What’s that?
It runs/ran through the months of June through August, so it’s almost over really. If you finish three books in a single month and write a review of at least 150 characters each for them on BookMeter, you’ll be granted 300 coins for BookWalker. Then you get some extra coins if that’s your first review ever, and also if you fulfilled the challenge in all three months (which I sadly did not achieve). Here are more details:
#16 Highest series volume number: 舞妓さんちのまかないさん 15 | L26
Fifteen is the most number of volumes I have finished in any one series in Japanese so far! Yay! I’ll probably keep this square updated throughout the year whenever I read another volume. Number 16 has a really pretty cover, so I want to show it off.
previous squares
Free square: とんがり帽子のアトリエ 5 | L27
#1 Read a book and watch the adaptation/Join a book club: ひとりぼっちの○○生活 1 | L21
#2 Cover is primarily composed of your favorite color / From someone else’s board: とんがり帽子のアトリエ 6 | L27
#3 Workplace setting / Character speaks a dialect: 舞妓さんちのまかないさん 12 | L25
#4 Reread: 気になってる人が男じゃなかった | L25
#5 Non-human protagonist: しろくまカフェbis 2 | L19
#6 Second in a series: 気になってる人が男じゃなかった VOL.2 | L24
#7 Shiritori title (Hitoribochinomarumaruseikatsu → Tsuredzurebiyori) / Went in without knowing the premise: 徒然日和 1 | L20
#8 Main character with a disability: ゆびさきと恋々 4 | L20
#9 Has a cat character: サイレント・ウィッチ 沈黙の魔女の隠しごと | L30
#10 Curious title: 時間割男子 1 わたしのテストは命がけ! | L23
#11 Bad Cover: ゆびさきと恋々 5 | L21
#12 Finished* in one day: 齋藤孝のイッキによめる! 名作選小学1年生 新装版 | L24
#13 Has Vampires / No ratings, no reviews: 霧島くんは普通じゃない ~転校生はヴァンパイア!?~ | L22
#14 Set in a country that is not where the book’s language is spoken: 木曜日にはココアを | L28
#15 A book someone else thought I would like / Flower or plant name in the title: あさがおと加瀬さん。 | L18
Reply
Am I right in thinking that you are filling every square with a series of (yuri) books?! Wow! I must also say that I love your reviews and the images you share from the books and it has definitely caused me to add more than one to my wishlist. This most recent one sounds really great.
Yes, that’s right I am aiming for reading complete series for each slot in the bingo, though I had to make an exception for the “Has Cats” slot which is an ongoing series with only a couple volumes out so far.
I’m very glad to hear that =^.^=
Thank you for the kind words!
I had said I warned to do novels only for my bingo, but maybe I’ll expand it to be 5+ volumes of a manga…
another update after two months, no bingo yet but close!
- Favorite color cover: 雨宮さん 1 通常版 | L23
- Curious title: 阿・吽(1) | L36
- Untranslated: 5分で読める胸キュンなラストの物語 | L28
previous squares
Unusual genre to me: さびしすぎてレズ風俗に行きましたレポ | L33
Features cats: おじさまと猫 1 | L17
Keep hearing about it: https://learnnatively.com/book/4b055a1cd5/
Unknown premise: ごぜほたる | L32
One word title: BIBLIOMANIA | L26
Second volume of series: キノの旅 2 | L30
Title includes number: エイリアン9 コンプリート | L21
Language related: 日本人の心がわかる日本語 | L23
Non-human protagonist: ライカの星 | L24
Natively - no ratings: スペクトラルウィザード | L27
New Natively level to me: 人間失格 | L40
Book & adaptation: 貧乏姉妹物語(1) | L16 + 貧乏姉妹物語 S1 | L16
Science Fiction: 小説ヨコハマ買い出し紀行: 見て、歩き、よろこぶ者 KCノベルス | L29
Set outside of Japan: 碧いホルスの瞳 -男装の女王の物語- 1 | L28
Finished yet another book, namely 有限と微小のパン THE PERFECT OUTSIDER | L32 (at 870 pages it should really count for three or four squares ).
Unfortunately it was technically not exactly without ratings when I finished it, as @Belerith rated it a few hours earlier, but that doesn’t keep me from putting it in that square as it was unrated for like 99,99999% of the time I was reading it. And that’s enough for me
Needless to say, still no bingo
The next book I’m planning to finish has already been in my 2024 bingo board, so I won’t use it here again. For September, I have vague plans of what to read, but I may slip in some shorter books here and there, so stay tuned for my next bingo entries
Oops! Sorry!
That’s a dangerous square for such a long book!
Haha nevermind! I mean, it was without ratings until the very last day, which is amazing in its own right. I would have accepted it even if somebody had rated it in the last month or so, as it was without ratings when I started it and most of the time reading it. (feels like I‘m stretching most of my entries a little bit, but this game is for fun anyway
)
It’s been FOREVER since I have updated my bingo card.
Three new entries since last time, each completing one bingo! (Well, technically the first one setting up so that the third one can make two bingos, but still)
Wait, are we counting diagonals? If so that’s 4 bingos this time.
Features cat(s): 猫鳴り | L30??
Released year (well, decade) of birth: ノルウェイの森 (1) | L32
Character with disability: バリアフリーのその先へ!――車いすの3・11 ( ここで生きる) | L28??
Currently reading クラスで2番目に可愛い女の子と友だちになった | L27 with the club for title includes number, and I will eventually read らせん | L35 from the seeking rec thread (I still want to reduce a bit my own books pile). That only leaves set outside of Japan before finishing the whole thing!
Previous entries
- Character retired (age): あん | L30
- Set where I’ve lived: エゴイスト | L30 (mostly takes place in Tokyo)
- Curious title: 水属性の魔法使い 第一部 中央諸国編I | L35??
- Series I kept hearing about (last year, at the very least): 恋した人は、妹の代わりに死んでくれと言った。―妹と結婚した片思い相手がなぜ今さら私のもとに?と思ったら―【電子書籍限定書き下ろしSS付き】 Celicaノベルス | L30??
- SF: 星界の紋章〈2〉ささやかな戦い | L40
- Someone else’s card: 海がきこえる | L27
- Was rec’d to me: 星界の紋章〈1〉帝国の王女 | L40
- New topic to me: なぜ働いていると本が読めなくなるのか | L35
- Favorite color: 貝に続く場所にて | L42
- New level: 幼女戦記 1 Deus lo vult | L43 (That saves me the trouble of considering whether I count it as a “new level” or not)
- Past book club: 神様たちのお伊勢参り | L26
- Book+adaptation: 魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない ~今日から自由な職人ライフ~ 1 | L29 + 魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない ~Dahliya Wilts No More~1 | L25
- Non-human protagonist: ICO-霧の城- 上 | L30??
- Single word title: 闇祓 | L29
- Language related: 日本人の心がわかる日本語 | L25
- Uncommon genre (as far as I am concerned): 源氏物語 1 | L41
- 2nd volume: 追放悪役令嬢の旦那様2 | L27
- Unknown premise: 追放悪役令嬢の旦那様 | L27
- No review/grading/rating: 双子王子の継母になりまして嫌われ悪女ですが、そんなことより義息子たちが可愛すぎて困ります~ ベリーズファンタジー | L29
Now… I hear what you’re saying. Couldn’t I just put one of the books that I’ve already read this year but didn’t fit onto bingo into the Free square and get my first bingo? Wouldn’t that make more sense? I mean, sure, but how will I get to complain about not having a bingo yet if I do that?
Anyway, new month, 3 new squares:
Set in a place you’ve lived: 夢は翼をつけて | L24 this is actually a translation of a book by a local Japanese American author that we read in school. It’s an award winning book/series, and the translation (as far as I could tell) was quite good. It reminded me how good children’s books can be. cw: animal death, hate crimes/anti-Japanese racism
Book and its adaptation: 小説 僕の心のヤバイやつ | L28 ok, this one is a tiny bit sus, but I did read all of the manga this year and watched all of the anime. And while this is not an adaptation of the actual manga, I am going to count it bc it is my bingo board
Non-human protagonist: 小学館ジュニア文庫 女優猫あなご | L22
previous squares
No gradings, ratings, reviews: 初恋ロスタイム | L26
Uncommon genre: 木曜日にはココアを | L27
Related to language: 日本人の心がわかる日本語 | L24
Unknown Premise: 夜が明けたら、いちばんに君に会いにいく | L25
Keep hearing about: 本好きの下剋上~司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません~第一部「兵士の娘2」 | L32
Curious Title: GJ部 1 | L24 ダンダダン 1 | L26
Sci-fi: 明日の世界で星は煌めく | L28
Second Volume: 四つ子ぐらし 2 三つ子探偵、一花ちゃんを追う! | L24 放課後、恋した。 2 | L18
Number in Title: 100円ショップ店員が異世界トリップした結果。 | L26
Published in Birth Year: 吸血鬼はお年ごろ | L24
Can’t update my bingo at the moment, but gonna go ahead and claim イケメン王子とオタクな俺: ~この気持ちの名前を教えて~ | L26 for “level I haven’t read before” for my bingo.
Quick, before the level changes
Tentatively dropping this one in my I2 square:
Favourite colour cover: センシティブ・ボーイ 1 | L24?? (Sensitive Boy). I don’t really have a favourite colour; I vacillate between saying it’s purple or orange usually, but most of the time I think to myself “that’s a beautiful colour” it’s dark red or blue, so a cover that uses all four feels like it might as well go there. 3 bonus

Kaede, now a high schooler, was raped by a female teacher in junior high and developed a fear of being touched by women. He’s desperate to move beyond his trauma and be seen as “normal”, but just when he feels healed enough to express his wish to have a girlfriend (a normal girlfriend), he gets his chance when a stranger confesses that she fell in love with him at first sight!
Heavy subject matter, but the tone is hopeful and the characters were very endearing in their teenage awkwardness and desire to grow. But I’m actually the most intrigued by the fact that the series is 8 volumes (and still ongoing, I think?); based on how easily the relationship developed in volume 1 and how accepting everyone was of Kaede’s past and his needs, I can’t imagine there being enough conflict to wring 7 more volumes out of the romance plot, so I want to keep reading and see how things fall apart or what other wrenches get thrown in to justify this many books.
Was able to get around to updating my bingo!
イケメン王子とオタクな俺: ~この気持ちの名前を教えて~ | L26 is currently sitting at L26, one of the very, very few low level options I had for this square, so this worked out quite well.
Just three books left!
Wow that sounds fascinating. Added to my list
I only just joined this bingo challenge. But I was able to retroactively fill in some books because I did start reading Japanese novels this year! So through the power of a table in google docs I present:
I hope there is a 2026 bingo challenge as well. Because I intend to read every single day in 2026 with few exceptions and it’d be nice to have a reason to read different kind of books. I never really read in my native language or in English so I’m still trying to figure out what kind of books I like.
Welcome to the bingo! There will most likely be another one next year, yes.
I started reading everyday this year as well, and the bingo was a big motivation to keep going during the first few months, when the habit wasn’t quite formed yet.
I look forward to seeing your updates!
Took some time but I finished 共喰い | L43 for the new lvl square (at the time). First lvl43. I have mixed feelings about this book so I left a review. Belerith's review of 共喰い | Natively
Only a few squares left! All the late ones I need to read something specifically for that prompt so they’ll likely take a while to get to anyway. I know what I’ll probably read for ‘someone thought you’d like’ since I sadly don’t get that many unsolicited recommendations. I also have a couple possible candidates in mind for ‘language related’ but not sure about seeking recs. I did get some for a different prompt, so I may just read something from there…
Completed prompts
One word title: 火花 | L35
Birthyear: 魔性の子 十二国記 0 | L33
Curious Title: B級グルメのたのしい温泉―青森から鹿児島まで | L30??
Has cats: サイレント・ウィッチ 沈黙の魔女の隠しごと | L30
Someone else’s bingo card (cat): 理由 | L35
Unknown premise: 幻獣調査員 | L33
No rating etc: ジブリパーク公式ガイドブック | L30??
Unusual genre: イラストでまるわかり! 日本の神様ご利益事典 | L26??
Retirement MC: おらおらでひとりいぐも | L37
Non-human protagonist: 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険 レア属性を引き当てたので、気ままな冒険者を目指します | L29
Favorite color: 神去なあなあ日常 | L33
Past book club: 神去なあなあ夜話 | L33
Free Book&Adaptation: 黒蜥蜴 | L35
Number: 百年文通 | L36
2nd Volume: 黒猫ニャンゴの冒険2 レア属性を引き当てたので、気ままな冒険者を目指します | L29
Set outside Japan: FLESH & BLOOD 2 | L35
Disability: 1リットルの涙難病と闘い続ける少女亜也の日記 | L28
Science fiction: NO.6 〔ナンバーシックス〕 ♯2 | L32
Set somewhere I have lived: 博多豚骨ラーメンズ | L33
Book you keep hearing about: 灰と幻想のグリムガル level.1 ささやき、詠唱、祈り、目覚めよ | L31
Free: 風立ちぬ | L41
New Natively Level: 共喰い | L43
You should read ブナの森のアリア 第1巻 | L23! It might be a little more slice-of-life-y in the first volume than you prefer, I don’t know, but the vibes are super cozy and I really enjoyed it!
How’s that for unsolicited?