I’ve gathered them up here and numbered them below. Apologies for not tagging the user that submitted each - there were too many people to tag and discourse was giving me problems. So I will just say here, big thanks to @cat, @mitrac, @urikk2npg, @malik, @eefara, @shablul, @taiyousea, @Naphthalene, @HopeWaterfall, @soggyboy, hotdogsuplex, qdsl, and Mizuki!
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).
Main character is retirement age or older
Science fiction
book published the year you started learning your target language
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
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
Read something with a one-word title
Read something set in a period that’s not modern
Read something with a title that sounds curious to you
Read a book about siblings
Read a book with a non-human protagonist
Read a book that doesn’t have any ratings/gradings/reviews on Natively
read something you planned to read in 2024 and either gave up on or replaced with another read for the 2024 bingo
something from someone else’s bingo card
ask what to read next in the Seeking Recommendations Thread
>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
Shorted title in your TBR
2nd volume of a series
longest in TBR
non-fiction
untranslated (at least in a language you can read)
shortest book in TBR
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
Past book club choice
Read a book that has been translated from a language besides English
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
Legacy - Last work of an author that has passed away
Cataclysm - about some kind of disaster ( earthquake, fire, tsunami … )
Metamorphosis - one (or more) of the characters turn into an animal.
Disability - One or more of the characters have some sort of disability ( blind, deaf, cannot walk, cannot speak, is missing a limb, … )
Aliens - Involves creatures or people from outer space
Meta - A book about a book ( someone is writing a book, or searching for a special book, … )
Nonfiction about a subject you didn’t know about
Biography or memoir
Book involving mythological/fantastical creatures
Work released >30 years ago
Read something related to language in some way (other than being a language-learning textbook)
The post below this one will have the polls for voting!
Next year we will be doing a 5x5 bingo board by popular demand, so that means we need to pick our top 25 prompts! Voting will be open until end of day on December 6th!
I unfortunately cannot create one poll with 70 options for all of our prompts, so I will be splitting them across multiple polls and asking that everyone independently votes for up to 25 prompts across the polls on their own. The 25 prompts that receive the most votes will become our bingo squares!
Like last year, if we have a multi-way tie for last place, I will be using a random number generator to select the winner.
So, without further ado, let’s vote!
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)
Main character is retirement age or older
Science fiction
book published the year you started learning your target language
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
0voters
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
Read something with a one-word title
Read something set in a period that’s not modern
Read something with a title that sounds curious to you
Read a book about siblings
Read a book with a non-human protagonist
Read a book that doesn’t have any ratings/gradings/reviews on Natively
read something you planned to read in 2024 and either gave up on or replaced with another read for the 2024 bingo
something from someone else’s bingo card
ask what to read next in the Seeking Recommendations Thread
10 Reviews/Ratings - time to see what the hype is all about
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
Shortest title in your TBR
0voters
2nd volume of a series
longest in TBR
non-fiction
untranslated (at least in a language you can read)
shortest book in TBR
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
Past book club choice
Read a book that has been translated from a language besides English
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
Released the year you were born
Author’s debut work
Legacy - Last work of an author that has passed away
0voters
Metamorphosis - one (or more) of the characters turn into an animal.
Disability - One or more of the characters have some sort of disability ( blind, deaf, cannot walk, cannot speak, is missing a limb, … )
Aliens - Involves creatures or people from outer space
Meta - A book about a book ( someone is writing a book, or searching for a special book, … )
Nonfiction about a subject you didn’t know about
Biography or memoir
Book involving mythological/fantastical creatures
Work released >30 years ago
Read something related to language in some way (other than being a language-learning textbook)
Cataclysm - about some kind of disaster ( earthquake, fire, tsunami … )
0voters
Edit: Thank you to @hotdogsuplex, @Mizuki and @qdsl for the prompt suggestions (I couldn’t tag any more users in my post above to thank you, so doing it now!)
(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).
could be a modifier instead of an actual square, since it wouldn’t have a book associated. It has my vote either way, I would love to have a pretty bingo card
We could add 16 to the modifier list for sure! It doesn’t have a book associated but I could imagine how it would work, having a square associated and requiring the whole row to be planned (or maybe others have their own personal interpretation of how they’d want to do this). Either way I added it to the polls for everyone to decide on.
Good catch with the cataclysm prompt!
I created an overflow poll in the post below the main poll post. If anyone finds any additional missing prompts, let me know! The forums are not the most ideal format to gather dozens of options for something then have a huge vote, so thanks for the patience everyone.
Hi everyone! Thank you so much for voting! The polls are now closed and we have our list of 25 prompts that will make up next years bingo card!
Counting the Votes and Picking a Prompt for 25th Place
I counted the votes by hand since there is no ideal way to extract poll data and voting counts from Discourse, but I double checked and the top 25 + tied prompts should be accurate, even if vote numbers are off somewhere.
We ended up having a 7-way tie for the 25th place, so I used a random number generator to make the selection:
Book you keep hearing about but haven’t read yet (26 votes)
Read a book that doesn’t have any ratings/gradings/reviews on Natively (24 votes)
Disability - one of more of the characters have some sort of disability (20 votes)
Cover is primarily composed of your favorite color (19 votes)
Has cats (19 votes)
Read a book someone else thought you would like (19 votes)
Read a book and consume an adaptation of it (19 votes)
Read something with a one-word title (19 votes)
Something from someone else’s bingo card (19 votes)
Read a book about a topic you previously didn’t know about (18 votes)
2nd volume of a series (17 votes)
Past book club choice (17 votes)
Read a book set somewhere you have lived (or spent a lot of time) (16 votes)
Main character is retirement age or older (16 votes)
The title includes a number (15 votes)
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)
Read something releate to language in some way (other than being a language-learning textbook) (15 votes)
Science fiction (14 votes)
Set in a country that is not where the book’s language is spoken (i.e., Japanese book set in Britain) (14 votes)
You didn’t know the premise (e.g., didn’t read the blurb) before starting the book) (14 votes)
Read a book with a non-human protagonist (14 votes)
Read something with a title that sounds curious to you (14 votes)
Ask what you read next in the Seeking Recommendations Thread (14 votes)
Released the year you were born (14 votes)
A genre you don’t usually read (13 votes - selected with random number generator)
The second post on this thread has now been turned into a wiki, so feel free to add your bingo card to the table once you have it ready! Let’s play!
Very unlikely I’ll even remotely finish this, but let’s try anyway
Can someone clarify how the free space works? Do you just get the point for free automatically or is the idea that you still read a book for the square, but it can be any book?
Here is a list of abbreviated prompts for the card if anyone wants to copy/adapt them.
I chose them to create a card where all the words are generally the same size and no longer than 3 lines. There is just one that is specific to Japanese that you would want to change if your target language is not Japanese (7th from bottom). You can copy this into the bingo baker card creator and it will create your card, then you click on the “share this URL with your players” link to generate a card you can click to complete as you go. Just be aware, the card creator will automatically remove one random prompt for the free space. So with that tool you can either choose one you think is unlikely and only enter 24, or you can enter 25 and let it randomly remove one.
Keep hearing about it
Natively - no ratings
Character with disability
Favorite color cover
Features cats
Was rec’d to me
Book + adaptation
One word title
Someone else’s card
New topic to me
2nd volume of series
Past book club
Set where I’ve lived
Character retired (age)
Title includes number
New Natively level to me
Language related
Science fiction
Set outside of Japan
Unknown premise
Non-human protagonist
Curious title
Seeking Rec’s thread
Released year of birth
Unusual genre to me
If you are learning Japanese, you can generate a card from that list by clicking on this link (it will generate a unique card from the above prompts, with “was rec’d to me” removed since that is so similar to the Seeking Recommendations thread, I chose that as my “free” square).
@Scylie about the free space: I had understood it as automatically given, but I guess you could choose what makes most sense to you!
Thanks for the prompts! Just to add, you can play with all 25 prompts if you want:
Paste word list into bingo baker → generate card → go back via edit → remove free space and generate again
So I will just say here, big thanks to @cat, @mitrac, @urikk2npg, @malik, @eefara, @shablul, @taiyousea, @Naphthalene, @HopeWaterfall, @soggyboy, hotdogsuplex, qdsl, and Mizuki!
