Reading Bingo! 2016

Bingo with books! Is there any better sort of Bingo? Thank you to Cleopatra Loves Books for this challenge.

I am not sure if I will win but I am about to give it a go.

A book with more than 500 pages – The Man who Loved Children by Christina Stead

This book is 527 pages and it takes 18 hours and 42 minutes to listen to. I re-read/listened to it for Christina Stead week and I am glad I did for the sake of bingo and because it took a second read for me to appreciate how wonderful it is.

A forgotten classic – To the Islands by Randolph Stow

I hope this counts. Randolph Stow’s book To the Islands was published in 1958 and won the Miles Franklin but most people who have read Stow know him for The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea

A book that became a movie – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

A movie or two and a television show. Also, a movie with zombies added – which I watched just last week and had a little giggle though it is entirely silly. Pocket Book club did P&P this year and I think it is like slow cooked pork.

A book published this year – Nutshell by Ian McEwan

As soon as I knew there was a book by Ian McEwan from the point of view of a foetus I knew I had to have it. An embryo with soliloquies.

A book with a number in the title – Number9Dream by David Mitchell

An unusual book, stranger than Cloud Atlas. I did not realise it had been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It’s dreamy and Japanese.

A book written by someone under thirty – The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht

I loved this book. I can’t wait to see what she writes next. I can’t believe she was only 25 when it was published.

A book with non-human characters – Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

I read this again. I can’t remember how many times I have read about this donkey and monkey living on a shirt. Each time I read it, something that eluded me the time before becomes clear. I love all Martel’s books.

A funny book – Yes Please by Amy Poehler

I am kind of lying. It is by a comedian. It is supposed to be funny. It is not very.

A book by a female author – The Beasts Garden by Kate Forsyth

Really there were so many books by female authors. This is not even the best one that I read all year but it is Beauty and the Beast entwined with Nazis in WWII which is a sentence I never thought I’d write.

A book with a mystery – King of the Road by Nigel Bartlett

Not really my thing, but a mystery the Pocket Book Club dipped into this year. They were not happy. I felt that reading it was like gorging on too many lollies.

A book with a one-word title – Euphoria by Lily King

And what a great word it is. The Pocket Book club was not quite euphoric reading this but quite happy and it was nice to go on the anthropological journey without the actual mosquitoes or malaria risk.

A book of short stories – You Better Not Cry by Augusten Burroughs

I have almost finished so I think it counts as read in 2016. I could be the funniest book I have read all year. He really did that!

Free Square – The History of Rain by Naill Williams

This is a wonderful book. The use of language is stunning. The characters are lovely. It is not only my Free Square it is my recommendation for the year.

A book set on a different continent – All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Europe is a continent! A continent at war and discovering the radio in this book which caused tremendous love in the Pocket Book Club this year. It is on my favourite list.

A book of non-fiction – Organic Vegetable Gardening by Annette McFarlane

Technically I don’t read this gardening reference book as much as I refer to it all year round. I like how it is organised alphabetically with a good level of detail on each vegetable. I can easily find what I want and what I ought to be doing in my garden but maybe I won’t actually do it.

The first book by a favourite author – Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

This was supposed to be Chuck’s first published novel but it was dropped because it was too disturbing. Little did they know what was to come. No one is quite as disturbing as Chuck. This book’s structure was inspired by the way magazine’s make you jump from page to page.

A book you heard about online –  Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

This book has a wonderful sense of place and the people who live there. I can’t remember which website I found it on. One that was all about young adult books.

A best selling book – Liane Moriarty – The Husband’s Secret

A best seller apparently. It has a plot that rollicks along speedily but ultimately it was a little too soap opera for me.

A book based on a true story –  Saltwater by Cathy Mclennan

This is a north Queensland story about a lawyer starting out her career in an Aboriginal Legal Service.

A book at the bottom your to be read pile – The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

I have several to-be-read piles but Donna Tartt has been at the bottom of one for a long time. It is so fast and I did not love The Secret History as much as some people did. Hence my hesitation to begin reading it.

A book your friend loves – everything

My friends love lots of books. Where to begin. My friend Karen got obsessed with Anna Karenina this year.

A book that scares you – The Babadook

It’s so lovely, but also scary. It is not the creature called the Mister Babadook that scares me, (I think I saw him in my garden yesterday) it is what he represents.

A book that is more than 10 years old – A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Reading this book is like have a long hallucination.

The second book in a series – Harp in the South by Ruth Park

The second or the first depending on how you look at it.

A book with a blue cover – The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

I listened to this book and the reader was so slow I had to put speed and a half. That is the only time I have ever had to do that.

BINGO! What do I win?

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