A numeric reading goal turns reading into a metric. By August you are picking short books to protect the number, which is the opposite of the point.
Bingo fixes that. Instead of "read 52 books" it asks "read something set on an island" — which sends you somewhere you would not have gone, with no penalty for taking three weeks over it.
The card
Copy this into a notebook or print the page. Free space in the middle, one book per square, and a book only counts for one square even when it fits three.
| B | O | O | K | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A book published before you were born | Set somewhere you have never been | Recommended by someone in your house | Under 200 pages | A debut novel |
| Nonfiction about something you know nothing about | A book you have owned for over a year | A translated book | A reread | Cover is mostly one color |
| Borrowed from a library | An author’s second book | FREE SPACE | Over 500 pages | Set in winter |
| A book made into a film you have seen | Short stories or essays | Published this year | A one-word title | Set on an island |
| Chosen by its first sentence | A book that made you cry or laugh out loud | By an author from another country | You abandoned once before | Poetry, or a play |
The rules that keep it working
- One book, one square. Even if it fits four. This is the rule people break and it is the one that makes the card mean anything.
- No deadline. Not a year, not a season. A card with a deadline becomes a number again.
- A line is a win. Five in a row, any direction, and you have finished. A blackout is a bonus, not the goal.
- Audiobooks count. This is not a debate worth having with yourself.
- Did-not-finish counts if you got past 100 pages. You did the exploring, which is what the square was for.
- Write the title in the square. Not a tick. The finished card should be readable as a list a year later.
How to actually finish a line
Pick your line at the start. Look at the card, choose a row, column or diagonal that has two squares you are already interested in, and aim at that. Five specific targets beats twenty-five vague ones.
Then work the easy square first. "Under 200 pages" or "a reread" gets you moving, and momentum on this kind of thing is most of it.
Leave the hard square for when you are between books and directionless — which is exactly the moment a prompt is worth having.
Fifty more prompts
For building your own card, or swapping out squares that do not appeal.
| Category | Prompts |
|---|---|
| Format | An audiobook · A graphic novel · A collection of letters or diaries · A book in verse · A novella · An anthology · A book you read in one sitting |
| Where it came from | Found in a little free library · A gift you never read · From a secondhand shop · Recommended by a bookseller · Off a shelf at someone else’s house · The oldest thing on your TBR |
| Setting | A city you want to visit · A boat · A hotel · A school · A single room · Somewhere very cold · A place that no longer exists · Your own state or country |
| Time | Set before 1900 · Set in the decade you were born · Set in the future · Spanning more than fifty years · Taking place over one day |
| Author | A debut over 50 · An author with your initials · Someone who writes in a genre you avoid · A journalist · An author you have read three or more times · Someone from a country you cannot place on a map |
| Structure | Multiple narrators · Second person · Non-linear timeline · An unreliable narrator · Told in documents · No chapter breaks |
| Subject | About a job you will never have · About food · About a real historical event · About science · A memoir · About music · About grief · A book about books |
| Just because | Longest book on your shelf · A cover you dislike · Chosen at random from the library shelf · The book everyone read two years ago · A book with a place name in the title · A book with an animal on the cover |
Group and book club variants
Same card, everyone. Print one each, compare at the end of the season. The interesting part is how differently people fill the same square.
One shared card. Each person claims squares as they read. Faster to fill and it makes people take squares nobody else wants.
Draw a square. Cut the prompts into slips and pull one at random each month. This is the version that most reliably gets people out of their genre.
Squares as picks. A book club uses the card to choose the next read — pick the square first, then a title that fits it. It ends the "what should we read next" conversation in about four minutes, and it is a good use for a card if the group has been reading the same kind of book for a year.
A kids card
Same idea, nine squares instead of twenty-five, and prompts a child can judge for themselves.
| A book with an animal in it | A book someone reads to you | A book about space, the sea, or dinosaurs |
| A funny book | FREE SPACE | A book you pick off the library shelf yourself |
| A true book about a real person | A book with pictures you like | A book you read to someone else |
Three in a row wins. For younger kids, let a square count for being read to — the aim is exposure, not independent reading. A reading log notepad works alongside this for the daily minutes, and reading logs by age covers what to expect at each stage.
Make the card last
Write it out by hand on one page of a notebook rather than printing it fresh each season — you will fill squares over months, and a loose sheet gets lost.
Better still, laminate a blank version and fill it in with a dry-erase marker, photographing the finished card before you wipe it. One print, unlimited seasons.
If you keep a reading journal, the card earns a spread of its own; how to set up a reading journal covers where it fits alongside the log and the TBR.
Start by picking your line
Copy the card, choose the row or column with two squares you already want to read, and start with the easiest of the five.
Everything you need to keep track of it is in bookish accessories and reading journals and notepads.