I finally have my first bingo!
Non-fiction: 女王エリザベス | L24??
In the spirit of relaxing my original rules for this bingo, I decided to read this as my non-fiction pick. It’s an 池田利代子 manga version of Queen Elizabeth I’s origins and rise to power. There are two plot points which, as far as I can tell, are fictionalized, but the remainder seems pretty solid, so despite my tagging it as Historical Fiction, I’m going to make it my non-fiction entry.
Omg 池田利代子 🩷
After switching a few titles around so that I could add in some recently finished books, I have my second bingo! I’m still convinced that I’ll have a blackout card by the end of the year, but maybe I’m delusional 
| Prompt | Title | Favorites |
|---|---|---|
| Free sample | 君に届け 1 | L23 | |
| Single day | SAKAMOTO DAYS 4 | L25 | |
| Finish series: | わたしのお嫁くん 10 | L23 | |
| Non-human | 葬送のフリーレン 7 | L27 |  |
| Debut | 成瀬は天下を取りにいく | L29 | |
| I added | デイジー・ラック 1 | L24 | |
| Despite the cover | ちょんまげぷりん | L30 | |
| New author | 「好き」を言語化する技術 推しの素晴らしさを語りたいのに「やばい!」しかでてこない | L26?? | |
| Award | コーヒーが冷めないうちに | L27 | |
| Non-fiction | 「気がつきすぎて疲れる」が驚くほどなくなる 「繊細さん」の本 | L27 | |
| No reviews | 人は聞き方が9割 | L26 |
I believe in you as a fellow delusional reader. 
New squares:
Read something where the setting is a workplace: 死にたいと言ってください ―保健所こころの支援係― : 4 | L23
Join/Participate in a Book Club: 魔女が恋する5秒前 | L22 (didn’t really participate in this one as I didn’t have much to say, but I followed along)
Read the book that has been in your 積読/TBR pile the longest: テーブルマナーの絵本 | L21 (first saw this book way back near when I first started learning, but I didn’t have a good way to buy books from Japan back then)
I added four things to my bingo card and got four bingos last month.
Odette is definitely my favorite among them. It was such a cozy, relaxing read. Now I have to find the other volumes.
Veil was the hardest. The handwritten text made for slow going despite it being a short manga.
I’m also very happy to have うしみつどきどき古書店譚 off my TBR. It was one of the mangas I bought when I didn’t know how to search bookstores here. So I got whatever I could find in Japanese and of course, everything I bought turned out to be way beyond my level. I was happy to discover it was no longer intimidating!
Since August, I have only read one book that qualifies for another square - at least kind of:
It is very likely not actually the oldest book in my 積読 pile, but it has been sitting on my shelf for more than 10 years at least. That would be enough for me to count it for that square.
After that, I was just not in the mood for any book that would qualify for one of the remaining squares.
So that is it for this year‘s bingo card, I think. Ended it with just one bingo. 
Maybe better luck with the prompts next year.
I haven’t updated in a while, so here goes:
Longest in TBR: ドグラ・マグラ | L50??
TBR published earliest: 源氏物語 01 桐壺 | L50??
TBR hardest: 砂の女 | L45
So, I’ve been waiting on “TBR published earliest” since, technically, what I did add in my previous book app what only the fist “chapter” of 源氏物語, which is about 30 pages only. I was going to wait to read at least a few more chapters before counting it (I don’t think I would manage the whole thing before the end of the year), but if I don’t remove it from my TBR, it would be my TBR hardest, overwriting 砂の女… Also, it’s technically a translation in modern Japanese, published in 1971, which does not make it the earliest published thing in my TBR… I don’t know, I feel like I am bending a few rules here 
but anyway. I’ll still try to read a few more chapters if I finished the board.
Only two more to go!
Do you have any plans for the „nostalgic“ spot yet? Just curious what would qualify for you… I‘d envision a Japanese translation of my favorite childhood book or something 
I bought 赤毛のアン back in May, since I tried to read as a kid (in French) but never finished. The first chapter did give me some nostalgia (so I do think it counts), but then previous knowledge of the content plus the slow pace stopped me in my tracks (I did get bored as a kid, after all; it’s not really better as an adult ). I am considering reading along the audiobook to help me move forward.
That being said, maybe I should try something else. I saw the translation of The Hobbit at the library and I loved it as a kid
I’ve been listening to the audiobook (赤毛のアン) with no text and it’s quite enjoyable. It’s a fairly long book so I just listen in chunks here and there. Knowing the story well means I don’t have to worry about forgetting who is who
Here’s my new bingo, since I hadn’t updated it in a while. I’m taking the decision to cheat a little for that lucky draw from TBR prompt, to restrict it only to books I’m currently reading and really shoud have finished already. Verdict, it’ll be 세계를 건너 너에게 갈게 | L23. For the series I still have no idea. I’m 4 books into 사라진 날 | L18, but the last one isn’t on Storytel, so I wouldn’t want to buy it just for it to become available right after.
So I haven’t been good about updating this as I go, but here’s my bingo card
Just two squares unfilled. Maybe I’ll go find a workplace manga to fill in in the last two weeks of the year 
Workplace setting manga squeezed in!
As it turns out, maybe a 250 page 4koma was not the choice for a manga to “quickly” read, lol. Took me 4.5 hours which is by far the longest it’s taken me to read a manga all year. Despite that, it actually didn’t feel difficult as that time to read would suggest. Like ぼっち・ざ・ろっく definitely feels harder, though that’s probably as much to do with my lack of music vocab and references.
Now, there was a kid’s history manga floating around one of the book club suggestions on Wanikani for that final square…
Getting ready for the Bingo year-end race
I’ve rearranged one of the books, currently giving me two bingos:
These are my plans going forward:
) which is 献灯使 | L39 - I like it a lot but I’m also super-slow with it, so this will be a close call Which leaves me with a single unfilled field: “Nonfiction”. 
I tried アンダーグラウンド which was ok but just too long and too much of the same, so I couldn’t finish it yet. I also tried 本の読み方 which is great but I’m reading it with a book club and if I want to finish all the books I listed above, there is no room for me to finish it early. (In all honesty I will need to postpone it to the next year, I guess…)
But that doesn’t mean that I’m unhappy with the results, quite the contrary! I found it very interesting to find books to fill all the different slots, and I will definitely continue next year (and hopefully manage to reduce my book pile a bit more…)
With just a week to spare!! 
I had a total blast working on my bingo card – this year was the start of my reading journey and my big goal was to finish one whole row on my bingo card I started the year reading L20-22 and finished at L29-31. I can’t wait to start 2025 bingo!
I’m halfway through 坊っちゃん | L41 and 赤毛のアン | L33. Finishing both would complete my whole board (meaning I am giving up on reading more of 源氏物語, but I’m fine with that).
So I couldn’t find the kids history manga, so I read 日本人の知らない日本語 1 and with that (a) got a lot of handwriting reading practice in and (b) finished out my 2024 bingo card! I’ll probably go for a 5x5 next year
Yesterday I read/finished two books, and that’s as far as I can get this year…
I missed out on the Non-Fiction book, and from the book that I chose for the Higher Natively Level (献灯使 | L39) I managed to read the titular story, but not the 5 other short stories that are included. That’s why I’m counting it as half-completed. Which gets me to 14.5 out of 16
Generally speaking, I loved the Bingo Challenge! It was great fun to try to match my books to the bingo fields as well as possible. It also helped me discover some great books and remove some from my TBR pile (with some overlap between these two, of course ).
Looking forward to the 2025 Challenge, and hope to see y’all there!
I am now done with my bingo card!
Some of those aren’t exactly impressive, but I’m happy I finished it. This thread helped me make a dent in my TBR by making me read my oldest stuff
I’ll probably add the list from my previous bingo card when I have access to a computer
