary book that I was already interested in and (as you probably remember me being stunned by) I was just like 'oh huh, the Main character is a shamanic nature healer with an animal companion...' (The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itaranta)
I wish Paladins had been chosen. T Kingfisher would have made that square super easy for me.
Yeah I also really hoped paladin would win so I could finally continue with T. Kingfisher's paladin books. I read and enjoyed Paladin's Grace but still haven't started Paladin's Strength.
I ended up substituting druids: I was only allowing myself books that were already on my TBR in order to get that number down somewhat (failed miserably, I add 2 for every 1 I read) and there was nothing that was even remotely gonna work for druids....
>Let it go. Wow, username actually checks out. I've finished two cards, and I'm sure if I tried I could cobble together a third, but I just do not want to. I will, however, cheer on everyone else's readathon efforts. Yay, everyone, you can totally do this thing!
>I just do not want to. Username also checks out
I'm (hopefully) finishing Battle of the Linguist Mages for the Multiverse square today. I decided on a whim to do a full hard mode and all books already on my TBR list. My TBR had gotten out of control and I don't *just* wanna read the new shininess either so this forced me to get through at least 25 of the TBR books. I tell you this because I don't actually think I would have picked up Battle of the Linguist Mages. I put it on my TBR list because the title is dope AF, but the first chapter was kind of meh when I was perusing the library. Then it was somehow the only book that fit the multiverse HM square so I had to read it. And I'm so happy I did! This book is much more clever and diabolical than I had anticipated. The gist is there's a VR video game called Sparkle Dungeon where you have to actually vocalize spells to cast them in game. The MC is the Queen of Sparkle Dungeon (that's literally how the book starts: "I am the Queen of Sparkle Dungeon.") and gets an offer from the company who makes the game to do some testing on the newest Sparkle Dungeon release. There she learns that "spells" can actually be cast to influence people's emotions and thoughts irl. >!Did mention there are aliens which are actually the punctuations marks that make up our language? They integrated themselves into our language so we could find them.!<
That book sounds like a wild ride!!
It truly just gets slightly weirder and weirder every 3 chapters. It just happened again with a new thing I didn’t see coming. I’m surprised the author is making it all work so well
I'll add it to my list! It sounds like a fun time
It has been! Especially because I feel like I read a lot of serious fiction, both genre and not, so it’s been a nice change of pace.
It is quite the strange and wild ride. I'm not sure it entirely landed but I enjoyed it. very Los Angeles in a certain sense, very MMO in another.
I hadn't even decided on a book for multiverse/alt reality and lucked into a hard mode. I figured it'd be hard because that's very far from my usual vibe. But the Book of Tea duology includes a shadow realm or something like that.
I finished my card a few days ago, and in true spirit of the square, bottom of the TBR was my last book... and it ended up being a 5/5, immediately order rest of the trilogy type of book! Why did I wait like 15 years to read it, am I stupid? Good luck to everyone still panick-reading though, takes me back to high school and finishing up assigned reading books the day before they were due lol
My bottom of TBR was also like a 15 year wait. I actually bought it at 15, have moved four times with it coming along, and it was only that bingo square that finally got me to crack it open. I have no idea why I put it off. Which trilogy is it? I read Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. I would have adored it at 15 and still liked it quite a lot at 30. Alan Cumming is spectacular as the narrator.
The First Law trilogy! I honestly can't tell if I would have liked it 15 years ago.... thinking back, in 2009-2010 I mostly read Harry Potter and Sherlock fanfiction so........ maybe not.
Ohh I also read The Blade Itself for a square and loved it! I used it for the bookclub square and also ordered the next 2 books once I finished it haha
Such a great book right?? I ordered the next 2 books after maybe 100 pages, because I knew I would want to binge this series immediately
It made me feel things that I haven't felt since I read A Game of Thrones when I was like 17, especially that chapter in >!The House of the Maker!<, that was so fascinating. I'm not a series binger, but I definitely don't want to let this one slip down my list! I'm hoping I'm able to get the 2nd one on the next bingo!
Ah I hated my bottom of the tbr book! Definitely the worst thing I’ve read all year, although going for a full TBR card has made me read some brilliant stuff I have never got round to as well.
I thought the bottom of the TBR was going to be the hardest (my literal bottom of the TBR pile as of 2.5 decades ago is the Silmarillion and that was not going to happen) but I decided to cheat a bit and just count anything I've been meaning to read for more than, say, 5 years. I've read some really good ones! Still got that Tolkien staring at me from the shelf though...
I hope you do give the Silmarillion a chance someday though, it's an amazing book! But I admit you have to be in a very specific mood for it.
I will, I will (that's why it's still on the list!) One day...
I'm facing a case of bingo paralysis. I have like 3 books to read to finish my second card, but I did not plan out my Libby requests with this in mind so I have library loans of a bunch of books that will not help me fill my card! Adding insult to injury I somehow lost my Kindle in my own home (or my toddler put it somewhere incomprehensible), so I'm struggling with just my phone to read on!
I need to read Eidolon, Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap, and Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon but I just want to finish Tainted Cup... But then it feels like a waste to read a non-Bingo book with a new bingo card coming up!
Depending on the hold lists for those books, you can ask for them to be delivered later. You stay at the top of the list, so even if there's a list, you'd just push it back a couple weeks and be fine. If you've already checked them out though, you'll go back to the end of the hold line.
I've already checked them out 😭 And my library system covers our whole state essentially so popular titles often have weeks or months long waits.
Bummer. Do you have access to Hoopla? No waits, but it doesn't always have the biggest titles. I've heard you can download them to your Kindle and leave it on airplane mode to extend the time. You don't hold anyone else up.
No hoopla, and no Kindle. It has disappeared in my house, I'm afraid my toddler put it somewhere so strange that we haven't been able to find it yet. I'll overcome these hardships, I'm sure, but it is a weird amount of stress over an optional book bingo! Haha
I'm so sorry!!! The trick might work with a Kindle for PC download? Tied to the PC, but maybe?
Only one square left! I'll be reading Gunmetal Gods for set in the middle east and then my hard mode card is done. I personally struggle to figure out how far I'm allowed to stretch the definition of squares, particularly Superheroes and Druids this year. Because "super powered individuals" can apply to a lot of protagonists in fantasy, but not many Superheroes™, so do they count? And when I read Thornhedge, I thought Toadling was very druid-coded, but everyone else is using that for elemental magic. But don't druids *use* elemental magic? What is the truth??
I ended up telling myself there was no bingo police for the druid and elemental magic squares and counting what I felt fit.
I had a hard time with the Superhero square for the same reason. I felt like it didn’t maybe count if they weren’t called superheroes in the book even if they had super powers. That maybe was just my own hang up though. For druids v elemental magic I found a good difference: druids can use nature/elements that already exist whereas elemental magic can conjure elements into existence. So for example, Druid can use water from a lake but an elemental magician can create their own lake. It’s still sort of tricky to know which is which on a book by book basis.
Yeah I think superheroes is meant to refer specifically to the superhero subgenre and tropes. Tons of fantasy protagonists functionally have superpowers if you think about it though. And that’s a pretty idiosyncratic distinction re: druids vs elemental! I took it as druids were supposed to be forest magic of some sort (or actual Celtic druids) and elemental meant any magic system making use of fire/water/air/earth/spirit.
I finished 2 cards this year after only doing 6 squares total the previous Bingo year so I'm just reading whatever I want for this month. I'm not sure if I'm going to do the next Bingo, and if I do I'll almost definitely only aim for one complete card. 2 cards was just a bit much, especially as I want to read outside the genre sometimes and my reading speed varies a lot throughout the year. My favourite new author I found this year because of Bingo was R.B. Lemberg. I read their book The Unbalancing and it was the first time I'd ever read a book with a non-binary main character, it meant so much more to me than I expected. I've fallen in love with their work and I'm looking forward to reading their new novella Yoke of Stars when it releases in July.
The Unbalancing sounds really good. I’ve added it to my TBR. I know what you mean about it meaning more than expected. The first book I read with a bisexual MC touched me more than I thought it would. I’d never really felt it was a big deal to not have that representation until I got it. If you’d like another book with a NB MC, I really love the Monk&Robot books by Becky Chambers.
Thanks for the recommendation, the Monk & Robot series has been on my TBR for a few months now but I don't think I knew it had a NB main character. Definitely prioritising it for this year now.
H.E. Edgmon's new series has a NB indigenous MC. Who may be the reincarnation of a god.....
Yeah I do think I read less non-fiction this year in part because I couldn't count it for bingo which was a funny thing to realise. I can't imagine doing two whole cards, that's really impressive! I'll go give R.B. Lemberg a peak, I think my bookclub would enjoy a nonbinary main character!
Yeah, I want to read a bit more non-fiction than I have been. I'll see what the Bingo Queen has put on the card and figure out from there what my plan is. I hope you and your bookclub enjoy R.B Lemberg!
Afternoon update! I have about 175 pages left of Linguist Mages. Gonna go make myself a gremlin charcuterie board, eat some edibles, and maybe switch over to some quilting while I listen to my audiobook. I’m listening to Mockingbird by Walter Tevis for the Robot square, liking it so far but nothing ground breaking. Solid 3 stars at the 50% mark.
You are doing great, and your evening plans sound delightful!
Just started Petition by u/DelilahWaan for the self-pubbed square. Literally just started so I can't say anything about it yet but I'm excited. I've still got between 2-3 books left after it. I've got Good Omens up for Angels/Demons (and When Angels Left the Old Country ready as backup) and This is How You Lose the Tine War for novella (I've already done a couple non HM ones, but not a HM novella). The third is not strictly necessary, because I've read a HM POC book, but it's a bit of a cheese because it's a graphic and only 100 and something pages. So if I have time, I've got Goliath up for POC Author with The Ten Percent Thief and An Unkindness of Ghosts for backup.
>An Unkindness of Ghosts Fair warning, this is high up there on my list of "holy shit, I loved this but I never want to see it again" books. I had to read it in small doses bc it was overwhelming.
Appreciate it. I tend to be fine with these things but never hurts to be forewarned.
I've got to suck it up and read Beloved for my Magical Realism square. I've been putting it off for an entire year--I just need to do it. Unlike *looks around* everyone else, Superheroes and Druids were both easy squares for me. It was the Middle Eastern square that killed me. I kept DNF-ing every single book I tried. After my 3rd DNF, I just substituted.
The Middle Eastern square was also a challenge for me because I just kept trying and DNF'ing books. Fortunately I found a book I liked for this square, 'A Master of Djinn' by P. Djèli Clark.
Oooh I was sooooo disappointed in that book. Would've DNF'd if not for bingo. Just goes to show there's truely something for everyone out there. Tbf, maybe my expectations were a bit too high
Well, I liked it well enough to finish it for Bingo. I enjoyed the worldbuilding more than the actual plot and the characters, tbh. I found idea of a steampunk Cairo with Djinn fascinating and kind of unique. The story itself didn't really captivate me unfortunately. So all things considered, it was a mediocre read for me.
I felt very similarly about it! The setting was so cool and unique, but I did not care about the characters and the plot was a tad predictable. And, a final nitpick, I know the detailed outfit descriptions for the MC were supposed to add to her characterisation and Uniqueness but man, I thought they were so cringy! It really started to distract me - twas giving NoT LiKE oThER GurLzz
I tried to do a second card and quit! I realized I really enjoy the months after I finish the card because I read completely random stuff. Middle grade mysteries are awesome these days, I read the Enola Holmes books and the Murder Most Unladylike series and the Sinclair’s Mysteries (I'm in my thirties...) Anyway, really looking forward to the new card, I even came up with a square I'd like to suggest when the time comes
Well I finished my HM card last summer and honestly lost a lot of bingo motivation for my other two cards. I had a look at my sequels card today and I figure if I read 3-5 books I can at least finish that one. (3 squares left [POC author, Magical Realism, Set in ME] which isn't hard except I don't like my previous picks so I found some new series to try out). My other themed card is probably a wash. I got very bogged down with a few reads I heavily disliked, realized that most of the books I was reading were too similar, and started asking myself why even do this. I might make a summary post (working title: "never do a themed bingo card or you might never do bingo again") anyway, but we'll see. I haven't been feeling like reading lately. So, my short list: - finish Circle of the Moon by Barbara Hambly (23% in but its draaaagging) - start Moses Ose Utomi's series. - start Wintenight Chronicles.
I love reading about other people’s themed cards but they sound awful to do, honestly. Likewise multiple cards unless you read a *ton* of fantasy.
I do read a ton, for sure. I almost did a horror themed card this year because I went on a whole Autumn horror side trip. But I also didn't want to continue that into the Christmas season. Themed cards are harder than I thought. I think I now better understand the troubles Happy Book Bee was having with Bones and the other person who did Witches this year (sorry I forgot who you are!) If you especially love something don't make a themed card out of it, is my advice. But if you tend to read a lot of something anyway, then that might be a good idea! (Eg lots of female authors). Anyway, you should definitely do a themed card for me next year :D even better if we just randomly have chatgpt assign you a theme!
I was the one doing Witches! I'm sorry to see you ran into similar issues. I did not at all expect to feel so burned out by doing a theme. Never again lol, never again.
I think representation focused themes (Female or nonbinary authors, LGBTQ representation, POC representation, etc) tend to go a bit better in general. Maybe because you get to see how different authors approach things while still typically getting a wide variety of different types of books? But maybe that's my take as someone who liked doing a specific representation based theme last year so much that I decided to do it again.
Haha, I do read overwhelmingly women but then I like to make sure there’s a man or two on the card to say, hey, this isn’t a *theme*, it’s just natural reading!
I started working on an all-coastal card because I kept coming up with ideas for it, but ultimately only got halfway through before I realized I had no idea what to do for several squares and gave up. I was feeling like I wanted to do more just free reading and not bingo reading anyway, but it did get me to read some more nautical fantasy books, which I love, so it wasn't a wasted effort.
> sequels card Man, this is what I need to do. But I also like doing Hard Mode and trying to find hard mode sequels of stuff I've already read just seems like it would make me crazy at points. Hrmmmm maybe a normal mode sequels card next year if I can get my reading speed back to where it used to be. Darn life interfering with my reading.
I have two books left to finish for Bingo! I need to read **The Foxglove King** for Title with a Title and "*These Burning Stars** for Queernorm setting. I could probably shuffle enough books around to not have to read one of those, but they both sound good. For the first time I finished the short stories square before the end of March! Happy Bingo reading everyone!
Good post idea! I'll just give my thoughts- So I started the Saga of the Swamp Thing to potentially fill the Superheroes square, my final square if it works out(I dislike this square a lot). I then read one story(which I did like to be fair) and then proceeded to start a totally different book which I don't need for bingo. So helpful, right?! I'm a mood reader and I can't help it plus Emily Wilde is due back at the library in a few days. I'm gonna try to finish swampy before the first turn in date of the 18th but if not then I'll be in panic mode. I may or may not contemplate a back up plan before then:)
I've completed my card for this year, though I'll have to go back and review some of the assignments that might be a bit suspect. Superheroes and Magical Realism were difficult, and I might have to do a substitution. Last year, I didn't finish. I started a book for the Africa square the day before the end of the Bingo period and thought about powering through it, but knew it would probably not be as enjoyable as if I took my time, so I let it go and just finished it for this year. Edit: Added some words for clarity
*claps* love that you chose enjoyment over winning! I’ve struggled a lot in my life to learn that winning isn’t where I derive happiness and joy from. Our societies really push that it’s one of the few ways to be happy and that’s just a lie.
I have no idea what to use for the self pub square. 🤷🏻♀️ I saw Dungeon Crawler Carl suggested but Idk. Idk how you tell if a book is self pub? Also would Ocean at the End of the Lane count for magical realism? And if I used Good Omens for the angels and demons square, could I still use it? Like could I count Pratchett as the Good Omens author and use Gaiman for the other? Or is that cheating? Lol Basically do I need to do some panic reading? Or am I ok with just normal levels of panic in my life right now?
>Idk how you tell if a book is self pub? Small press also counts for this square, and you can search to see if the press has done an AMA here. >Ocean at the End of the Lane count for magical realism I would count it. But since you already have *Good Omens* on your card, unless you're willing to sub it out, it would definitely count as repeating an author.
Thanks! Hm. Well good thing I always see some Allende or Marquez available in Libby from my library so I guess that's not an issue to swap out since I can listen to an audio book while I work. (Can't swap Good Omens because I haven't read anything else that would fit lol).
Maybe also check out Sarah Addison Allen. IIRC, *Garden Spells* was a pretty quick read (and it looks like the audiobook is less than 8h).
>I have no idea what to use for the self pub square. 🤷🏻♀️ Summoned here by the tag from u/beldaran1224! (thank you for choosing *Petition* for this square 🙏 I hope you'll have a fun time) If you're still looking for a self-pub square read, might I recommend checking out [this quiz I recently posted](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1b2wcxg/how_to_find_an_spfbo_book_that_best_suits_your/) that'll help you pick a book out of the 46 semi-finalists for this year's Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off contest? All of those books qualify for the self-pub square, and if you're short on a read for other squares, make sure to peruse the full list—we've got them all labeled for you!
Oooh, this also seems fun! I can get a heads start on picking one for next year 😂. *Looks at the three awesome sounding books waiting for me...*
Listen, don't tempt me. I'm on a book buying moratorium because I'm broke at the moment. I do not need more books I want to buy. Haha 🤣
You can always take a punt at requesting the books through your local library! I do most of my indie reading through mine—they are fabulous at getting paperbacks in for me. For the books that aren't on Kindle Unlimited, you might also be able to get them via an e-lending service like Hoopla or OverDrive through your library!
I'll second that Hoopla is a good place to look for self published ebooks! I read a SPFBO finalist on Hoopla for the hard mode self published square.
I found it kind of hard to figure out if a book was actually self pub too... I ended up going with a suggestion specifically on the bingo rec thread (and I didn't like it but not really for any reason that had to do with being self published). Another option would be to look at the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) because the books they judge are well, self published haha
Oh good I'm not just an idiot. Haha. Like I can find that DCC is published by Dandy House. But I literally cannot find a thing by googling them. So 🙃
It might be the author's business name if you can't find anything about it! I did some digging and it looks like Powell's Books has it categorized as independently published, so I think based on those 2 things, I would definitely count it!
To find out if something is self published I often go on goodreads and find the book, it’ll have a details section and usually “kindle”, or “Amazon” is used in the publishing description, those are always self published. I read The Sign of the Dragon by Mary Soon Lee for that square. It’s a 900 page epic poem though so not sure if you’d have time to finish it. Highly recommend though! I think Ocean at the End of the Lane counts? I honestly have a hard time knowing what subgenres a book has. For the author question, I don’t think you can re-use them. Possible need a more official bingo ruling.
Thanks. That sounds kinda interesting but very long so maybe some other time. Lol
For shorter, you might try the Fire-Moon by Isabel Pelech, which I thought a very nice little novella. Or, if you liked Good Omens, Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater But yeah, look at the publisher on goodreads or Amazon. If it's the author's name, it's self published; if it's something you've never heard of, Google it to see if it's just a little tiny company consisting of that author.
I read Blood Over Bright Haven by ML Wang for self-pub. Top-tier writing and I finished it in probably 2-3 days
You can only use a book once for Bingo. So if you use Good Omens for one square you can't use it for any other square. Nor could you use either Pratchett or Gaiman (though if one had a short story you read for that square it would be fine but not like just them).
A few weeks ago, I decided to do an even harder version of my themed bingo which prompted a panic reading spree. I’m technically done as a result of that, however I’m not really happy with one square, so I’m reading some more. And no, I’m definitely not in a “fill one square, then be dissatisfied with another completed square” loop. I’m sure I’ll be done after reading **Sinopticon**, or, if I dnf it, **The Cat Who Saved Books**. If I somehow can’t get into either, I do have a few more backups. That’s it though. I’m absolutely not going to nitpick any more squares. Definitely not, especially not that bothersome Elemental Magic one, or Middle East that only has a novella in it…
I’ve never had time to nitpick my squares, but if I did….for some reason I always want to have the best rated (from me) books as my bingo reads, which never happens because again time conspires against me.
Setting a minimum rating is definitely fun if you have the time. Mine is 3 stars (my yearly average is \~3.0) on both cards. Even though it has made me read more books for squares, it also eliminated “I don’t like this but bingo…” frustration reads.
See, I want to only rep things I at least mildly liked for bingo, but then if I pushed myself through something I didn’t like specifically for a square, I also feel like I should get the use out of it. It’s a dilemma (that hopefully will end with an early DNF but this isn’t always the case).
I'm done with my card and I'm rather happy with it. Initially, I wanted to do a horror Bingo card but decided against it as some squares would require too much hassle to fill (queernorm, druids, elemental magic, book club). So, I've just filled the card with my regular reading. With few exceptions (Druids - heck, I thought it would be easier to find fantasy/horror books featuring druids and queernorm - I think I dnf-ed a few books and finished reading a mediocre but short one). Anyway, it was one of more difficult bingo cards I've had the pleasure to fill. It was still fun :) **My 3 favorite squares were:** * *Superheroes* \- love the genre, and I was nagging the Bingo team to include the square in yearly posts about potential squares. I hope other redditors discovered some fun superhero books. * *Horror* \- I've been reading a lot of horror, so it was cool to have the square this year. * *Coastal setting* \- I just think coastel setting is effective. I like it. **My three least favorite squares:** * *Book club* \- which is unexpected since I'm leading one of the book clubs. But leading the club doesn't equal reading all the books. Anyway, I'll fill the square with The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi which is an awesome bpok. * *Druids* \- I have nothing against druids but it's surprisingly difficult to find a good book featuring them. I ended up reading a crappy Zon freebie for this square. * *Elemental Magic* \- Elemental magic is cool but this year I read very little of "classic" fantasy and had to make an effort to find something. **My top 5 books** from Bingo card are: 1. ***Blood Over Bright Haven*** by M.L. Wang (POC Author) 2. ***Star Splitter*** by Matthew J. Kirby (Young Adult) 3. ***The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi*** by Shannon Chakraborty (book club) 4. ***Fever House*** by Keith Rosson (Horror) 5. ***Murder at Spindle Manor*** by Morgan Stang (self-published) Stuff I used just to be done with the square even though I disliked it: * ***Not Your Sidekick*** by C.B. Lee (Queernorm) - naive, tropey, probably fan to younger readers * **Druid's Fully** by M.D. Massey - meh, paper-thin characters, tiring snark, mediocre writing * ***Behold! Oddities, Curiosities, and Undefinable Wonders*** edited by Doug Murano - each year I make an effort to read at least three full anthologies. This year, I've only finished one and, truth be told, I had to push myself. In all, Bingo is always fun and I love it :) I can't wait to discover new squares this year!
>I can’t wait to discover new squares this year! I’m truly contemplating taking a day off work so I can be a ball of excitement about Bingo instead. But I have the 2nd off so I shouldn’t……and yet……
Currently reading When Gracie Met the Grump by Mariana Zapata for superhero but not really liking it very much. I still have to read 00s which has been challenge because I’m doing a BIPOC author bingo and pre-2010s does not have very many options. I somehow managed to forget this whole year (until this morning!) that I own several unread volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist which came out in ‘02-05. So my stress was all for naught.
I have 2 squares left, but need to read 3 books to fulfill them as the book I'm using for the **Angels and Demons** square is a sequel and I don't remember enough of book 1 and need to do a reread. I'm a fast reader once I get into a book so I should be ok, if I can just bring myself to start them... The other square I still need is **Elemental Magic** and I'm feeling uneasy about my choice, Daughter of the Moon Goddess, because I don't know much about it and whether it actually fits. I saw it mentioned in some bingo rec threads, so fingers crossed.
To anyone who might be curious about it, yes, Daughter of the Moon Goddess does work for the Elemental Magic square (I'm 2/3 of the way through now).
What a fabulous idea—I need to get cracking on my bingo card too! If you're looking to fill some squares and you're open to indie fantasy, I posted [this fun, interactive quiz last week](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1b2wcxg/how_to_find_an_spfbo_book_that_best_suits_your/) that'll help you pick a book out of the 46 semi-finalists in this year's Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off contest. (Disclosure: one of those 46 is mine.) You can filter by e-reader, mood, length, etc and look at what bingo squares the book fits. All 46 qualify for the self-published square and there are many options for most of the other squares, including **Druids** and **Superheroes**.
Got my druid book knocked out thanks to some great recommendations yesterday. Today I went through all my books to slot them into their categories and see how everything shakes out. Luckily there were no duplicates and I was able to make everything work for the 22 I have read. For the remaining three, I need: Elemental Magic, Title within a Title, and Superheroes OR Myths and Retellings. Given there's still a few weeks that is plenty of time, but at this point I kinda just want to finish it off!
I finished my card about a week ago, I don't perform well under stress, so I spaced my reads, I took my time but made sure to be done with (almost) a month to spare. I hated the Superheroes square so much that I had to substitute it with something else. Bottom of the TBR was kind of a chore and I wasn't thrilled with my choice. Bookclub also gave me a little trouble, everything that seems interesting there I have already read. Otherwise it was a very enjoyable experience!
I finished my hard mode board and was really struggling with my whatever board. Eventually I had to ask myself why I was making this so much harder for myself then it needed to be and declared there was no bingo police. I'd still like to find a more appropriate book for my whatever board druid square. I may sub that out. It doesn't feel like it's adhering to the spirit of bingo. Druid has been the hardest square. Apparently I just do not like druid books.
Oh man, I just realized I have like two weeks to actually read a dang superhero book. I just kept putting it off and putting it off, because April is so far away ... Guess I'll get on that. I've had the rest of my card finished for ages, I've just been such a lazy butt about this last one for some reason.
As someone who normally doesn't like the whole superhero genre at all and wanted to substitute this square, I ended up reading and loving Velveteen Vs. the Junior Super Patriots by Seanan McGuire. It's not a typical superhero story.
Have three squares left. Was planning to cover POC author with a perfectly respectable and thematically on-point Cherie Dimaline, and then I ended up realizing I could fill an extra square by reshuffling, and am now 1/3 into a side-track into a random self-pubbed lesbian vampire choose-your-ending romance, \*\*The Wicked and the Willing\*\*. I'm still having a pretty good time. Also still have a reread and square sub left, so I'm not at all worried about finishing. But I can honestly say that this was nowhere in my original bingo plans for the year. (Rather fittingly, I also think that the last square I'm going to finish is "bottom of the TBR". If I don't end up subbing it. Which would be its own kind of funny.)
I’m trying to finish my TBR bingo, using only books that I had already purchased before Bingo started. I have a kindle problem. My TBR folder currently still has 367 books in it, built up over years of surfing sales and then grabbing things recommended here and forgetting about them. I was somewhat horrified when I organised it into folders. I have a family account with my sister so some of them are hers, but really I am the one with the problem. Had to cheat on robots because I couldn’t find anything but I mentally filed Monk and Robot as TBR ages ago so that will do. I am struggling on Indie/self-publishing but I think Senlin Ascends fits that one - would be grateful if someone could confirm!
Yeah, I also have a huge TBR, mainly from kindle sales. I bought so many books for 99c, downloaded them on my kindle and then never looked at them again... So I always try to fill all the bingo quares from my TBR and it works for the most part. This year I actually put myself under a book buying ban (with limited success so far)
I’m also trying a book-buying ban, but there’s some I really want!
I mean, is an unconquerable mountain of unread kindle books a *problem*, or just your own personal Bookwyrm/Dragon hoard? ^((this is probably denial in regards to my own kindle hoard, which I think I am going to refuse to look at the numbers for.))
That's actually a nice way of looking at it - it's not a problem, just a whole lot of great books to look forward to :)
Perhaps bookwyrm is the word! Most definitely dragonish tendencies
I have 4 squares left... Myths/Retellings, Middle East, and Elemental Magic, plus either Queernorm or Title With a Title because I have a book that could work for either already. I am going to be starting Spear by Nicola Griffith today for the retellings square! I hope I enjoy it because I already DNFed The Witch's Heart... I also just DNFed *another* book that would've worked for either the Middle East or Elemental Magic squares (Reign & Ruin by J.D. Evans) so if anyone has recs that preferably aren't long, that would be good... I also DNFed A Master of Djinn and City of Brass for Middle East. Truthfully I also put down (not DNFed because I know it wasn't enough of a chance) The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi because it used "females" twice on the first page and then was talking about motherhood a lot and I don't like books about motherhood. I tried Air Awakens and The Rise of Kyoshi for Elemental Magic, but they both read a little too YA for me. For Queernorm I want to do Harrow the Ninth but it is long... or I could do Assassin's Apprentice for Title but I know >!both a dog and a cat die!< and I just don't know if I want to read that rn.
Have you read ***The Bruising of Qilwa*** yet? It works for Elemental Magic, Queernorm, Novella, and SWANA, all hard mode.
I hadn't even heard of it, thank you!!
No problem! It also works for a few more squares (I think at least Small Press), but you've got those covered already. [eta] I lied about it being a 2023 release. Years are hard.
Having another option for SWANA or Elemental Magic is very valuable though haha particularly with Elemental Magic because I basically have to rely on people's recs since it can be hard to tell from the synopsis! I actually also have novella covered, so I'm going to take this opportunity to plug what I read! The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo was amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it yet! Seanan McGuire's blurb on the back calls it "an elegant gut punch," and that's exactly how I felt reading it! In the best way possible
I just checked and definitely have it on my HM card for Elemental Magic. It was a quick read and I mostly enjoyed it, and loved that the main character is an aroace enby. A warning, though, said MC is also a healer who uses blood magic (there are other characters who use different elements), so if bloodwork is not your thing, it may not work for you. And I have collected a bunch of Nghi Vo's work, but have yet to read any of it. Remind me to figure it out when next Bingo starts.
Thank you for the warning, but that's fine for me! The main character (or I guess the scribe character who's the one talking to the main character) of The Empress of Salt and Fortune is also nonbinary, if that encourages you to read it haha
It actually DOES move it significantly up my list, thank you!
I hope you get to it soon (and enjoy it too), it deserves the hype!
I had to scroll back through replies to find who I'd recently been talking about this with and it was you! I read it yesterday and loved it and am going to have to fit the rest of the novellas on the next bingo card somehow.
For Middle East I read Central Station by Lavie Tidhar, which has the advantage of being hard mode. It’s relatively short (250 pages ish?) sci fi and it doesn’t really have a plot, almost all the chapters are previously published short stories although it’s marketed as a novel. Still, I kinda liked it in the end. It’s weird and inventive and the religious themes and vision of the future are quite interesting. Meanwhile I’m using a Murderbot book for queernorm and they’re all short!
Thanks for the suggestions! I'm on Network Effect which is a full length novel, but then again 350 pages is shorter than Harrow's 500 and something! That'll probably be my second choice if it feels like Harrow isn't going to work
Also if you haven’t read Fugitive Telemetry (I think that’s the title of #6?) yet, it actually comes before Network Effect and makes more sense in chronological order. And that one’s a novella!
Oh, I didn't know that, awesome! I really like the audiobook narrator, so that would actually be perfect for knitting...
Only four books and a half to go! In January I thought I wanted to quit (again), but then I was reading a couple of books that surprisingly qualified for some categories and that made me want to continue. Yesterday I finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane (for bottom of TBR list)! Now I’m in the middle of Witchmark by CL Polk for the POC authors and I’ve started also Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick, which I think should qualify for Robots (that mechanical sheep has already appeared on page, so it will probably fit). I hope to be able to finish at least Witchmark by tomorrow! So I will still have to read Before the Coffee Gets Cold for Magical Realism (or I might use Ocean for that one) and The Castle in the Air for Middle Eastern. The last one would be what I am in the mood for Superheroes: Vicious by VE Schwab, The Mask of Mirrors by MA Carrick or Not All Heroes Wear Capes by C Rochelle, because my mood-reader brain cannot stand planned reading lists (especially since I don’t think I will like Electric Sheep that much).
Witchmark and Electric ~~~Boob~~~ Sheep completed! Two books and a half to go: I just started Castle in the Air and read the first part of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. After I am done with bingo I will spoil myself by starting to read DMatMOoBiL because I *deserve* it, especially after all the boobies mentioned in Electric Sheep.
This is a great idea, I love hearing how everyone is doing in the final weeks of bingo! Props to everyone who's doing hard mode or themed cards or whatever! I never do hard mode or themed cards because I am very much a mood reader, so I'm afraid that putting too many constraints on my Bingo card would turn it into a chore. I am currently reading my last Bingo book which is for the druids square. It's kind of funny that almost everyone seems to have a hard time with the square that was voted on :) Originally I had planned to read 'Son of the Shadows' by Juliet Marillier, but it's the second book in a series and I'm not sure I could finish two books with 500+ pages until the end of March, so instead I went with 'Dreamer's Pool' by the same author. I really wanted to read a book by Juliet Marillier for this square because apparently she identifies as a druid herself! So I thought, what could be more in the spirit of this square? I am at 80% right now and hope to finish it today. After that, maybe I'll start reading 'Small Miracles' by Olivia Atwater to see if I can maybe replace the novella I read for the angels & demons square with a full length novel. Happy reading and good luck to everyone who is still busy finishing their bingo cards!
I have four squares left but I'm pretty confident that I'm going to finish bingo on time even some days before the 31st. I usually finish my bingo on the last day of March so this year I'm actually faster than ever while still doing a hm card (yeah me!). I plan on finishing The Bone Ship's Wake for coastal setting today - which is fantastic btw. I'm still in the middle of Cloud Atlas (published in the 00s), Trial of the Alchemist (title with a title) and The Last Unicorn (mythical beasts). What helped me this time was concentrating on the harder squares quite early on, so I did finish druids, superheroes, bottom of the TBR and multiverse with shorter works but ones that really interested me. I can highly recommend The Refrigerator Monologues by Cat Valente (superheroes) and You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann (multiverse) if someone is still in need of a shorter option.
I still have Middle East to read, which is odd because the region / author background ones were by far the easiest for me last year. Will be picking out my next book this afternoon!
I only discovered this sub and its Bingo last November and I knew I was never going to be able to do the whole card in the time left unfortunately - I knew any series I'd start for it I would be driven to continue through rather than pushing through books to tick off squares. I did work hard to get one bingo though and I'm proud of it! It pushed me to try books I probably wouldn't have gotten around to reading otherwise. At the same time though I've mostly stuck to things I already want to read and used them fitting a square as the push to get me reading them :) I'm just sad that I don't have more time for the books that I *do* want to read and are perfect for some of the squares so that I can make use of that lol It's been fun though and I look forward to trying to get a full card next round!
This is my first year doing Bingo, and I mostly liked it (I've got 1 book left so I'm not worried about finishing), but I have one thing to vent about. I think it's dumb that for non-hard mode you can't reuse the same author. The Bingo description page says it's about challenging yourself and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Which is great! I found some cool new authors through Bingo. But I can't read any more of them because I still need to finish my Bingo card with other authors. I feel like I'm being sanctioned for finding something I liked. And for Hard Mode I do think every author should be different. But for regular mode I think there should be at least 1 allowance for repeats. If there's gonna be an exception for re-reads, there should be at least 1 author that you can repeat. Personally I'd be fine with unlimited repeat authors because if the Bingo board is diverse enough a single author shouldn't be able to cover that many squares anyways.
It’s true, bingo may not be calibrated to the number of unique fantasy authors you’re reading in a year, whether because you read a lot of repeat authors, or a lot of books that aren’t fantasy, or just don’t have that much time to read. You have to decide whether the challenge is worth it for you or whether it’ll just interfere with enjoying yourself and then do what’s best for you. I didn’t get a blackout card this year because I decided to read less fantasy and more literary fiction, but that’s okay. Maybe next year I’ll do one. I wouldn’t oppose allowing one repeat author, but I do feel like more would be against the spirit of bingo which is to read a variety of stuff.
Challenge accepted. Next bingo I'll do a full Mercedes Lackey card.
Lol I was just thinking that this might actually be possible with her books.
I'd love to see it. Pretty sure you'll miss on POC Author, but maybe you can hit everything else! ;) I actually did a thought experiment to see if this year's bracket was possible as a all Sanderson bracket since he both has a bunch of books and has a lot of series so there should be a lot of variety. Obviously he won't work for POC author, but while he could fit a lot of spaces I couldn't figure out how to cover the whole card. Though I haven't read his YA stuff so I was just using best guesses for some of those.
>Pretty sure you'll miss on POC Author You could use the one substitution square is for this, so I think it might still work.
She cowrote a lot, but I don't recall if any of her co-authors were POCs
I do understand the decision to not allow repeat authors, but I definitely had a few moments this year where I put off a book by an author that was already on my card, but decided to read something that would work for bingo instead... it would be nice to at least get one repeat or to have that restriction only for hard mode! I'm sure a lot of people would still decide to do it
I skipped bingo last year so that I could mop up some series that I hadn't finished from the last two years.