There isn’t much that will induce me to break a life-long resolution of never making New Year’s resolutions, but books will do it.
Along with chocolate, books are my go-to stress relievers. And boy, has 2019 been stressful so far. So stressful, I’ve been complaining bitterly about wanting to send it back and get a refund. I won’t bore you with the reasons but when I tell you to think long and hard about becoming legally responsible for elderly relatives, believe that the wry warning comes from experience.
However, I perked up no end when I heard about Book Bingo 2019. It happens each year over on LiveJournal–which if you’ve ever been in fandom, you’ll know used to be THE place to hang out until (i) Tumblr happened and (ii) Russia bought LJ. Fans migrated elsewhere, but with Tumblr being iffy about what it describes as pornographic, fans have been coming back to LJ and it’s doing a Frankenstein/monster/lightning trick and sparking back into life. One of the things to catch my errant attention over there recently has been Book Bingo.
I read a lot. I read an awful lot. But to be honest, my dear-lord-I-must-reduce-my-blood-pressure reading list usually ends up being restricted to either Harry Potter slash fanfic or one of the 200+ Pride and Prejudice variations I have on my iPad’s Kindle app. There isn’t any good reason for that, except that Harry/Draco is my jam and the infinite variety of ways in which Elizabeth and Darcy come together is my secret vice. Time for my horizons to be widened, yes? Well, that’s where making one resolution this year and Book Bingo step in together, hand in hand. I’m going to do it this year. I’m going to read at least one book in every genre, and probably more than one.
Apologies for the huge image – hope you aren’t viewing this on a small phone screen! Anyhow, you can see (hopefully!) the twenty-five squares, each one dedicated to a different genre. I don’t think I’ll have any difficulty with any of them except, perhaps, the comic or graphic novel section because that’s never really held my attention. I’ll find something, though, don’t you worry.
Why I didn’t think of doing something like this before escapes me. At most, I’ll be catapulted 25 books out of my comfort zone, and that’s nothing. I’ve already blocked off a couple of squares, and I only picked this up last week.
Of course, this is a broad-based BookBingo, not focused on LGBT books or authors. So I thought perhaps we could have some fun, and fill in the squares with possibilities within our own genre. It could be quite a challenge to find movie/TV tie in books with LGBT protagonists, but not totally impossible… maybe. Anyhow, I’ve put in a few to get us started, but override them at your pleasure and please use the comments to share which books you’d recommend in each of the squares.
Here are a few suggestions from me:
Let’s see if we can get a full house! Do come and play…
About Anna
Anna was a communications specialist for many years, working in various UK government departments on everything from marketing employment schemes to organizing conferences for 10,000 civil servants to running an internal TV service. These days, though, she is writing full time. She lives with her husband in a quiet village tucked deep in the Nottinghamshire countryside. She’s supported there by the Deputy Editor, aka Molly the cockerpoo, who is assisted by the lovely Mavis, a Yorkie-Bichon cross with a bark several sizes larger than she is but no opinion whatsoever on the placement of semi-colons.
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That sounds interesting. While I will probably not return to LJ, I might try this challenge. There are only two or three suggestions that sound really hard to me, the rest is possible.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
I’m not really active on LJ – I moved over to Dreamwidth, but a lot of people cross post – but this bingo card did catch my eye as something to focus my reading list!
Frog (by Mary Calmes) just came out as a graphic novel. Frat Boy Troopers (or something like that? I forget the exact title, but also a Dreamspinner one) is also out in graphic novel format. I also recommend Jamie Fessenden to fill in a Horror and/or Crime/Thriller block. He has a number of books that fill those catagories, and OMG. Waaaay outside my comfort zone, but he is an increadibly gifted writer. Finally, outside our genre, but Born a Crime by Trevor Noah is amazing and insightful and entertaining (and, handily, he narrated it in audio, as well).
Oh, definitely will get Frog and happily tick that box off! Thank you!