Communally Sourced Reading Bingo needs your help

[hamsterwoman]

So, it looks like the Communally Sourced Reading Bingo idea is a go! :D Actually, I've gotten enough prompts, and enough of a variety of prompts, that I'm thinking of doing the following:

Comments

[thistle_chaser]

Yay fun!

Classic of a different canon (i.e. not the country you're living / went to school in)

As long as you keep the i.e. in there, it makes sense to me. Otherwise I would read that in the canon/fanon way.

13. book that was a school requirement you missed out on

There are so many books required by other schools or classes I never took that I'd still like to read...

16. * book from the furthest back shelf of your bookcase

Add 'or oldest ebook'? I don't think I'm the only one who doesn't deal in physical books anymore. :)

24. a book heavily featuring animals (challenge mode: a book featuring rodents)

Rereading Rats of NIMH, goooooo!

Edit to add my poll answer/recs:

Books featuring rodents: Any of the NIMH books. Kill two rats birds with one stone and read the second one to get credit for the 'second book in a series': Racso and the Rats of NIMH

[hamsterwoman]

Add 'or oldest ebook'? I don't think I'm the only one who doesn't deal in physical books anymore. :)

Oh, good point! I actually had this problem with the 2014 bingo card which was asking for bottom of to-read pile book, and I ended up going with the oldest book on my Kindle I hadn't yet read, so, yeah, I should make it ebook friendly.

There are a lot of books I missed out on in school, too. Some of them I read on my own in parallel (Grapes of Wrath, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Of Mice and Men), and some I never did. I think I might read King Lear for that one, because I only got Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet (twice) in school, and not any other Shakespeare, and I think I need a bit of a push to catch up.

I figured you'd have good recs for the animals square! :) (I've read the first NIMH book, but didn't realize there were sequels, huh.)

[thistle_chaser]

Yeah, I had to narrow down from a lot of reviews to find only one or two for the animal square. :P

It's been decades since I read the other NIMH books. I recall liking them, though not as much as the first. I'd really like to reread the whole series again, but I need more time!

[hamsterwoman]

By all means feel free to rec more animal stories! (not least because I like them :D)

[a_phoenixdragon]

Can't resist a ticky box!

How about...Book that you read because of the cover?

Or book that you read and loved even though no one else did?

*HUGS*

[hamsterwoman]

I'm the same way about ticky boxes :)

And thank you for the additional suggestions :)

[mauvais_pli]

What are those poll questions on participationg, clearly I'll be trying to fill ALL THE THIGNS CARDS.

I love to same initials challenge because it is truly sorta challenging.. I'm sure I'll find something interesting if I look better... also my friend Dashling's initials are the same, if we're counting yet unpublished works... XD

[hamsterwoman]

Oh! I hadn't thought of it that way, but it actually does make sense to do all three cards, since it's possible to get to a bingo/blackout on Mix-and-Match before either of the other two, even though it pulls squares from the Random/Serious ones. I shall be doing all three as well, then :)

I think unpublished work would count, sure!

And, yeah, I'm thinking maybe the initials would have to be challenge mode -- it's quite hard, and my initials aren't even that rare. And the "plain" version of the square could be an author who shares your name? (this might actually be harder for some people, but having the choice might help...)

[deeplyunhip]

I'm a little confused about "mandatory rec" - is this one book that everyone is challenged to read? How does this work? (Once I understand, I will go back to the poll and contribute one, of course!)

The only two challenge that I really don't want to be involved with is "book you started and never finished" as this only happens when I really hate a book (and I've gotten through many books that I've very strongly disliked).

Some suggestions, then...

Book by an author whose first language is not English: Lolita, of course.

Short story collections: Anything by George Saunders is fantastic.

Book from a child's POV: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Non-fiction: Anything by Mary Roach usually has a good blend of humor, facts, and insight. Example: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.

Books with a Plant in the title: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Books heavily featuring animals: Watership Down by Richard Adams

[hamsterwoman]

Mandatory rec -- oops, I really didn't explain this very well. I was thinking to collect a list of recs from (potential) participants -- one book per person -- and then... either have everybody pick whatever they want from that list (duplications OK, so it's fine if more than one person chooses to read the same book) or I guess people could be randomly/non-randomly matched to books from that list. I'm leaning towards the "pick whatever you want from the list" option -- it's less mandatory, but more fun, IMO :)

"book you started and never finished" as this only happens when I really hate a book

Ah, I hadn't thought of that... I have several half-finished books lying around because I've wandered off and not got around to going back to them, but that's a fair point. Maybe I'll make "started and never finished" a challenge mode, and the plain version of that square would be, "book you've been meaning to read for a long time", which is more open-ended.

[deeplyunhip]

Okay, thanks - I understand mandatory reccing now. :D (And yes, the "pick whatever you want" option sounds great!)

Maybe I'll make "started and never finished" a challenge mode, and the plain version of that square would be, "book you've been meaning to read for a long time", which is more open-ended.

I am most happy with that adjustment!

[hamsterwoman]

Oh, and thank you for the recs! I was definitely going to suggest Lolita for the self-translated square (I'm pretty sure it's the only one like that I've read), but it works for that one as well. I was also going to rec Curious Incident for the "protagonist with mental/social disability", so, a lot of great minds think alike-ing going on here! :D

Swamplandia! is narrated by a kid? Good to know -- I've liked Karen Russell's short stories and would like to read more by her.

I've also been meaning to read Watership Down one of these days. Maybe if I back off the rodents challenge, I will...

[postingwhore]

book set before the 20th century (challenge mode: book set in the 17th century)
Why 17th century? It seems so arbitrary to me :p

Recs:
Books translated by the author
Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Novels in verse
Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski

Books set before the 20th century
The Four Great Classical Novels of China
And they'd work for Books with more than two protagonists and Books set on continents other than Europe and North America as well.

Non-fiction books written over 50 years ago
Non-fiction books that are seminal works in their non-English canons
The Thirteen Classics, though I suppose the Classic of Poetry would work better as a poetry collection....
道德經
莊子
The Art of War

Books made into movies (where it is somewhat likely that a person would've seen the movie first)
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Books with a Plant in the title
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Books heavily featuring animalsAnimal Farm by George Orwell

[hamsterwoman]

Why 17th century? It seems so arbitrary to me :p

It is totally arbitrary :D (Rather, the prompt gave 17th century as an example, and I couldn't think of a reason to change it. But also, 17th century encompasses the European Renaissance (the tail end) and that's an interesting period.)

Thank you for the recs! I hadn't heard of the Danielewski novel-in-verse and I'm generally curious about the genre. And I did not realize that "No Country for Old Men" was based on a book, so, good suggestion! (assuming I'm not alone in that)