Book Bingo 2016: Blackout Edition

Can you believe summer is almost over? Time to do a final Summer Book Bingo 2016 check-in! I’ve been working on a blackout all summer, but I’ll be reading right up until the last minute to get ‘er done. Thank goodness for a long holiday weekend, aka an extra day for frantic bingo reading.

Here’s what I ended up with:

Recommended by a librarian: Marrow Island
Cookbook: Korean Food Made Simple
You’ve been meaning to read: City of Mirrors
We Need Diverse Books: Homegoing
Collection of short stories: The Unfinished World
From your childhood: Island of the Blue Dolphins
Prize-winner: The Race
Set in a place you’ve always wanted to visit: A Curious Beginning
Recommended by an independent bookstore: Sleeping Giants (which appeared on our summer 2016 preview list)
Banned: Julie of the Wolves
Collection of poetry: Oracle
Young adult book: Nerve
Translated from another language: The Slynx
Nonfiction: The Gene: An Intimate History (also from our summer 2016 preview list)
Novel: Dark Matter
Local author: The Summer Dragon
Written by a Seattle Arts & Lectures speaker: Complications
Reread: Sense and Sensibility
You finish reading in a day: All the Birds in the Sky
Out of your comfort zone: Maestra
Read out loud: Underground Airlines
Memoir: Shrill
Written more than 100 years ago: Northanger Abbey
Recommended by a friend: Grunt

Here’s my hard-won advice from scrambling to complete my bingo card this summer.

Don’t get distracted: I read more books this summer than I listed here, but many of them didn’t fit into bingo categories. Because I was reading continuously, I thought I was staying on track, even though I wasn’t filling in squares fast enough. Keep an eye on your progress and don’t fall behind.

Dive into the back catalog: I had a harder time finishing the blackout this year, because REALLY popular new books can have 500+ holds when they’re released. I’m still waiting to receive some of the books I thought I was going to read for Book Bingo 2016! There are plenty of great books from previous years at the library, and you’ll get them much faster than, say, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (I’m #543 and counting).

You still have time to send in your Book Bingo 2016 playing cards through Sept. 5! On Twitter, tag #BookBingoNW2016, @SeaArtsLectures, and @SPLBuzz. On Instagram, tag #BookBingoNW2016, @seattlepubliclibrary, and @seattleartsandlectures. Tell us what you’ve been reading for Book Bingo 2016 in the comments!