BingoDog Planning Thread

The final list is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/365342#8666366

Bingo cards are here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/365342#8680083

The wiki page is here: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2025_BingoDOG

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It’s time to start planning for the 2025 BingoDog! Please feel free to start posting your ideas and suggestions in this thread. I’ll compile the list of suggestions below.

We try not to reuse any ideas from the previous two years, so in the post following this one, I’ve listed the 2024 and 2023 squares for reference.

As you may know, HelenLiz has organized the BingoDog for the past few years, and I just joined the group last year, so I’d appreciate your help in narrowing down the topics since I lack HelenLiz’s experience and haven’t been around long enough to entirely grasp the group gestalt. Feel free to discuss the suggestions and post your feedback about which ideas you particularly like or dislike.

I figure we can take maybe 3 or 4 weeks to compile the list and narrow it down. I’ll post a “last call” and then post the final list of 24 ideas (square 13, the free space, is typically “Read a CAT”), and we can refine it further if needed.

Ideas list:

1. Originally published in a language other than your own
   
2. With a primarily red cover
   
3. Features adoption/foster care (or more broadly, a non-traditional family)
   
4. The sun on the cover/in the title
   
5. Food on the cover (challenge mode: cannot be a cookbook)
   
6. Author has the same first or last name as someone in your family (can be you but doesn't have to be)
   
7. Author who passed away before you were born
   
8. About a place you've never been (challenge mode: cannot be a fictional place)
   
9. Medical topic (can be nonfiction, biography/memoir, or fiction)
   
10. Difficult to classify (ie, Is this fiction or nonfiction? Is this mystery or romance? Is this MDS 300s or 500s?)
    
11. Book with 'black' or 'white' in the title
    
12. Recommended by a friend
    
13. Reread a book that you can't remember much about (but know that you've read before)
    
14. About education (non-fiction, or fiction where education is important to the plot)
    
15. Has a film you haven't seen before (can be film based on the book, or book based on the film)
    
16. Book you got secondhand
    
17. Surprised you/didn't end the way you expected
    
18. An LT auto-recommendation
    
19. A book with a long title (five or more words)
    
20. A book of poetry
    
21. A book published more than 50 years ago
    
22. Narrated by a non-human character (animal, robot, alien...)
    
23. Featuring fire
    
24. Featuring a birth
    
25. A book in your favorite genre
    
26. fairy tale or fairy tale retelling
    
27. A book with a holiday in the title
    
28. A book with either "Library" or "Thing" in the title
    
29. featuring winged creatures
    
30. part of a series
    
31. Related to or featuring a movie or television show
    
32. Pastiche or spin-off
    
33. A book with a number in the title
    
34. A book that has a single letter as a title
    
35. A "new" classic (a book that is newly come into public domain; e.g., published in 1930)
    
36. A gift (a book that you got as a gift)
    
37. Totally random (a book either selected from LT's randomization algorithm or your own list randomized however you do it)
    
38. Writing about writers (a biography or memoir about an author, poet, playwright, screenwriter, or songwriter)
    
39. So help me! (self-help book about anything from dieting to decluttering to programming to learning a foreign language...)
    
40. The oldest book in your TBR stacks
    
41. Complete 180" - read a book published from the other side of the world (could also be the author's country of origin)
    
42. Revisit a book you rated poorly/DNF
    
43. Read a graphic novel or an illustrated book
    
44. Self-published works (things like zines) or from a small press
    
45. Relates to time
    
46. Favorite childhood story
    
47. Child as a main character
    
48. A borrowed book
    
49. An easy read for you
    
50. Gothic
    
51. Hollywood!
    
52. Travel
    
53. Written by an author using a pseudonym
    
54. A piece of furniture on the cover
    
55. First or last book in a series
    
56. Set in favorite season
    
57. Takes place in a remote location
    
58. One character is a talking animal
    
59. Title contains a profession
    

For reference, here are the last two years’ squares:

2024 Bingo squares

1 Food or Cooking
2 A book with an ugly cover
3 A book with nothing on the cover but the title and author
4 Features twins
5 A topic about which you have specific knowledge
6 Published in year ending in 24
7 Epistolary or diary
8 Big or little in title
9 A book from one of the libraries listed under the "Similar libraries" featured on your LT profile page
10 About friendship
11 Three-word title
12 Paper-based item in plot
13 Read a CAT
14 Short story collection
15 Person's name in title
16 Set in a city
17 A book with fewer than 100 copies on LT
18 Something written by a person of colour
19 Written by an author 65 or older
20 Featuring water
21 Involves warriors or mercenaries
22 Re-read a favourite book
23 Written in another cultural tradition
24 Something that takes place in multiple countries
25 Current or recent best-seller

2023 Bingo squares

1 A bestseller from 20 years ago
2 A book about a topic you don’t usually read
3 A book rated above 4 on LT
4 A book that taught you something
5 A memoir
6 A popular author’s first book
7 Art or Craft related
8 Author who shares your zodiac sign
9 book by a local/regional author where you live/have lived
10 Book is set on a plane, train or ship
11 Features a cat (cats) or member of the cat family (leopard, lion, tiger, etc.)
12 Inn or Hotel.
13 Involves an accident
14 Journalist or journalism
15 More than 1000 (or some other number) copies on LT.
16 Music or musician
17 Read a CAT
18 Small town or rural setting
19 STEM topic
20 Switched or stolen identities
21 The next book in a series you started
22 Title contains a number or quantity
23 With a book on the cover
24 With a plant in the title or on the cover
25 Written by an author under 30

Thank you Charon and thanks to HelenLiz for her sterling work over the past few years.

>3 pamelad: I hope I can do half as good a job as HelenLiz has done! She’s already given me some great advice and has offered to help if I need it.

I'm new this year to the category challenge, but here are a couple ideas, if others like them:

A) Originally published in a language other than your own
B) With a primarily red cover
C) Features adoption/foster care (or more broadly, a non-traditional family)
D) The sun on the cover/in the title
E) Food on the cover (challenge mode: cannot be a cookbook)
F) Author has the same first or last name as someone in your family (can be you but doesn't have to be)
G) Author who passed away before you were born
F) About a place you've never been (challenge mode: cannot be a fictional place)
H) Medical topic (can be nonfiction, biography/memoir, or fiction)
I) Difficult to classify (ie, Is this fiction or nonfiction? Is this mystery or romance? Is this MDS 300s or 500s?)
J) Book with 'black' or 'white' in the title
K) Recommended by a friend
L) Reread a book that you can't remember much about (but know that you've read before)
M) About education (non-fiction, or fiction where education is important to the plot)
N) Has a film you haven't seen before (can be film based on the book, or book based on the film)
O) Book you got secondhand
P) Surprised you/didn't end the way you expected

I may be back with more... BingoDog sounds very exciting.

An LT auto-recommendation (every couple of weeks LT sends us a list of books we might like).
A book with a long title (five or more words).

>5 GraceCollection: A nice list, though I think this one -- P) Surprised you/didn't end the way you expected -- might be difficult. The challenge is that a square is usually something knowable about the book. If you're among the folks who plan your reading with the Bingo card in mind, you can choose a book because of its color or its length or what's on the cover of what the author's name is. But you can't plan this one; you'd just have to hope that you read something during the year that surprised you.

And "E) Food on the cover" seems awfully close to this year's "food or cooking"

Some other suggestions:

A book of poetry
A book published more than 50 years ago
Narrated by a non-human character (animal, robot, alien...)
Featuring fire
Featuring a birth

Read a book in your favorite genre.

>7 KeithChaffee: Thanks for the feedback! I based that one loosely on 2023 square 4: A book that taught you something. I reckon, you can hope a book will teach you something new, but you can't be sure until after you've read it. I figured surprise was rather the same way.

I really like the non-human narrator idea!

No ideas at the moment, but wanting to follow along more easily.

Oh, here's one. How about:

- fairy tale or fairy tale retelling

>1 Charon07: Thanks for organizing the Bingo card this year!

Suggestions
A book with a holiday in the title
A book with either "Library" or "Thing" in the title
featuring winged creatures
part of a series

>12 lowelibrary: I really like 'Library or Thing in the title!' Very fun.

Thanks for taking this one on. It's been fun, but just comes at the wrong time of year for me, work wise.

>6 pamelad: An LT auto-recommendation (every couple of weeks LT sends us a list of books we might like). Does it? Not one I've seen. There are the auto recommendations from the home page, if people haven't opted into the mail version.

>15 Helenliz: Have you turned off New Recommendations? It’s in Notifications.

Honestly, I don’t have much interest in what an algorithm “recommends” to me. A person, who can actually think about the question? Sure, that might be interesting. But some artificial “intelligence “? Couldn’t care less.

Thank you, Charon and Helen! I don't have any ideas (yet), but I love what's on offer so far.

>16 pamelad: Yes, initially it was coming up with far too many to be of any use or interest.

How about:
Related to or featuring a movie or television show
Set in a shared world or a character/ universe where more than one author has written

>20 amberwitch: "Set in a shared world or a character/ universe where more than one author has written"
Not sure what this would look like. Sounds like a sci-fi or fantasy to me? Could you please explain this a bit more. Thanks. (For past BingoDogs, the idea was to make the topics inclusive enough so participants could find something to fit.)

>21 LadyoftheLodge: I think shared worlds mostly is a SFF phenomenon, but I was thinking broader - examples could be Gone with the wind and Scarlett, the many permutations of Sherlock Holmes, or where another author takes over a property like the Bourne series or Reacher.
William Boyds James Bond novel, Solo
The ‘sequel’ to Rebecca.

I probably wouldn’t include Felix Francis and Dick Francis as these are mostly stand alone novels with a shared theme of horses.

I am not thinking retellings as such - that was already proposed above. But more different authors/creators playing in the same sandbox or with the same toys. This is very common in graphic novels as well - Donald Duck, Asterix, Valerian and Laureline etc. - and where you have stories told in different media.

Hope this makes sense. These examples are just top of my mind, there are probably much better ones out there:)

>21 LadyoftheLodge: Another example would be Poirot which was continued by Sophie Hannah.

A couple more suggestions:
A book with a number in the title.
A book that has a single letter as a title. (There are a surprising number of them!)

>22 amberwitch: Maybe the idea of “spin offs” or “pastiche” fits in here. We did that one in MysteryKit a few years ago.

>25 LadyoftheLodge: I think that might be a way of framing it. Pretty close to what I had in mind:-)
I just realized that what we are describing is similar to the Series and relationship feature - so maybe something like: Featured in Series and relationships for a favorite book?

>26 amberwitch: How about something like “pastiche, borrowing, or shared character or universe”? That would cover things that wouldn’t necessarily show up in “relationships,” like Alice by Christina Henry, which “borrows” Lewis Carroll’s Alice, or a modern “revisiting” of The Tempest or A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

If the bingo square ideas are too difficult or complicated, people will not want to participate. We all want to read and participate for fun.

>28 LadyoftheLodge: Which of the suggestions do you think are too difficult or complicated?

Would something like “old character, new author” get the idea you’re going for?

>27 Charon07: I see what you mean about the limitations of ‘Series and recommendations’. It was just an idea to explore the LibraryThing features - like we did with the ‘Similar libraries’ in 2024.
I like your suggestion, but I also think pastiche or spin-of is a pretty good heading if we want to keep it simple.

>29 Charon07: The only one I thought was getting too complicated was where we started out in >20 amberwitch: or >26 amberwitch:. We were starting out with quite a few elements at once. I think this discussion is helping simplify what we are getting at for this square. It is always good to discuss.

I haven't played BingoDog in years; but as it's going to be 2025, I'm going to try and hit all 25 squares! :-)

As for possible squares:
• A "New" Classic (a book that is newly come into public domain; e.g., published in 1930);
• A Gift (a book that you got as a gift);
• Totally Random (a book either selected from LT's randomization algorithm or your own list randomized however you do it);
• Writing About Writers (a biography or memoir about an author, poet, playwright, screenwriter, or songwriter);
• So Help Me! (self-help book about anything from dieting to decluttering to programming to learning a foreign language...);
• The oldest book in your TBR stacks

If you like something above, great! If you want to tweak it, also good! Don't like any/all? I'm still okay! :-D

I like those ideas, especially 'totally random'!

Hi all -- hoping to participate this year for the first time! I joined LT in mid-2024 and didn't want to jump into the category challenges just yet.

Some ideas I have:
• "Complete 180" - read a book published from the other side of the world (could also be the author's country of origin)
• Revisit a book you rated poorly/DNF
• Read a graphic novel
• Self-published works (things like zines)

>35 formativeage: welcome in.
We've discounted self published works before as being limiting. If you rely on a library for access to books, or read on paper that's pretty much impossible.

>33 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I like all of these! Thank you!

>35 formativeage: Thanks for the suggestions. I personally read some graphic novels, but I know they pose a difficulty for some readers who experience vision problems.

Might consider broadening the topic to “an illustrated book.”

I'm not wild about "revisit a book you rated poorly/DNF." I don't have time enough for a first reading of all the books I'd like to get to. If I'm going to spend my limited reading time on a re-read, it's at least going to be something that I liked the first time around.

Other suggestions:

relates to time
favorite childhood story
child as a main character
A borrowed book
An easy read for you

I agree with >39 KeithChaffee: about revisiting a book you did not like or did not finish.

I would like to suggest:

Gothic

Hollywood!

Travel

A few more ideas:

Written by an author using a pseudonym
A piece of furniture on the cover
First or last book in a series

>43 MissBrangwen: Good suggestions! I like them!

Set in favorite season

>35 formativeage: >36 Helenliz: We could do a combined self-published or small press category, since including small press should give plenty of options to people who prefer print and/or library books.

Other suggestions:
Takes place in a remote location
One character is a talking animal
Title contains a profession

I agree with >39 KeithChaffee: and >41 sallylou61:

We haven’t had any new suggestions for a few days, so this is your last call to make suggestions for the 2025 BingoDog! Please post any ideas by the end of the day on Saturday. Some time on Sunday I’ll post a draft of the final list. Then we can discuss, refine, make changes, etc., as needed to finalize the list.

As promised, here’s the proposed draft of the BingoDog topics. Let me know if there’s anything that’s a deal breaker or that needs clarification or modification.

1. Newly in public domain
2. Features adoption/foster care/nontraditional family
3. A long title (5+ words)
4. Author has your or relative’s 1st or last name
5. Nonhuman narrator
6. The sun on cover/in title
7. Hollywood!
8. A place you've never been
9. Features winged creature(s)
10. A profession in title
11. Travel
12. Child as a main character
13. Read a CAT
14. Totally random
15. Originally published in a language not your own
16. Medical topic
17. A holiday in title
18. Writing about writers
19. Either "Library" or "Thing" in title
20. Features fire
21. Recommended by a friend or LT member
22. Oldest book in your TBR
23. Set in your favorite season
24. Features a birth
25. A piece of furniture on the cover

Can we get more clarification on difficult-to-classify (is this the genre?) and newly in the public domain (how new)

>51 lowelibrary: >5 GraceCollection:’s original difficult-to-classify suggestion added, “Is this fiction or nonfiction? Is this mystery or romance? Is this MDS 300s or 500s?” Should we nail it down more than that, or leave to each member to interpret?

As for newly in the public domain, again, should we leave that open to interpretation or give it an explicit limit?

I imagined the "newly in the public domain" is anything that is off copyright as of 2025.
There's a list here that might give some start points.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_in_public_domain

>51 lowelibrary: I also find "difficult to classify" a litle vague, and it seems like a hard one to know in advance of reading a book, which makes planning your reading with Bingo in mind more difficult.

I'm also a little iffy on "recommended by a friend." Not everyone has friends who read and recommend books.

Aside from those mild reservations, I like the list.

>54 KeithChaffee: I agree with both of those - especially the ‘recommended by a friend’ makes a lot of assumptions that I am uncomfortable with.
But then, just because I participate in the BingoDog challenge, doesn’t mean I have to complete it. It is still a fun challenge that inspire me to think a bit differently about my reading.

I was thinking that a recommendation from someone I follow on here would count for that. I don't have many reading friends in real life, LT fills that particular niche.

I’ve replaced “difficult to classify” with “child as a main character,” which is less ambiguous (though I think it might be harder for me to find a suitable book!).

As for “recommended by a friend,” I think another LT member would certainly count. Recommended books are the theme for the November SFFKit and the stipulation was basically “recommended by a human being rather than an algorithm.”

Maybe we should just make it "recommended by a friend or on LT" to make that more clear. Some folks might join BingoDog without having seen this discussion.

I was going to use a Book Bullet for recommended by a friend, I am a hermit without a lot of real-life friends and my family does not read.

>52 Charon07: The original prompt for "Newly in the Public Domain" was called "A New Classic". The idea was that books, in general, go into public domain after 95 years. There's some quibbling here and there with some books having been written in 1930 and still in copyright; but it's a good place to start.

This is the LT tag index ("1930"):
https://www.librarything.com/tag/1930

And a similar one from Goodreads (additional prompts to continue will yield even more results)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/popular_by_date/1930

Even though I think there a lot of options for this prompt, if we think it's too narrow, I'm more than willing to open it to discussion (Books set in 1930? PD from 1925-1930?) and make it more accessible! :-)

Also, I'm sure I'm not the only person in this group who would be willing to act as a Book Concierge or Book Friend if you need an "Other" to recommend a book!

Maybe you could even open it up to crowd source a title amongst us?

>60 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Thank you for the links. This helps me a lot. Thank you also for offering to be a Book Friend for us. That is very kind. We need more kindness in our lives.

The "newly in the public domain" will likely be the most difficult for me.

I kind of liked the "difficult to classify". I was just thinking that would be something that could potentially fit more than one genre.

If it helps for me to clarify: This is something that you can find out by reading a blurb, and the idea came from me sorting the books in this library. I just meant anything that might conceivably be difficult to sort into some of the most common classification models. Some examples, (although not an exhaustive list), from which hopefully readers of all stripes can find a book they would enjoy:

- A book that is presented as a non-fiction book, but is about a fictional world (Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, A Series of Unfortunate Events), about something which is not really factual (a replica of a medieval medical guide that recommends bloodletting, a book about bigfoot or fairies), or is some form of satire. ('Is it fiction or non-fiction?')

- A novelization of a person's life who is a historical figure and was based on thorough and painstaking research, but nevertheless contains conventions of a novel (such as dialogue or inner thoughts of historical figures) that are unverifiable and therefore fictional.

- A fiction book which transcends or combines traditional genres: high fantasy AND whodunnit mystery, horror AND hard sci-fi, historical AND romance. Is magical realism fantasy or realistic fiction?

- A non-fiction book which, depending on what classification system you use, could fit into multiple categories. Is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in the section for social issues/racism, or in the section for cancer research? Is a book about religious garments in the section for fashion/production of clothing, or in the section for religion? Is Cinderella Ate My Daughter in the parenting section, or feminism? Is a book about disability and accessibility in architecture housed in social issues/disability or in art/architecture? Would you put a historical cookbook in the history section for the era it's from, or in the cooking section?

Of course, there are usually 'official' or 'canonical' answers as to the classification (especially for fiction, which in many modern systems is sorted by last name, or if you ask Dewey, is sorted by country of origin), but I think these sorts of books are really fascinating.

Also, for what it's worth, I think 'oldest in your TBR' would be impossible for me to figure out. I've never kept up with a formal list like that (although I have one I created a month ago, but it's really more of a shopping list, and I don't think I have any books on there I really even knew about longer than a few years ago). I suppose I'll just pick a book I've been 'meaning to get around to reading' for a while.

>65 GraceCollection: I was thinking the same thing - there is no way I can figure out which is the oldest book on my tbr. I think I would just pick a book that I have owned for a long time.

I like that list very much!

>50 Charon07: Thank you for putting this together. I also think the list is good, well varied and interesting.

Thanks for organizing this! The list provides a challenge but offers variety and some new ideas too.

Let’s go with the list as it now stands. I’ll send the list to christina_reads so that she and LShelby can work their magic to make the bingo cards.

Thanks to everyone for all your terrific suggestions and helpful discussion!

Thanks >71 Charon07: for all your work in putting this together! My life is a bit hectic right now, but I will create the Bingo cards within the next week or two, so stay tuned!

I started going through my stacks yesterday and found titles for most but not all. There are a couple of squares that are going to be a true challenge (e.g., "Author has your or relative’s 1st or last name"), and a few that surprised me in that I had options where I thought I had none (e.g., "Medical topic"). The funniest moments came when I was looking for books with "A piece of furniture on the cover": "She is clearly sitting on something and I see a cushion but..." or "He's looking hot, reclining against the sheets and a pillow; but I'm not seeing an actual bed!" Anyway, though I look to be in reasonable shape now I know that by this time next year what I've actually read for the card will look very different that what I have have in mind today! ;-)

>60 Tanya-dogearedcopy: In Canada (and the United Kingdom) published works enter the public domain 70 years after the death of the author. This was a difficult prompt for me so I decided to be sure.

>74 VivienneR: It's the same in Germany, 70 years after the author's death.

The 2025 BingoDog wiki page is now available here:

https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2025_BingoDOG

I added “or an LT member” to the “Recommended by a friend” topic.

I thought it might be worth mentioning that there are a couple of ways you could use LT to select the “totally random” book:

• Home > Folly > LibraryThing Roulette > Go to a random… Book of Yours (and keep trying till you get one you haven’t read or one you want to re-read).
  
• On your profile page, pick one of the Random Books near the bottom of the page.

You can, of course, use some other method to randomly pick (use a random number generator or spreadsheet function, have your cat walk across your keyboard while your TBR is displayed, throw a dart, etc.).

>76 Charon07: I like the "cat walks across the keyboard" suggestion for randomness. My cats Charlie Dickens and Toeney applaud you for recognizing their magnificence and intelligence.

>77 LadyoftheLodge: My dog has a habit of laying her chin on my keyboard. I'll attempt to use that method. ;)

>77 LadyoftheLodge:, >78 majkia: I already use my cat, Little One. I select the books I need for my monthly CATs and KITs, then set them on the bed for him to select the reading order.

>79 lowelibrary: Okay, I think that's the cutest thing I've heard all week. Maybe I need to involve my own cat in my reading selections.

>79 lowelibrary: I have an adorable photo of my Toeney cat “sorting” my stack of books from a book sale.

>81 LadyoftheLodge: Is that Toeney in your photo gallery who clearly is giving a good review of Romeow and Juliet?

>82 Charon07: Yes, that is he!

I ask my 6 year old granddaughter to pick a number between 1 and 344 (the number of books on my TBR) and she does!

Here we go, your Bingo cards for 2025. :)
The card images (that's where the real work is) were once again provided by christina_reads -- Thanks!

The magic codes are:

<img src="http://www.lshelby.com/Utilities/Bingo/bingocardC.php?type=CAT2025-1&color=orange&markers=9-13-20-5-24-6">


<img src="http://www.lshelby.com/Utilities/Bingo/bingocardC.php?type=CAT2025-2&color=maroon&markers=2-13-19-7-22-15">


<img src="http://www.lshelby.com/Utilities/Bingo/bingocardC.php?type=CAT2025-3&color=fuchsia&markers=5-8-17-15-21-1">


Don't forget that you can change the color of the markers to any of the following:
aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, orange, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow

If you haven't used my cards before, instructions on how they work can be found at:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/180134#4971850

If there's any technical problems, drop me a note on my profile.

And, as always, have fun playing BINGO! :)

Thanks! As usual, they are terrific.

>85 LShelby: They’re beautiful! Thank you and christina_reads so much for making such lovely and easy-to-use bingo cards!

It's been a few years since I've played BingoDog, so bear with me a moment:

🐾 There will be BingoDog Reads Threads where we post what we're reading;
🐾 The BingoDog Wiki where we post what we have read for the challenge and;
🐾 The BingoDog card(s) which are listed to our individual threads.

Is this correct?

>88 Tanya-dogearedcopy: That’s correct. I’ll start the general BingoDog thread around Dec 15, when the threads for the other CATs and KITs are posted. You can post there what you’re reading and we can discuss the topics if there are questions.

You can also add what you’re reading to the wiki, which is already set up here.

You can post your individual bingo card in your thread. You’ll use the link for your chosen card in >85 LShelby: above, where LShelby also has a link to the instructions for using the card.

And none of this is required. Make use of the things that make BingoDog fun for you, and disregard the rest!

Hi everyone! I haven't finished this year's bingo card yet but I am looking forward to joining again next year. Thanks to everyone who helped set it up!

Filling out the wiki is not obligatory, is it? I started in January but I was already finding it hard to keep up with in February, so stopped.

>90 purpleiris: No, the wiki’s not obligatory! Since I discovered past years’ wikis, I find them useful for finding book ideas, e.g., I can look at 2022’s ScaredyKIT wiki to get ideas for the topics that repeat this year. Your contributions are welcome but not required!

I love our yearly Bingo Cards and send a big Thank you to all who made these cards possible! Now for the hard decision of which one to use. 😄

>85 LShelby: Thanks LShelby and christina_reads for the lovely BingoDOG cards.

>89 Charon07: Thank you! My most challenging decision at the moment is which card to pick! :-)

My thanks to the organizer and creator of the Bingo cards! Beautiful.

>85 LShelby: Oooh, thank you! As always, I cannot decide which one I love the most!

>85 LShelby: Thank you for making these lovely cards

>85 LShelby: Thank you so much! They are as always, lovely.

>85 LShelby: Thank you! The cards are lovely. And many thanks to Christina and Charon, too.

Thanks all. I love the cards - as always.
Looking forward to filling these in and seeing what everyone else fills them in with.

>61 Tanya-dogearedcopy: This is a really cool idea and I'd be willing to volunteer too.

My thanks as well!

>61 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Thank you for the gorgeous cards! You happened to hit upon some of my favorite colors (teal, that certain shade of green, and grey).

>101 Xtrangeloop: ROFL, It's been a hot minute and I was like, "What? What did I volunteer to do? Will I have to do a tutorial video?" But yes, I think that once the group thread is set up, there will be an opportunity to help others who may need a "Book Friend". I may need assistance myself. I find myself at that time in life when many people have fallen away, many social platforms having soured, and my longest conversations are with my husband and dog. Husband might help: He is widely read, but if he gets into a reading jag about jazz musicians' biographies/memoirs, not really my thing. As for the dog, she's great but her reading life is nil-- though she is good for a snuggle on the couch with me, a cup of tea, and a book :-)

>101 Xtrangeloop: >103 Tanya-dogearedcopy: That’s a great idea! I know some folks were dubious about the recommendation topic since they don’t have bookish sorts in real life who recommend titles, so LT friends can fill the gap. It will be helpful to give as much info as you can about recommendations to help folks figure out if it suits their taste or not.

>85 LShelby: Thank you, as always! And thanks to >1 Charon07: for organizing the BingoDOG this year! Many hands make light work, for sure. :)

>91 Charon07: Great! I mean, I will contribute if I can, but if this year is any indication, odds are against it.

Now I need to stay away from this thread and focus on finishing this year's card instead of getting excited about 2025! I have 4 squares to go!

Thank you to everyone involved in making BingoDOG happen! It is one of my favourite parts of LT for sure and I am excited about next year's squares! And the cards are beautiful!

I have one question: There is a square that says "author has your first/last name" but the description in >50 Charon07: says "Author has your or relative’s 1st or last name". Was this just shortened for reasons of space or was it changed so that we should read an author sharing one of our own names?

>107 MissBrangwen: I think that was shortened for space. Of course, you’re free to interpret it as strictly/literally as you like!

Thank you LShelby, Christina and Charon.

Thanks for all the beautiful cards and for organizing everything. Now I have to "be patient" (not easy for me to do) and wait for 2025 to get started.

I assume that "oldest book on your TBR list" could mean literally the oldest book there in terms of publication date/copyright date, or the one that has been there the longest. Am I on the right track?

>110 LadyoftheLodge: I wasn’t sure about that either. Maybe >33 Tanya-dogearedcopy: can clarify which she had in mind?

>110 LadyoftheLodge: As always, I think it's open to interpretation of each Bingo-er. In only entered my list into LT about two years ago, so I have no idea which individual book has been there the longest. I'm choosing from the original batch of entries the book with the earliest pub date, so I figure I'm covering both possibilities.

>107 MissBrangwen: Yes, I shortened that square for space reasons -- I just couldn't fit "author has your or your relative's first or last name" into a single square at a legible size! Think of the phrases on the squares as shorthand for the actual topics. :)

>110 LadyoftheLodge: >111 Charon07: I originally thought of it has the one longest in your stacks. I had in mind a prompt that would help the reader finally get to that book! 📚

I had not thought of it in terms of publication date, but I love it! It helps out those who batch-catalog, keep multiple lists, and generally broadens the scope of the prompt. 🙂

The general thread to post our reads and for general BingoDOG discussion and questions is up!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/366498

Can someone please share what they are thinking about the "Writing about Writers". Is this fiction about an author who is writing a story like "Verity"? or is this nonfiction or can it be a book like "The Paris Wife" about a fictionalized writing on a real author?

From >1 Charon07: Writing about writers (a biography or memoir about an author, poet, playwright, screenwriter, or songwriter)

>118 mparker20: I don’t read a lot of biography, so I’m probably going to read fiction about either a real or fictional author.