2025 Bingo Reading Challenge ✅ Ready to go for the New Year!

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Another year, another bingo challenge! Back by popular demand, this time for all languages!

The 2025 Natively Bingo Reading Challenge

The reading bingo challenge is a fun activity for readers of all levels to participate in if they wish! Anyone can join if they would like to, with no pressure to compete!

Link to 2024 bingo thread for reference: 2024 Bingo Reading Challenge ☑️

Prompt suggestion guidelines

  • The challenge is meant for readers of all levels, so make sure your prompt suggestion is something that is also beginner friendly, i.e. could apply to a manga or short story
  • Make sure to keep it general so that readers can use their creativity to complete it, i.e. suggest a specific genre instead of a specific author
  • Since bingo is open to all languages this year, try and ensure your prompts are language/country agnostic and could apply to books from different languages (i.e., workplace is fine but “takes place in a shrine” is more difficult)

How It Works! :pencil2:

Just like we did last year, everyone suggested prompt ideas that we voted on as a group! This year we will go with a 5x5 25 square card by popular demand - 25 for 2025 :smile:!

Once you are ready, you will be able to create your own unique bingo card at https://bingobaker.com (or using your favorite image editing tool) and play along, marking off a square with each book you read that matches a prompt.

Optional - when you create a bingo card at bingobaker, you will receive a unique serial number and link which you can add to the wiki post below this to bookmark it. This will be the card that you play with in 2025.

2025 Winning Prompt List :trophy:

Expand me
  1. Book you keep hearing about but haven’t read yet (26 votes)
  2. Read a book that doesn’t have any ratings/gradings/reviews on Natively (24 votes)
  3. Disability - one of more of the characters have some sort of disability (20 votes)
  4. Cover is primarily composed of your favorite color (19 votes)
  5. Has cats (19 votes)
  6. Read a book someone else thought you would like (19 votes)
  7. Read a book and consume an adaptation of it (19 votes)
  8. Read something with a one-word title (19 votes)
  9. Something from someone else’s bingo card (19 votes)
  10. Read a book about a topic you previously didn’t know about (18 votes)
  11. 2nd volume of a series (17 votes)
  12. Past book club choice (17 votes)
  13. Read a book set somewhere you have lived (or spent a lot of time) (16 votes)
  14. Main character is retirement age or older (16 votes)
  15. The title includes a number (15 votes)
  16. Read a book at a Natively level you haven’t covered yet (i.e., it doesn’t have to be your hardest book yet, althought that would count, it could be a level you skipped over) (15 votes)
  17. Read something releate to language in some way (other than being a language-learning textbook) (15 votes)
  18. Science fiction (14 votes)
  19. Set in a country that is not where the book’s language is spoken (i.e., Japanese book set in Britain) (14 votes)
  20. You didn’t know the premise (e.g., didn’t read the blurb) before starting the book) (14 votes)
  21. Read a book with a non-human protagonist (14 votes)
  22. Read something with a title that sounds curious to you (14 votes)
  23. Ask what you read next in the Seeking Recommendations Thread (14 votes)
  24. Released the year you were born (14 votes)
  25. A genre you don’t usually read (13 votes - selected with random number generator)

The Rules :open_book:

  • You only need to fill 5 squares in a row to get a bingo, but you can fill more for additional bingos and a challenge.
  • You will additionally have one “free space” that you can use to mark out any prompt you want, so use it wisely.
  • If one book falls under two different prompts, it can only apply to one. So, make your best choice!
  • If you are unsure whether or not something counts towards a prompt, feel free to use your own best judgment – the goal is to learn and have fun and you know how you do that best!

Difficulty Modifiers :fire:

:fire: If you want to make it more challenging, or change the way you play, check out the modification list below! (Copied from 2024) :fire:

Modifiers
  • Take on the bingo challenge with only one type of book (manga, LN, novel, etc.)
  • Take on the bingo challenge reading only books from your backlog
  • Take on the bingo challenge without reading any books from your backlog (RIP your backlog :headstone: )
  • If any of the books you read has a different media adaption, also consume that media adaption
  • Read only books that no one else has (at the time) used for their challenge
  • No books you fill out the challenge with can be the same level
  • All books you read are either physical or digital; no mixing
  • Each book title/author read must start with a different syllable (e.g.: can’t read two books whose titles start with か)
  • Bingo entries must abide by shiritori rules
    • Extra spicy: your final book title must end with ん
  • Fill your bingo card with books from just one genre
  • Don’t use your free space
  • Finish your bingo with as few books as possible (one book counting for multiple spaces)
    • Extra spicy: read a single book that qualifies for an entire bingo line

The prizes :medal_sports:

The biggest prize is having fun reading in your target language! But, for bragging rights you can “win” the right to put the number of bingos you got in your natively profile.

(bungakushoujo side note: Prize titles were not utilized very much in the 2024 thread, so I have not included them in 2025’s challenge unless there is demand for bringing them back in a language agnostic form)

TBR Selection Qualifier List :game_die:

You can use the list below for the prompt “Read a book chosen randomly by lucky draw or with a qualifier from the qualifier list (see below) from your 積読/TBR pile”

Expand Me!
  • Read the book you bought the earliest
  • Read the latest book you bought
  • Read the book published most recently
  • Read the book published earliest
  • Read the book with the shortest title
  • Read the book with the longest title
  • Read the book with the most colourful cover
  • Read the book with the simplest cover
  • Read a book with warm colours on the cover
  • Read a book with cool colours on the cover
  • Read the book with the darkest cover
  • Read the book with the lightest cover
  • Read a book by a male author
  • Read a book by a female author
  • Read the next book in a series you have started (if applicable)
  • Read a book that you don’t remember why you bought/what it’s about
  • Read the longest book in your pile
  • Read the shortest book in your pile
  • Read the easiest book in your pile
  • Read the hardest book in your pile
  • Start the book you hesitate to read the most

Frequently Asked Questions :interrobang:

Can we make a specific bingo card for beginners/manga/genre, etc

This bingo board is meant to be general and for all levels so that anyone can participate. If there is an appetite for creating a beginner, intermediate, or advanced card or any other permutation, feel free to use any of the guidelines or suggestions/methods here for references and to organize! :slightly_smiling_face:

I see people talking about completing the card with as few books as possible, but I thought one book = one square?

The standard rules are that one book = one square, but there is a modification in the modification list to try and complete the card with as few books as possible.

I want to use one story/book/volume/whatever to complete a square, but I'm not sure if it counts.

You can feel free to use your best judgement, but if you aren’t sure you and want a second opinion, you can ask in the thread as well to hear what the community has to say.

Archive - For Future Use

2024 Prompt Selection Guidelines

How will the prompts be selected?

I will take all the suggested prompts and shuffle the order using a random number generator to create the layout of the bingo board.

If we get more than 25 total prompt suggestion, I will create run off polls where the 25 prompts with the most votes “win”.
(If this scenario occurs and we end up with ties for the lowest voted prompts, I will use a random number generator to select the winners in the interest of keeping things simple.)

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This post houses the bingo cards for all participants. Feel free to add yours below if you wish to join in! :ballot_box_with_check:

Name Bingo Card Bingos so far Modifiers? :fire:
Snowwater Card n/a none yet
mic card - -
MintTea Card - -
Prath Card - -
xnd521 Card - -
CatDQ Card - 4x4 card
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Reserved for future use

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My suggestions (for now, maybe more later):

  • Set at least 20 years in the past and not written during that time period (fiction or nonfiction is fair here!)
  • Cover is primarily composed of your favorite color
  • Book you keep hearing about but haven’t read yet
  • Has ghost(s)
  • Nominated for but failed to win an award
  • Has cat(s)
  • Plot involves revenge
  • Set in a country that is not where the book’s language is spoken (ie, Japanese book set in Britain).
    • This could be easy with a translation or fantasy, or harder by searching up one set in another country
  • Main character is retirement age or older
  • Science fiction
    • Selfishly, I just want to get sci-fi suggestions from people via the bingo reviews :smiley: seems fun
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That’s because we can’t :sweat_smile: You need admin rights for that.
I thought @brandon was gonna add them manually once the year is over.

Edit: Hold on, I thought those were supposed to be Discourse titles (like “Regular” next to my name), but the description from last year’s thread says that it’s something to add to our profile description? I guess I misunderstood what it was supposed to be.
(It also doesn’t work well for people like you who are hiding their profile :sweat_smile:)
I feel like actual Discourse titles are a much stronger bragging right.

Edit2: no, I was right! But it was only discussed in the thread and never reflected in the first post.

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On that note, I would love

  • Fantasy
    for the same reason.
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Thanks for organising!

I just had a little think about some categories to propose!

  • book published the year you started learning Japanese (saw yukitanuki did that in the 2024 edition and love the idea!)
  • read a book at Natively level you haven’t covered yet (i.e., it doesn’t have to be your hardest book yet, although that would count, it could be a level you skipped over).
  • read a book someone else thought you would like
  • read something adventure themed
  • you learned something new from reading this (a bit harder to plan, as it can only be awarded in retrospect!)
  • (4-5 spots that will align to make a bingo) set up a a rainbow bingo on the board (cover is predominantly: red, yellow, blue, green, etc, pick 4-5 for each version of the board).
  • The title includes a number
  • you share a hobby with the protagonist
  • you don’t know the premise (e.g., didn’t read the blurb) before starting the book
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I certainly can when they happen! Just let me know what’s what :smile:

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A few possible ideas from me,

  • Read a book set somewhere you have lived (or spent a lot of time)
  • Read a book and consume an adaptation of it (e.g. a book and it’s film adaptation)
  • Read a book about a topic you previously didn’t know about (politics, keigo, sports, etc.)
  • Read a book set in the future
  • Read a book set in the past
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Excited to join!

Here are a few ideas:

  • Read something with a one-word title
  • Read something set in a period that’s not modern (this one might be difficult for absolute beginners? So perhaps not the best suggestion)
  • Read something with a title that sounds curious to you
  • Read a book about siblings
  • Read a book with a non-human protagonist
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I might need to flip this to “book I actually read the entire blurb” to make it a challenge :joy: I have a bad habit of being like “ooh nice cover” and “title seems legit” and just reading whatever.

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There are some of the free tadoku books that deal with a little bit of Japanese history and some childrens 10 minute readers that also deal with the history of Japan or other parts of the world that could work for this in Japanese though unsure about beginner level stuff for Korean or other languages.

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I’d like to re-nominate a square we used in the 2024 bingo:

  • Read a book that doesn’t have any ratings/gradings/reviews on Natively

I figure it’s a good way to hopefully encourage people to rate/grade/review, since the site really thrives on user feedback.

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I was just looking through the 2024 thread, and I was going to say that if I participate in 2025, I want to do that as a “Challenge modifier” :+1: Every square having to be a book with no grading, or at least a ?? level.

My goal for 2024 was to just read some books, period (achieved! :muscle:), so this looks like a fun way to be more targetted and engaged in my reading next year and introduce myself to new books. With the speed I read at I almost certainly won’t make a bingo, but it still sounds like cool challenge!

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idea for a prompt that is badly worded, hopefully you find better phrasing than me:

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Yesss I’m so excited for 2025 bingo :fire::fire:

My prompt suggestions

  • >10 Reviews/Ratings - time to see what the hype is all about, can be tough to choose one if you’ve already read lots of popular titles
  • Why is this in my TBR? - for titles in your TBR that you keep skipping over
  • The Lonely Genre - choose a book to be the sole representative of a genre, for example: must be the only romance book on your bingo card
  • Going in Blind - no knowledge of the concept, only choosing it based on vibes
  • I forgot I bought this - similar to “why is this in my TBR?” a book that you forgot you owned
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My favorite prompts from last year (that were not suggested yet):

  • Shorted title in your TBR
  • 2nd volume of a series
  • longest in TBR
  • award winner I like @cat’s version (nominated but did not win)
  • non-fiction
  • untranslated (at least in a language I can read)
  • shortest book in TBR
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A couple ideas:

  • Finish a book that you’d previously stopped reading
  • Random book - go on Natively, pick your desired level range and book type, and just randomly select and read a book among the results (as long as you can get your hands on it)
  • Read a book that is mostly set in a school

For Korean there are definitely several options for historical books, even for beginners. Some of the 두루책방 picture books would fit here, around Korean history. There’s also an A1 Darakwon graded reader of a folktale, not to mention a couple other graded readers containing tiny versions of folktales.

Probably nothing under level 10, but in a year, and with a dictionary, ~L10 is completely doable imo.

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What about past book club choice? Could be any book club on here or on WK for Japanese learners.

Ooh, also translated from a language besides English?

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A few ideas:

  • A genre you don’t usually read
  • Low interest book club nomination
  • Read a book or volume as soon as it comes out
  • Bad cover art
  • No humans on the cover
  • Protagonist has an animal sidekick/companion
  • Audiobook (not sure if this is allowed since it’s a reading challenge, if it’s not feel free to put me in jail)
  • Released the year you were born
  • Author’s debut work

Adding to the list as I think of new things

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