2024 Bingo Reading Challenge ☑️

I didn’t really know if I could edit it later or if I’d need to redo the bingo, so I filled mine ahead of time.
Non fiction was particularly difficult to find since I had no plans to read it, not sure if it’ll work out.
I’ll have to join a book club I guess, why not.
Also I changed “bad cover” to “a book I’m planning to read exclusively for the cover”
Green marks are completed.

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Just finished 遠巷説百物語 | L42 which I am taking as “finished a series”, because it’s currently the last available book in its series. (But only just – Amazon says the next book in the series is up for preorder and available from June 24th :sweat_smile: )

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Quick update before I forget.

I recently finished どうも、噂の悪女でございます 聖女の力は差し上げるので、私はお暇頂戴します ベリーズファンタジー | L30?? (“what should I read next”) and このたび不本意ながら、神様の花嫁になりました1巻 | L24?? (ultimate random: picking a random book out of the whole Natively catalog)

Previous stuff

“finish a series” (technically just the latest published volume): TRPGプレイヤーが異世界で最強ビルドを目指す 9 下 ~ヘンダーソン氏の福音を~ | L40
Fiction of non-fic: ドッグスレッド 2 | L26 (partial, but I’ll take it)
Untranslated: TRPGプレイヤーが異世界で最強ビルドを目指す 4 上 ~ヘンダーソン氏の福音を~ | L40 | Natively (kinda feels like cheating, but it’s true).
Vol2: 葬送のフリーレン 2 | L25 | Natively
Book club: 今日からマのつく自由業! | L33 | Natively
New to me author: 東京ヒゴロ 1 | L28 | Natively
In a single day: 蟲師 1 | L29 | Natively
Contains a character that speaks a dialect: 神様はじめました | L28 | Natively(putting the series because I don’t remember in which volume she appears first)
Bad cover: TRPGプレイヤーが異世界で最強ビルドを目指す 2 ~ヘンダーソン氏の福音を | L40 | Natively
Chosen for me: BANANA FISH 1 | L33 | Natively
Webstore suggestion: TRPGプレイヤーが異世界で最強ビルドを目指す 3 ~ヘンダーソン氏の福音を~ | L40 | Natively
Added by you: ドッグスレッド 1 | L28?? | Natively
Published 2020~ TRPGプレイヤーが異世界で最強ビルドを目指す 1 ~ヘンダーソン氏の福音を~ | L40 | Natively (that means I am using different volumes from the same series twice, but I guess that’s legit?)
神社⛩️ 神様はじめました 第1巻 | L28 | Natively
0~1 kanji in the title BANANA FISH 2 | L33 | Natively (already used volume 1)

I was looking at my data to find the shortest stuff in my TBR, and it’s 春琴抄 | L52??. I could use it as “hardest ever” as well :thinking: Next shortest book is 銀河鉄道の夜 | L32, which is fine too.

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I had plenty of free time today and thought it would be the perfect opportunity for what will likely be the biggest challenge for me in the bingo card: the “read in a single day” space. Especially since I wanted to read a novel and not a book for children (mangas are out of scope of my bingo card anyway).

I chose the shortest book in my 積読 pile for this: 天国はまだ遠く | L28
The text itself is only 177 pages, but I assume it still took me roughly 6 hours. :laughing: Definitely the most I have ever read in Japanese in a single day. :muscle:

The book was ok. Nothing special, a bit unconvincing at times. An easy read.
What annoyed me, though, was something that has got nothing to do with the novel itself:

The text on the back cover already revealed the outcome. Why?

previously filled spaces

debut work 木曜日にはココアを | L28
for free (was a present) リボルバー | L31
award-winning 容疑者Xの献身 | L32
bad cover https://learnnatively.com/book/10faf248fe/

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Yeah, sometimes publisher decisions in this area are bizarre. I know of one set of editions of a well known set of detective mystery novels where the front cover illustration gives away the murder method, when “but how was it done?” is a major plot point in the story

PS: congratulations on getting the “single day” square! I also am doing my bingo as novels-only, and that square and “higher Natively level than you’ve read before” I have pretty much written off as unlikely to be completed.

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Because that’s the whole point of the story. Even without the blurp you know how this is going to end. It’s not a spoiler, imo. :thinking:

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For a detective mystery novel? That is really really bad. Compared to this, it was just a minor issue I had here.

Oh, interesting. That she survives her suicide attempt is the whole point of the story, yes, and is revealed early on. Fine. (Is that what you were referring to, by any chance?) But it would not have been necessary for me to have been told before reading myself that she will finally realize that 「自分の居場所がここにない」. I would have had more fun reading it if I had been left in the dark as to whether she will stay in that remote village in the end or not, in particular because what I liked about the novel was the gradual development of the relationship between the two main characters.

Thank you! :smiling_face:
You never know, you might be able to eventually tick off the box, too. It is only May! Actually, it was my second attempt. My first was 西の魔女が死んだ | L28 but that was so boring for me that despite it being quite easy and thus (theoretically) fast I could not make myself push through it in one day.

I have not given up on any of the spaces yet (but my highest Natively level is not that high, around 34/35 perhaps? Will check eventually.).

Besides, I am not planning to repeat the challenge anytime soon. It is (not surprisingly) so much more fun if I read as much as I feel like at any given time instead of going “ok, I have about XX hours of time and XX pages to go … now XX pages to go … only XX pages left … done”. :grin:

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Will update the bingo card later, but new square filled in!

Won an award: 神去なあなあ日常 | L34

I was a bit nervous about filling this one, since I don’t typically read award-winning works, so the book club popping up was quite timely!

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Oh, that won an award? That means I’ve got that square too then! Awesome

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Apr 27:
a work that’s won an award: 神去なあなあ日常

幸いに, a book that I happened to read happened to have won an award! I wasn’t sure what I’d do for this one, since I used サマー・ランサー for the debut square, the other tricky one. (Much less 幸い though is that this was one of those books that I’d thought I’d like more than I did…)

I’ve now got 2 bings!

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Two bings? I only see one.

Four corners was my first one, and now I’ve got the bottom row

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Do corners normally count for bingos? I hadn’t heard that rule before.

In 5x5 boards it’s 4 corners + center technically, but yes, 4 corners is a normal bingo

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TIL :exploding_head:

First time I’ve heard this rule.

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Which reminded me, I forgot to update my number of bings in the table, again. Why are people incapable of keeping things alphabetical… If I were on my laptop, I would fix it, but I’m not and I don’t wanna accidentally mess anything up, so I’m leaving it. Oogh that’s bothering me now

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Table? I had not realized there is a table at all. Or forgot again before I decided to join. :woman_facepalming:

Thanks for making me notice!

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Finished 紫水晶殺人事件 | L30?? which I picked up second hand ages ago to fill out a “buy five books for X” deal. This was my book for “no reviews, ratings or gradings”. Wikipedia claims the author was “favored as the queen of both mystery novels and tricks in Japan, often compared to Agatha Christie”, but this is the only book of hers listed on Natively. For me this was a solid three star book – fine, but not one I’d go out of my way to recommend.

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I have finished reading 13階段 by 高野 和明 and use it to tick off the “no ratings/gradings/reviews on Natively yet” box.

I could not put this book down again once I had started it. Very captivating read. Highly recommended if you like crime novels / justice thrillers. I knew almost nothing about the novel beforehand, and therefore had to read the first couple of pages twice because I did not get the first time what was going on. The second time when I suddenly understood was quite a punch in the belly then. After that, it was a pleasant read language-wise. I liked the writing style very much. Not pleasant in terms of contents, though:

Trigger warning: gruesome crimes, enforcement of death sentences, suicide

Very exciting, fast-paced. Each chapter felt as if it set a different focus. I liked the character depictions and developments of the two main characters with their special backgrounds - they are neither detectives nor lawyers themselves. Both of them grew on me almost right from the start.

Basic setup: A prison guard and a young man who has just been released from prison are hired by a lawyer in order to try and prove that someone who has been sentenced to death for the gruesome murder of a couple and whose sentence is likely to be executed within the next three months is actually innocent.

I also learned a lot about Japan’s judicial system - or at least I assume the explanations to be fairly accurate. A lot of discussions on morality and justice going on that made me think, but never felt to me as if I was being lectured. Very emotional at times, too.

previously filled spaces

debut work 木曜日にはココアを | L28
for free (was a present) リボルバー | L31
award-winning 容疑者Xの献身 | L32
bad cover 西の魔女が死んだ | L28
read in a single day 天国はまだ遠く | L28

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Oooh I own this book and it’s been sitting on my shelf for ages :eyes: That sounds very good and very much in my wheelhouse. It just got bumped up in priority.

…which isn’t to say it will happen soon as I have multiple books in front of it but hey, the likelihood of ‘this year’ is now higher! :joy:

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