New ideas:
Old ideas that I think are worth repeating 
Reminder that now is the perfect (and only 
) time to get in your last-minute bingo prompts nominations!
Nominations close on Saturday, and I should be able to set the vote either Saturday afternoon (Western Europe time) or Sunday morning (also Western Europe time).
Thanks for all your nominations everyone! We have the prompts, now it’s time for some poll extravaganza!
Here is the full list, peruse it at your leisure:
And now, the polls!
How does voting work?Voting will be open until 2025-12-20T22:45:00Z
We are choosing 25 prompts, for a 5x5 bingo board, so naturally everyone gets to vote for their favourite 25 prompts, and the ones with the most votes in the end will be the official prompts for next year’s bingo.
Since the polls can only have so many options each, please try and limit yourself to your 25 votes, and spread them out across each of the 5 polls as you see fit.
Here we go! 
Thank you again for setting this up, @monace!
Quick bump - voting ends tomorrow and then we will finally have our official bingo prompt list!
Thanks everyone for voting!
Final tally| Prompt | Votes |
|---|---|
| Has ghost(s) | 18 |
| A book that doesn’t have any ratings/gradings/reviews on Natively | 18 |
| Going in Blind - no knowledge of the concept, only choosing it based on vibes | 16 |
| Join/Participate in a Book Club | 16 |
| Fantasy | 15 |
| Past book club choice | 15 |
| Book you planned to read in 2025 and either gave up on or replaced with another read for the 2025 bingo | 15 |
| Finish a series (can be either one you are already reading or you can start a new one) | 15 |
| Science fiction | 14 |
| Mythological/fantastical creatures | 14 |
| A book that you added to Natively | 13 |
| Published in 2026 | 13 |
| Read an author you’ve never read before | 13 |
| Book you keep hearing about but haven’t read yet | 13 |
| Why is this in my TBR? - for titles in your TBR that you keep skipping over | 13 |
| Historical fiction | 12 |
| Has a creature/lifeform you have never seen in real life | 12 |
| Has cat(s) | 12 |
| Set in a period that’s not modern | 12 |
| Book from someone else’s bingo card | 12 |
| Book that has won an award | 12 |
| I forgot I bought this - a book that you forgot you owned | 12 |
| Prettiest book you own | 12 |
| Title you didn’t understand when you first saw it | 12 |
| Queer | 11 |
| Main cast character hides (part) of their identity. | 11 |
| Book chosen randomly by lucky draw or with a qualifier from the qualifier list (see below) from your TBR pile | 11 |
| Buddy read (read the same book as another person at the same time) | 11 |
| Plot involves revenge | 10 |
| Takes place, at least partially, at a shrine / temple | 10 |
| Reread a story (could be a book you have read in another language or a different adaptation) | 10 |
| One-word title | 10 |
| Read without lookups (to challenge us intensive readers) | 10 |
| A genre you don’t usually read | 9 |
| Non-fiction | 9 |
| Non-human protagonist | 9 |
| Setting is a workplace (any occupation is ok) | 9 |
| 2nd volume of a series | 9 |
| Book that has been in your TBR pile the longest | 9 |
| Title that sounds curious to you | 9 |
| Book about a topic you previously didn’t know about (politics, keigo, sports, etc.) | 8 |
| Meta - A book about a book (someone is writing a book, or searching for a special book…) | 8 |
| Set in the past | 8 |
| Untranslated (at least in a language you can read) | 8 |
| Lowest-leveled book on your TBR list | 8 |
| A 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) | 7 |
| A higher Natively level than what you’ve read so far | 7 |
| Published the year you started learning your target language | 7 |
| Book someone else thought you would like | 7 |
| Cover is primarily composed of your favorite color | 7 |
| Read 1 vol. in a single day | 7 |
| At least one character speaks a dialect | 6 |
| Book featuring a same-sex couple | 6 |
| Set in a country that is not where the book’s language is spoken (ie, Japanese book set in Britain) | 6 |
| Set in the future | 6 |
| You share a hobby with the protagonist | 6 |
| Ask what to read next in the Seeking Recommendations Thread / What do I Read Next Megathread | 6 |
| A book you got second-hand or borrowed from someone (includes things from used bookstores and library books) | 6 |
| Biography or memoir | 5 |
| Cultural flair - prominently features an art, sport, or other cultural highlight relevant to the region of your target language | 5 |
| Something spicy | 5 |
| New setting | 5 |
| Low interest book club nomination | 5 |
| Read something from the free samples/something you can read for free (such as syosetsu, kakuyomu, tonarinoyj, etc) | 5 |
| Book contains time travel | 4 |
| Cataclysm - about some kind of disaster (earthquake, fire, tsunami…) | 4 |
| Travel diary style | 4 |
| Disability - One or more of the characters have some sort of disability (blind, deaf, cannot walk, cannot speak, is missing a limb…) | 4 |
| Elderly main character(s) | 4 |
| Book written by more than one author (magazine, anthology, collection of interviews, etc) | 4 |
| Over 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 | 4 |
| Published >30 years ago | 4 |
| 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) | 4 |
| Book with a bad cover / book you bought or wanted to read despite the cover | 4 |
| One-character / one-syllable title | 4 |
| Title includes a number | 4 |
| Non-fiction about something you didn’t know about | 3 |
| Read something related to language in some way (other than being a language-learning textbook) | 3 |
| Legacy - Last work of an author that has passed away | 3 |
| Published during or after 2020 | 3 |
| Published the year you were born | 2 |
| Set somewhere you have lived (or spent a lot of time) | 0 |
There are 24 prompts with 12 votes and more, so the final prompt is a tie between the ones that received 11 votes:
I did a random generator to choose between these four, here is the result:
So we are going with Main cast character hides (part) of their identity.
Final 2026 prompt list!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!
Here is my card for next year.
I want to keep most of the list in tact, but I still want to personalize it a bit.
I Added:
To make room for those I removed:
Smaller Changes:
this year I will also allow myself to “move” a read book from one prompt to another after I’ve already if it fits both prompts.
For going in blind I’m going to say it counts as long as I didn’t look up the premise (which I usually always do), but looking at genre and learn natively tags is fine
This year I thought the bingo would be too easy if I were to allow manga to count as well. This year I will allow 5 manga of the same series to count. Just so I have the option.
I want to thank @monace for hosting next year’s bingo. I’m quite hyped for it Last year’s really motivated me to keep reading even when it got really tough.
Added my card as well, really pumped!
1. Past book club choice - LINK
2. Finish a series - しろくまカフェ
3. Has cat(s) - LINK
4. Title you didn’t understand when you first saw it - LINK
5. Fantasy - ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 1
6. Book you planned to read in 2025 - LINK
7. Why is this in my TBR? - 空っぽの少女と虹のかけら 1
8. Going in Blind - LINK
9. A book that you added to Natively - LINK
10. Set in a period that’s not modern - LINK
11. Published in 2026 - LINK
12. Book from someone else’s bingo card - LINK
13. Book that has won an award - LINK
14. Science fiction - LINK
15. Has a creature/lifeform you have never seen in real life - LINK
16. Prettiest book you own - LINK
17. Has ghost(s) - 図書室の怪談 悪魔の本
18. Mythological/fantastical creatures - LINK
19. Read an author you’ve never read before - LINK
20. Book you keep hearing about but haven’t read yet - LINK
21. Join/Participate in a Book Club - 骨ドラゴンのマナ娘 1
22. I forgot I bought this - LINK
23. A book that doesn’t have any ratings/gradings/reviews on Natively - LINK
24. Main cast character hides (part) of their identity. - LINK
25. Historical fiction - LINK
Restrictions: one series per square, digital-only (ha) and no free space (author I’ve never read before is basically a free space anyway), TBR-only, if it’s a manga, read all owned volumes
UPD 21/12/2025: Published in 2026: I will aim for Kaoru Hana 22 when it comes out, and I now have some wishlist options for the cats thing. Now, if someone’s card overlaps with my vague wanna-read list, I will actually manage a whole thing with TBR pile restriction!
Thanks so much for organising monace
If anyone is interested, you might have to refer to the original list, but here is my list of -
Ghost(s)
Natively virgin
Going in Blind
Book Club
Fantasy
Past club
Dropped in 2025
Finish a series
Science fiction
Mythical creature
Added to Natively
Published in 2026
New author
Grapevine
TBR limbo
Historical fiction
Unseen lifeform
Cat(s)
Nonmodern period
Someone’s card
Won an award
TBR forgotten
Prettiest book
Title doubletake
MC hidden identity
And as much as I enjoy creating the pretty table with the book cover images, for 2026 I’ll keep it simple and add Natively links or titles to this table here:
| B | I | N | G | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MC hidden identity | Someone’s card | Historical fiction | New author | Added to Natively |
| Mythical creature | Title doubletake | Nonmodern period | TBR limbo | Published in 2026 |
| Past club | Science fiction | Prettiest book | Cat(s) | Grapevine |
| Ghost(s) | Fantasy | Finish a series | TBR forgotten | Unseen lifeform |
| Going in Blind | Natively virgin | Book Club | Dropped in 2025 | Won an award |
Feel free to copy! Reply, then select the plus button on the menu for more options, and then ‘quote whole post’
Planning thoughts
January update
September update
Ooh I like the shortened list and the table, that’s a nice way of doing it.
So exciting to see everyone’s bingo card rolling in 
First time doing a book challenge, so this is pretty exciting. The only change made was taking out the prompt to join a book club (still too scary) but kept the prompt to use a book from a past book club (maybe I can gently force myself to try at least one by browsing the forums).
Yellow = try first / Purple = later in challenge
- Going in clueless - 黒い家, I liked the cover
- Current book club - (some orange level book)
- Past book club choice - 時間割男子1 わたしのテストは命がけ!
- Lead hides identity - 涼宮ハルヒの溜息, i.a. the extraterrestial hides her identity
- Pretty book - ふたごの魔法つかい夢じかん
- Science fiction - コップクラフト 4
- Fantasy - 幻獣調査員2
- Finish a series - 探偵犬クリス 3 柴犬探偵、豪華客船を探検する!
- Planned 2025 read - 狼と香辛料 4
- Has cat(s) - おまわりさんと招き猫 おもちとおこげと丸い月
- Myth or fantasy creature - ホビットの冒険 下, has a dragon
- Non-modern period - 狼と香辛料 5, set in some medieval Europe
- Natively - no ratings etc. - 秘密
- Won an award - 長くつ下のピッピ
- Has ghost(s) - 幽霊お悩み相談室 1
- Book I added to LN - 数学ガール 4
- New author to me - 怪盗レッド 1, author: 秋木 真
- Someone else‘s card - 吸血鬼はお年ごろ, shitsurei‘s card (2025 
)
- Title I didn’t understand - 風立ちぬ
- Never seen creature - いみちぇん! 3, has i.a. an 鬼 iirc from volume #1
- Keep hearing about - 窓ぎわのトットちゃん
- Reread a story - ホビットの冒険 上
- Curious title - 四つ子ぐらし 3 学校生活はウワサだらけ!
- Unusual genre - とらドラ! (2), romcom, still uncommon for me in novel form
- Has a shrine or temple - いみちぇん! 2, has 御霊神社 says the internet
- planning to read
- currently reading
- finished
How do you all find books that have cats?
Or do you just read stuff and hope to stumble upon one?
I see a cat on the cover, and voilà.
Here e.g. is an interesting series with some cats as leads: ツレ猫 マルルとハチ | L19, but it has no furigana.
I read 泣きたい私は猫をかぶる | L26 last year, it has 猫 in the title which is a giveaway.
You can also check Last year’s bingo cards for some books because it was also a prompt then.
You can also use the cat content tag on learnnatively
Just wanted to share that I created my own category just now while putting together my own bingo card – “final boss book.” Maybe others will be interested
As you might be able to guess, this square is for a book you have been thinking about reading for a while, but kept putting off for a later time because you (rightly or wrongly) consider it difficult, so completing it will be a big achievement.
For me, I have a few books that fit the bill:
I have even got some things there wishlisted… amazing
Thank you!
Added covers and links to the expected reads for this year. This is a TBR pile cleanup even more than a bingo, gotta get them all.
I already know I’ll casually stalk @eefara and @shitsurei when they join in, looking for overlaps between their cards and my endless wishlist to get a TBR version of this card 
Looking forward to seeing what other people read for these prompts. So exciting!
Thank you for hosting @monace!
Alright, here’s mine for 2026.
With a couple of swaps:
Join/Participate in a Book Club 
I have discovered I don’t enjoy book clubs, so I swapped this to Queer since it was also a lot of votes
I forgot I bought this - a book that you forgot you owned I log all my books when I buy them (yes, I am that person) so it’s hard for me to forget what I own. I just swapped this one for “Read a book then watch the adaptation” since it was a modifier.
Also, I changed the free space to “Read a book without furigana”.
Looking forward to joining you all this year. Thanks for running @monace !
