A few days ago as I went to write my book bingo wrap up I realised, despite announcing it to the world in January, I never actually ended up making it. Which is a shame because it is one of my favourite challenges, not only to do but to create. Who knows what happened to distract me. But now we are here, and I made one quickly a few days ago to keep my goals alive.
In an effort not to sway my results I pulled random ones from the past bingos I have made, as well as a few online ones. I picked things I knew I hadn’t selected before and some classics because there’s so much variety in a simple bingo prompt sometimes you always get something delightful.
Then the joy came from going through the 75 or so books I had read this year and seeing if any matched. I rarely keep up with bingo anymore through the year, I make it and see come December if I made a bingo. I like this approach because I do often hit my targets, but occasionally when I pick an out there prompt like poetry or something that isn’t usually in my reading wheelhouse I feel bad and try and get a last minute read it.
Looking back at my reading there are a lot I read back in January or March that feel like a lifetime ago, a good feeling since it felt the year flew by. I read a lot of young adult, and a few picture books, though not as many as usual. I balanced out my foreign reads with local, and attempted to diversify my shelf more in terms of genre, content, and character to mixed appreciation.
I finished series, started new series, and lots of Aussie reads though those #LoveOzYA ones are still hard ones to hit when you don’t have time to read a physical book. I did some power reads in the last few days, still sought out audios instead of the three books that are currently in front of me that are all on average 200 pages (why is that???). Maybe there will be a NYE miracle. The issue is reading takes time, even the shortest audiobook on 1.5x speed takes hours to read, but it won’t stop a mad attempt to finish books to tick off an arbitrary goal I set for myself.
So it’s been a weird bingo this year, technically made and completed in the span of a few days but an honest attempt was done. I am calling this a loose definition of a win. One because yes I did make a lot of full lines, but yes I did make this last minute and I feel making and completing a bingo in a week might not be in the spirit of the challenge. I have never been a fan of using one book for multiple prompts, and I read way more than 25 books a year so I have had choice on my side. Plus with some of my categories being broad or typical reads I am usually in with a good shot of a line or two being completed by years end.
Here’s to 2025 being a better organised bingo year. I may even make one up now while the guilt is still fresh. But for now here is the breakdown of my reading achievements. I will link those with reviews when they go up.
Graphic Novel – The Adventure Zone: The Stolen Century by Clint McElroy
Lesbian MC – The Quiet and the Loud by Helena Fox
Romance – Love, Just In by Natalie Murray
Chosen for a Cover – Peep! by Meg McLaren
One word title – Mort by Terry Pratchett
Heard about Online – This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar
Historical – My Lovely Frankie by Judith Clarke
Fairytale Retelling – Other Ever Afters by Melanie Gillman
Under 200 Pages – I’m Stuck by Julia Mills
TV/Movie Adaptation – December Boys by Michael Noonan
Picked up by Chance – Untidy Towns by Kate O’Donnell
Free Choice – Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson
Won an Award – The Pause by John Larkin
#LoveOzYA – It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood
Own Voices – What are Your Words by Katherine Locke
Female author – I Don’t by Clementine Ford
Published this Year – My Family and Other Suspects by Kate Emery
Started but Never Finished – If it Makes You Happy by Claire Kahn
Non Fiction – You Don’t Have to Have a Dream by Tim Minchin
From TBR pile – Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
Reread a Series – Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
New Author – Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
This might be better than my top five lists because there is a huge difference between books that have a lasting impact and those that I gave five stars. No, I can’t explain why.
I don’t know if I am ready to see this on the big screen because the book was so wonderful and it crushes your soul. I’ve followed Jennifer Niven get excited over the past months as casting was announced and shooting happened so I am keen to see what comes of it.
This was first announced a very long time ago, then it went quiet, then there were rumours of actors who’d play Artemis, then it disappeared again. Now it’s back and it actually snuck under the radar for quite a while. I am very excited about this story. It is combining the first three books into one which I am actually ok with. I just hope they do the story justice. I need cunning, unapologetic Artemis and anything else won’t be good enough.
There has only ever been one Little Women for me and that is the 1994 movie with Susan Sarandon that I owned on video and rewatched numerous times over the years. I have given the 2017 miniseries a go and while I enjoyed it but it was also a bit forgettable. I am looking forward to the new movie because the cast looks amazing and this is a story I’ve always loved so it will be exciting to see how it is retold.
After That Movie which I will never forgive them for, when I heard there was going to be a miniseries done by the BBC it was as if all my dreams had come true. Miniseries and TV shows generally pan better than a movie because there is time to work through the events in the book and establish things better. Each book will be getting a series and with 8 episodes I think there is a fantastic chance of getting a great exploration of the plot. Now, as long as the ending stays the same and they don’t do whatever it was that they did to that poor movie, then we should be right!
The only version I have ever seen of this is the 1993 film. While I own the book I don’t think I ever finished reading it so I might have to rectify that one day. I love this story a lot and seeing it in a new way sounds exciting. Remakes of classic stories like this I am more open to than remaking movies for no reason. Highly illogical no doubt, but I don’t mind.
I’m adding Looking for Alaska because while there is no air date, it has started shooting and I am so excited for this series that I need to talk about it at every opportunity. I have no idea who any of the people in the cast are, their names and faces mean nothing to me, but I am instantly willing to love them all for helping bring Alaska to life. I am in constant fear it will be terrible, but this is a risk all book lovers face when they make movies of their favourite books. We’ve been teased for over ten years this book will be a movie and now it is a miniseries which is even better. I cannot wait to have my emotions and my soul crushed into a thousand pieces.
Where does the time go? Today marks my third anniversary of this blog. It has been an absolute joy, every year has been so different and I am still learning and working out the kinks, and in between that I get to read fantastic books from fantastic authors and share them with the world, literally the world. That’s pretty awesome if you think about it.
