BingoDOG General Thread

Here we go!



There are two things we need to do -- find 24 volunteers to come up with a bingo square (or twelve to come up with two) and we need to find a few people who can make bingo cards and are willing to do so. The cards should be up for use by November first.

Finding volunteers for the square topics is the first thing, though. Are you willing? Let me know and I'll add your name to the list. You will have to be willing to come up with a topic or two and PM them to whoever ends up wrangling the BingoDOG by a date that will be specified later, but probably in mid to late October.

Square Volunteers:
*cbl_tn
*Chrischi_HH
*christina_reads
*clue
*cyderry
*DeltaQueen50
*dudes22
*electrice
*leslie.98
*LibraryCin
*LisaMorr
*LittleTaiko
*majkia
*mysterymax
*RidgewayGirl
*roro8
*sturlington

Card Design Volunteers:

I'll volunteer to fill a square.

Me too

Me too

I'll volunteer for a square!

I'll do a square.

I'll do a square

If you just mean someone to come up with the topic for a square, not needing to do any of the technical work to get it on the card, I am in - for the first time.

I'm happy to suggest a square! Sadly, though, I know nothing about how to design a card.

I'm in for a square.

I'll do a square!

I'll do one too.

Would anyone else like to come up with a topic for a BingoDOG square?

>13 RidgewayGirl: If we don't get any more takers, our current volunteers could each come up with two squares (as we did for the 2015 bingo). Of course, it'd be great to have more volunteers! I'm just offering a plan B. :)

Yes, we have enough volunteers, but I'd like to encourage people who haven't participated before. A lot more people are following this thread than are posting -- which is FINE -- but if you kinda sorta would like to take a stab at coming up with a square (or two), you are more than welcome to do so!

I'll give it a go - by when do we need to come up with it?

No rush. End of November?

>17 RidgewayGirl: Cool, I can handle that.

Yay!

>15 RidgewayGirl:, I'm willing to fill a square, if you still need volunteers.

>20 Roro8: I've added you!

I can do a square, too!

Oops - I didn't mean to volunteer to design the card - so sorry, my skills aren't up to the challenge. I was volunteering to fill a square, sorry to disappoint!

Could we not use the same card designs we have now and just replace the words? Perhaps whoever made the original cards would be willing to do that or provide a file for editing?

I'll volunteer for a square.

>25 cyderry: I've added you to the list!

posted in error

I'll do a square as well.

I'm just checking in to make sure I haven't missed anything. The intro post makes me think I should have told somebody what I have got in mind for a square around now. Is that right? Or are we still working on it, waiting for a few more volunteers maybe?

>29 Roro8: On November first I'll randomly assign people to come up with one or two spaces. If someone doesn't want to do two spaces, they can decline as I'm sure there are enough of us who can come up with two spaces.

Until then, if you still want to volunteer, there are still open spaces available.

>30 RidgewayGirl:, thanks for that info update. I am on the list for a square and have thought of my idea so I'll keep my eye out in November.

So I've messaged Shelby and she's willing to put together our bingo card, because she is exactly that awesome.

Seven people will be chosen at random to come up with two bingo squares. Everyone else will be asked for one. Please send me a private PM with your square on it. I'll collect them and give them to LShelby to put in a card. You'll have until next Sunday to come up with your square. If you're chosen to do a second square and don't want to, let me know and i'll give the second square to someone else. To determine who was given two squares, I put the list of names into a randomizer and gave the first seven names two squares.

Please come up with a bingo square topic by next Sunday (November 8th)

cyderry
cbl_tn
DeltaQueen50
electrice
LibraryCin
Chrischi_HH
majkia
clue
leslie.98
christina_reads

Please come up with two bingo square topics by next Sunday (November 8th)

roro8
LittleTaiko
LisaMorr
RidgewayGirl
mysterymax
dudes22
sturlington

Please note that on the morning of the 9th, if you haven't submitted your square(s), they will be given to someone else.

>32 RidgewayGirl: Wonderful news!

>32 RidgewayGirl: Thanks to Shelby! I have sent off my PM so let me know if you don't get it...

Silly question, but...is sending a PM different than posting a message on RG's profile page?

ETA: I just looked again. Do I post a message to her profile and then check the box that says "private comment?" Is that it?

>35 dudes22: - Yes to your ETA question. ;-)

>36 lkernagh: - thanks.

PM doesn't have to be private message. It can also just be profile message. which is why >32 RidgewayGirl: specifies private PM.

Please let Shelby know how much I appreciate her helping us. I'll be sending my suggestions shortly.

I've put an asterisk in front of those names who have submitted their bingo squares, up in the first post.

I'm getting excited to see what the Bingo blocks will be this year.

>32 RidgewayGirl: Thanks so much to Shelby! Now it's off to think of a square...

Here are the bingo squares. This is how they were given to me, and a few needed to be condensed for brevity's sake. They are in random order. The center square will be "read a CAT". Longer descriptions/explanations for each square will be posted as well; I just wanted to let you all take a look at what we'll be reading, so don't worry if something's unclear. There's a good mix of easy and hard here.

Here they are:

by an author born in 1916
one-word title
comics, graphic novel, manga or BD
coming of age story
Survival story
title contains a musical reference
self-published
senior citizen as the protagonist
autobiography or memoir
About a writer (fiction or nonfiction)
About/by an indigenous person
in translation
title uses wordplay
published before you were born
about the environment
focus on art
debut book
adventure
about an airplane flight
food is important
Main Character's job/hobby you want
a body of water in the title
with less than 200 pages
features a theater

And thanks to everyone for getting their squares in -- everyone handed in their topics early!

Pretty cool topics! :)

And here is any amplification provided by the square's authors:

by an author born in 1916 a list will be made, but authors include Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, James Herriot, and Mary Stewart.

one-word title

comics, graphic novel, manga or BD BD stands for band dessine with an accent over the final e.

coming of age story

Survival story

title contains a musical reference Just in case this may seem difficult for some, I found the following list of words would all work and I am sure there are plenty more:Sing (s), Hum (s), sharp, air, shake, beat, time, turn, axe, bend, bleed, blues, bridge, chorus, clean, dead, fall, fill, harp, horn, jam, sample, voice, rock, roll, swing, waltz, tango, note(s)

self-published A book published by the author without going through a publishing house. While these are most commonly published as ebooks, many authors also choose to issue print-on-demand copies, and books of local interest are often self-published.

senior citizen as the protagonist

autobiography or memoir

About a writer (fiction or nonfiction)

About/by an indigenous person

in translation

title uses wordplay Definition: the witty exploitation of the meanings and ambiguities of words, especially in puns.

published before you were born

about the environment Read something about the environment/climate change/nature

focus on art can include dance, theater, music

debut book

adventure

about an airplane flight

food is important

Main Character's job/hobby you want THE CENTRAL CHARACTER HAS A HOBBY OR OCCUPATION YOU WOULD LOVE TO HAVE

a body of water in the title

with less than 200 pages

features a theater a play, a novel or a work of non-fiction.

I like them! Some books on my TBR list already popped into my head.

I dropped out of the discussions because work has been a lot more intense than I would like, but I'm very impressed with how the various Cats and Dogs are shaping up. 2016 is going to be another fun reading year!

I started a list of authors born in 1916:

Eric Bentley
Kazimierz Brandys
Jurij Brezan
Camilo Jose Cela
Owen Chadwick
Beverly Cleary
C. Everett Coop
Roald Dahl
Manoel de Barros
Kirk Douglas
William Pene du Bois
Penelope Fitzgerald
Shelby Foote
Joseph Gies
James Herriot
Shirley Jackson
Jane Jacobs
Bernard Lewis
John D. MacDonald
Edmund S. Morgan
Helen Norris
Walker Percy
Eugenia Price
Bernard Ramm
Lenka Reinerova
Harold Robbins
Jonathan Ross
Mary Stewart
Jack Vance
Morris L. West
Frank Yerby

What a fun list of topics! Will have to start looking through my TBR stack to see what I have that fits.

I'm interested in seeing the BingoDOG list of topics. It's amazing; there is only one near duplicate with the Woman BingoPUP, and that is "autobiography or memoir;" we added "correspondence" to that heading also.

Anyone who is planning to play this challenge might also be interested in the Woman BingoPUP challenge.

I might be playing both bingo cards.

>49 cbl_tn: I would also suggest Camilo José Cela, Morris L. West, Kazimierz Brandys, Lenka Reinerová, Jurij Brezan and Walker Percy.

>52 MissWatson: And I have Walker Percy on my tbr. Well, that's one square sorted.

I've got two John D. Macdonald books in the TBR. Yay!

I haven't read Mary Stewart in years! Time to re-visit her books.

A few more authors born in 1916:

Joseph Gies
Jonathan Ross/John Rossiter
Helen Norris
Kirk Douglas
Owen Chadwick
Manoel de Barros
Eric Bentley

>49 cbl_tn: Frank Yerby was also a 1916 baby, although I haven't picked up one of his books in years.....

What an exciting list! I can't wait to start choosing my Bingo books! Just a thought for the "title contains a musical reference square," I assume we could also choose a book that references a specific song title. (Of course, I'm drawing a blank on examples right now, but I know they're out there!)

when I read the musical reference square I thought of A Dance to the Music of Time, Bel Canto, The Time of Our Singing, The Jazz Bird, The Music Lovers, Ragtime, The Piano Teacher both authors, The Music Lesson and Music of the Swamp.

For the musical reference square there is also...

Jazz by Toni Morrison
Rocking the Ages
Singin', Swingin', and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou
Thank You for the Music by Jane McCafferty
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
A Song Flung Up to Heaven by Maya Angelou
Songbook by Nick Hornby
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin

I am sure there are many more. There are probably books with words like treble, cleft, bass, soprano, alto, stanza, etc. in the title which is what I first thought of when I read musical reference. I guess you could even include things that have musical instruments in the title.

For the self-published square, LShelby writes fantasy novels and publishes them through amazon. She has an author page there. It might be worthwhile to see if any of her books appeal, as she is doing us the favor of making our bingo card.

The list looks amazing and very "do-able". Thank you for the author list, Carrie and others, I have Shirley Jackson on my TBR and many of the other authors also have appeal.

I'm off to check my TBR shelves and see what I have on hand to use for this challenge.

Some great ideas there!

Sadly, I know I will not be able to do a fill the card because there are some squares that just don't fit into my reading desires.

>63 cyderry: Me too, but that's okay.

I think the square that will give me the most trouble is the one about an airplane flight. I'm not sure how far I can reasonably stretch this. Would a book like Lost in Shangri-La fit? I suspect that only a small portion of the book is about the actual flight, but there wouldn't be a book at all if not for the flight. What about Behemoth? It's about flying, but not on an airplane.

Is the airplane flight limited to one flight, or can it be plural? I have a novel written by two former Pan Am hostesses, which I feel sure covers multiple flights.

For the airplane flight I'm thinking about reading The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. Figured I may as well go for the first official flight.

Lawrence Block has been self-publishing his books for a few years now.

I'm stymied on the airplane one too.

>68 dianeham: - really?! That is good to know as I have one of his burglar books to read. Will have to check how it was published.

Love the squares! Like >51 sallylou61:, will probably play both Bingo cards.

For the airplane flight square, I am guessing that a book about Amelia Earhart's flight would qualify. I can also recommend Helen Humphrey's Leaving Earth, a story about two female aviation pilots who set out to break, at the time, a continuous flight record.

Does anyone have recommendations for the indigenous square? Really drawing a blank on that one.

>72 LittleTaiko: Unless I read something before then, I'm planning on using whatever I read by Joseph Boyden for the Canadian author challenge. I think he comes up in May or June. Louise Erdrich or Tony Hillerman would work.

>67 LittleTaiko: Oh, I like that idea for airplane flight!

>72 LittleTaiko: You could probably read something by an indigenous author that would fit.

What's that one by Alexie Sherman? Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

There are some native Canadian authors: Thomas King, so maybe Green Grass, Running Water or something else by him. Richard Wagamese is also good... What's that one? Indian Horse is a good one.

I'm sure there are plenty more that are not immediately coming into my head.

ETA: just read the recommendations in >73 cbl_tn: Yes, Joseph Boyden, Louise Erdrich, or Tony Hillerman would all be good, as well.

I'm trying to think of one for "title uses wordplay"...

Ella Minnow Pea is the only one that comes to mind. I'll have to peruse my tbr a bit and see if anything else might fit.

I'm also having trouble with the "title uses wordplay" square. I can think of books and authors that use a lot of word play, but no titles.

For the indigenous square I can suggest:

The Way to Rainy Mountain - N Scott Momaday
Blue Highways - William Least Heat-Moon
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown
The Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper
Julie of the Wolves - Jean Craighead George

ETA: Just thought of some word play in title books that I've read (2 of them this year. duh!):
The Seems : The Split Second (2nd book in the series)
The Seems: The Lost Train of Thought
Un Lun Dun

I was thinking of using Lost in Shangri-La for the "About an Airplane Flight", afterall, the whole book starts with a flight and what happens when that flight can't be completed. I think it fits.

Also I am thinking of reading Robopocalypse for the "title uses wordplay" square. But there is also a multiude of cozy mysteries where the title is a play on words, like We'll Always Have Parrots by Donna Andrews or Assault and Batter by Jessica Beck, etc. Colin Bateman write crime mysteries set in Ireland and his books have great titles like Driving Big Davey and Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men.

I think the "comics, graphic novel, manga or BD" will be my biggest problem. I tried a graphic novel once and could not read it. I just don't get it.

Last Christmas, my brother gave me a copy of The Heart of Everything That Is, and now I'll have a push to read it. I'm going to try to read from my tbr for this BingoDOG.

Vivienne, have you tried one of the classics of the genre? Maus and Persepolis are very, very good. And Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast is a memoir about the author and her aging parents that doesn't read so much like a graphic novel, than a memoir.

Should we start putting together a list of possible airplane flight books? I liked Munich Airport by Greg Baxter, but as the title suggests, it was not set on an airplane. TransAtlantic by Colum McCann was a fantastic book, and the opening segment was about the first transAtlantic flight. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson is about a man who flew in WWII as a bomber pilot.

>72 LittleTaiko: >73 cbl_tn: >75 LibraryCin: Just wondering: is indigenous meant to be restricted to Northern America?

>81 MissWatson: No.

>65 cbl_tn:, I've read Lost in Shangri-La and I believe there is enough about the flight in it.

>83 Roro8: Great! I want to read from my TBRs for this, and Lost in Shangri-La has been on my library list for a while.

>79 VivienneR: El Deafo is a graphic novel that made this year's Newbery Honor list. I'm planning to read Persepolis, which was already on my library TBR list.

>79 VivienneR: The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck are a couple more award winners.

>82 RidgewayGirl: I didn't think it was, it's just that there aren't many others that occurred to me spontaneously: Australian Aborigines, New Zealand Maori, Ainu in Japan. Would Berbers in Northern Africa meet the criteria, since they lived there before the Arabs?

I should have checked: of course there is a list on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_indigenous_peoples

ETA

For wordplay see: http://www.librarything.com/tag/wordplay

ETA: also http://www.librarything.com/tag/fiction,+puns

uses puns as a tag also.

I'm reading Award winners for the 2016 GeoCAT challenge. Here are my plans:
Shadow Country
Vernon God Little
A Brief History of Seven Killings: A Novel
Days in the History of Silence
The Gathering
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
The White Tiger
The Secret River
The English Patient
Disgrace: A Novel

At first I was thinking that I'd have trouble fitting books for the bingo into my categories for this year. And there were some blocks that I wasn't that thrilled about reading. But as I've seen some of the suggestions, I'm feeling a bit more optimistic. So I think I'll go try to make a list.

Couple more suggestions for airplane books - Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie and Circling the Sun by Paula McLain. The latter books is a historical fiction account of Beryl Markham a woman who was born in England, grew up in Kenya, and as an adult trained horses as well as flew across the Atlantic. The book could have had more about the flight but it is included.

Also want to second the suggestion by >80 RidgewayGirl: - Transatlantic was a wonderful book!

For the indigenous square, I found this list of top 100 books by Indigenous Masters: http://www.librarything.com/list/10012/all/-Top-100-books-by-Indigenous-Masters

>80 RidgewayGirl: and >84 cbl_tn: Thanks for the recommendations. Your advice will be most appreciated when I go to the library and am faced with their collection.

I have Southern Mail/Night Flight by Antoine Saint-Exupéry that should fit the airplane flight square.

>91 LittleTaiko: Circling the Sun is my favorite book of 2015. If you can find a copy, West into the Night, Markham's own memoir, is worth reading. It focuses more on her aviator experiences and less on the equestrian aspects.

ETA: Circling the Sun made the Goodreads semi-final list for this year's Best Fiction. Voting is still open.

For the airplane square, The Aviator's Wife would work. It is about the wife of Charles Lindberg and she also was pilot/navigator and spent a lot of time in the air. She even did glider plane.

I know that The Aviator's Wife is not well thought of by the Lindburgh family and friends. There is a good book by her about flying with her husband called North to the Orient

Other good flying books could include:
Several by St. Exupery, for example Wind, Sand and Stars, Flight to Arras, Southern Mail and Night Flight.

David Beatty has a good one called The Take Off.
Ken Follett has Night Over Water.
Craig Johnson has Spirit of Steamboat.
Derek Robinson has Goshawk Squadron.
Fredrick Forsyth has The Shepherd.

For a book about an indigenous person I highly recommend Two Old Women by Velma Wallis (It would also qualify for the senior citizen space as well.)

>96 mysterymax:, I had forgotten that Mrs Lindburgh was actually an author, too.

>80 RidgewayGirl: I wanted to second the Persepolis recommendation for graphic novel. It was my first one and it was really good! I also really enjoy the Fables series (so it's a recommendation for anyone who likes fairy tales or the tv show, Once Upon a Time). The first in the Fables series is called Legends in Exile.

Airplane books. I can think of a couple that start off in an airplane. It was too preachy for my liking, but Left Behind starts in an airplane when people simply disappear. Not sure if it could count or not. Also one I'm not sure, but starts with a plane crash is The Night Strangers.

>81 MissWatson: I see you already got an answer to this, but I was going to assume that no, it wouldn't necessarily need to be restricted to North America. That's just more what I know, so those are the recommendations I am able to make.

For wordplay, thank you for the links to those lists >87 majkia:. I'll likely end up with a Jasper Fforde book.

This is my choice for the indigenous topic The Way Around: Finding My Mother and Myself Among the Yanomami by David Good His father is an American anthropologist and his mother was a Yanomami from the Amazon.

Another novel that I think would qualify under "Indigenous People" would be Euphoria (by Lily King) which features the culture of a Papua New Guinean tribe; And along those same lines, the (non-fiction) books written by the real Margaret Mead relating to her anthropologist studies.

Last night I looked at a list of "Indigenous" writers, it was on Goodreads I think, and Louise Erdrich was included. I hadn't thought of her but she would be a good choice.

Last year I read The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fanny Flagg. I had not liked her previous book but since my bookclub had chosen this I read it anyway. As it turned out I really enjoyed this one. It's about sisters who take over running the family filling station and when WWII comes along become transport pilots. Although it isn't about one flight I think it would be legal.

Nice to find these indigenous authors, adding some to my (long) list of possibilities for my challenge

Hanya Yanagihara is another possibility for indigenous, as she is of native Hawaiian ancestry.

I decided to choose a Canadian indigenous writer: Three day road by Joseph Boyden, Motorcycles and sweet grass by Drew Hayden Taylor or one of Stanley Evans's Seaweed mysteries set in British Columbia.

>106 VivienneR: I'm going with Joseph Boyden as well. The Orenda as been on my shelves for some time and I am looking forward to finally reading it.

Another one for the "about an airplane flight" square: Dear Mrs. Lindbergh by Kathleen Hughes.

My dad gave me a book a while ago called The Cockpit: A Flight of Escape and Discovery that I haven't read yet. The Amazon description is:

In 1992, ignoring the advice of every aviation expert who said it couldn't be done, a university professor decided to fly his small Cessna alone from California to South Africa. Plagued with horrendous weather, mechanical glitches, and uncooperative governments, nothing went right from the beginning. Yet, despite ice- and sandstorms, an earthquake, and the threat of civil war, he made it safely to his distant destination. His journey became a personal metaphor for the search for meaning in life and the crazy, breathtaking things that one man would do to find it.

He also gave me The Flight of the Phoenix - it may be hard to choose:

A cargo plane crash lands in the Central Libyan desert during a violent sandstorm. Twelve men and a monkey survive. They stare without hope into the desert sky: search planes will not seek their unscheduled flight. One man proposes the impossible--to build from the wreckage an aircraft capable of flying them 200 miles to the nearest oasis. But the pilot refuses to cooperate and this struggle becomes the pivot for survival or death. THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX launched Elleston Trevor's remarkable career.

>109 LisaMorr: Both sound interesting.

More book recs for the indigenous square, these from New Zealand:
The Bone People
The Whale Rider
Potiki

>109 LisaMorr: The Flight of the Phoenix is very good. The original movie, the one with James Stewart, I think it was, is also excellent and stuck close to the book. The new one that they made bore so little resemblance to the book it might as well have been called something else. But the book is quite gripping, funny in places too as I recall. Highly recommend it.

>93 VivienneR: If you're looking for award winners, I just learned that Maus received a Pulitzer special prize in 1992.

>112 mysterymax: Thanks - that may tip the scales, or I'll read both!

I can't wait to get home from this business trip and start perusing my bookshelves for ideas for all the other categories...

>96 mysterymax: The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth is a beautiful aviation Christmas Eve story and one that I plan to read every Christmas Eve. I also have a podcast of the CBC Radio As It Happens reading.

>113 cbl_tn: That's good to know. I wasn't particularly looking for award winners, just a graphic novel that would capture my interest which hasn't happened so far in my limited experience. Maus will be my first choice now.

I can't wait until January to get started.

I've been looking over my TBR and actually found a few more than I expected that I can still fit into my categories without using too many spaces in my "miscellaneous" category. I think finding a book for self-published might be my biggest obstacle. I did have an ER book a couple of years ago that I didn't like that much which I researched and the publishing company is run by the author, so I guess I could read another in that series. It's just that I didn't like the first book all that much so it kind of seems like a waste of reading time.

These authors have self published. There books may have been picked up and published after first self publishing or may be as in Freethy's case, the author went back to republish books that had gone out of print.
The Martian- Andy Weir
The Wealthy Barber - David Chilton
Ten Tiny Breaths by K. A. tucker
The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
The Riyria Chronicles by Michael J. Sullivan
Damaged - H. M. Ward
Daniel's Gift by Barbara Freethy
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Wool Trilogy by Hugh Howey
E. L. James

If memory serves, The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis was also self-published originally. It was later picked up by McClelland & Stuart when it started winning awards. It's a humorous story about Canadian politics.

Here's a couple very basic cards for y'all. (Sorry they're not so cool looking as the ones @PawsforThought made last year.) If you see any typos or mistakes, or want/need changes, just let me know!

<img src="http://www.lshelby.com/Utilities/Bingo/bingocardC.php?type=CAT2016-B&color=red&markers=9-13-20-5-24-6">



<img src="http://www.lshelby.com/Utilities/Bingo/bingocardC.php?type=CAT2016-C&color=blue&markers=2-13-19-7-22-14">



Don't forget that you can change the color of the markers to any of the following:
aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, orange, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow

If you weren't around last year and need instructions on how to use the cards, they are at:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/180134#4971850

>119 LShelby: Thank you!! I think they're both cool looking. I love the way you've emphasized the key words in each square. I'm ready to get started, but I'll exercise patience until January 1.

>118 VivienneR: What a great book!

>119 LShelby: Thank you! I know there are "haters" out there, but I love comic font, so I'll be using that one! :-)

ETA: And now that the Bingo cards are done, maybe I should start my thread soon...

>119 LShelby: Thanks for spending you time helping us out! I'm copied and ready to go (even though I still have 2 to finish for this year).

>119 LShelby: The cards are fabulous - thank you so much!

>119 LShelby: Thanks so much for these cards. I have copied the first one into my 2016 challenge, and it works perfectly.

>119 LShelby: Thanks for the great work

Nice job! Thank you.

>122 LibraryCin: - I'm with you - love comic font so that will be my choice.

>119 LShelby: - Thanks for all the cards!!!

"Thanks for all the cards!!!"

Everyone is most welcome. I hope you have fun with them! :)

>119 LShelby: - These are awesome! Thank you so much for creating them!

>119 LShelby: Beautiful, thanks!

>119 LShelby: Thanks for making the Bingo cards!

I don't seem to have any books by authors born in 1916; I was thinking about something from Shirley Jackson or Roald Dahl. Then I searched '1916' on LT, and a list of authors came up that were either born in 1916 or passed away then. And I saw a name I sort of recognized - Jack Vance - and looking into it, he has written quite a bit of science fiction, so I will consider something by him as well.

>119 LShelby: Thank you so very, very much! I love the first card.

>119 LShelby: - Thanks. Those are great cards.

>119 LShelby: Thanks a lot! I really like both cards. :)

>119 LShelby: Oh thanks so much for both this and the women's card!

>119 LShelby: They look great. Thanks for all your effort!

OK, I just did something silly ....

Someone posted on the "Need Help with Wiki?" thread asking for help with creating a 2016 Woman BingoPUP page. I misread this and created a 2016 BingoDOG page.

Does this page already exist? If so, I'll try to delete the other one, or mark it accordingly if I can't delete it.

If not, and you want a Wiki page, here it is! :)
http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2016_BingoDOG

There's not much in it. I just copied the structure of the old 2015 BingoDOG page and removed most of the content. I'm not actually participating in the BingoDOG myself (would love to, but can barely manage to keep up with my other challenges), so hopefully someone else would be willing to fill in the page.

Again, if this page is not needed or wanted, I apologize for my goof and I'll try to get rid of it.

>119 LShelby: Let me just add to the chorus of thanks and praise for the awesome Bingo cards!

>139 mathgirl40: I don't think the wiki existed already, so thanks for setting it up! :)

ETA: I've added the Bingo topics to the wiki, using mathgirl40's format.

>140 christina_reads: Glad to be of use, even if inadvertently. :)

>119 LShelby: Thank you for the great cards!

I'm looking forward to this now. The only one I'm going to have trouble with is the 'self-published' because I really tend to avoid book 'selfies'. Anyone got any suggestions for a good quality self-pub or two?

Am I mistaken or is the wiki in a separate group? It doesn't appear to be on the 2016 Category Challenge group page.

>142 klarusu: If you like fantasy, I really enjoyed The Wanderers by Cheryl Mahoney. The cover is kind of awful, but seriously, the book is good! I may be reading its sequel, The Storyteller and Her Sisters, for that square myself!

>143 VivienneR: The URL for the wiki is
http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2016_BingoDOG

It has not yet been linked at the top of the 2016 challenge screen. I have added the request for linking it to my request to -Eva- to link the Woman BingoPUP thread and wiki.

These Bingo Cards are fantastic, I've posted my choices to my thread and now I can hardly wait until January. Many thanks to LShelby for providing these squares and thanks to RidgewayGirl for organizing this!

>143 VivienneR: - Usually, once Eva stops by and sees that the wiki is up, she adds a link to the intro to the group. She probably just hasn't been by lately.

>147 dudes22: The links to the wikis have been on the intro page for a bit now.

>145 sallylou61: & >147 dudes22: Aah, I see. I didn't make much use of wikis before this so wasn't aware of the sequence of events. This year I may be looking for more information about what everyone is reading.

Roll on 2016.

>142 klarusu:, see 117, i added some self published books that are supposed to be good.

>144 christina_reads: & >150 Kristelh: Thank you! Will check them out.

>142 klarusu: Don't forget LT authors for the self-published square. In addition to our own LShelby (who has a page on amazon, if you want to look at what she's written), there are several others. The group Hobnob with Authors has lists of self-published titles organized by genre.

https://www.librarything.com/groups/hobnobwithauthors

>148 Tara1Reads: - the ones for the Bingos weren't there when I posted. Just the others. But I see they're there now.

>152 RidgewayGirl: - thanks for that link, Kay. I'm sure it will come in handy.

>152 RidgewayGirl:
Actually, none of the lists I keep over in the Hobnob with Authors group differentiate on the basis of who published the books. Mostly they list self-published authors, but that's just because mostly that's who shows up.

Speaking of which, for that self-published square...

Fantasy fans might find Andrea K Höst worth checking out.

And Bill Swears' "zombie thriller" Zook Country might appeal to military/action fans.

And in case there are any EE Doc Smith fans out there who know who I'm talking about, Stephen Goldin, the co-author of the Family d'Alenbert series, now self-publishes. (Although not the Family d'Alenbert books -- I assume he doesn't have the rights.)

Also, (I haven't actually read it yet), but Ryk E. Spoor belongs on that list of traditionally published authors who have also self-published something: he wrote an Oz book, Polychrome, which his usual publisher (Baen) just wasn't interested in for reasons that may well have nothing to do with how good it is.

...I'm sure I have failed to mention many more authors/books just as worthy of mention as the ones I have put down. That always happens to me on these "recommend books with criteria x" lists. ::sigh::

>152 RidgewayGirl: & >154 LShelby: thanks! Some great recs here. I shall definitely check them out.

@susanj67 in the 75 Books Group just posted a review of a self-published novel on her thread. I thought I'd mention it here for those who are wanting recommendations for that square. Imhotep by Jerry Dubs.

Here is a list of fiction with writers as characters: http://www.librarything.com/list/695/all/Best-Books-with-Writers-as-Characters

And here is a list where food is important (fiction, again): http://www.librarything.com/list/743/all/Food-in-Fiction

Feel free to add to these lists. I'll make sure to link them to the wiki.

Interesting categories. Seems more "doable" than last year's, but still challenging.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! for changing a book published in 1915 to an author born in 1916.

Maybe for "Title uses wordplay" I'll finally get around to reading We'll Always Have Parrots.

I'll volunteer to do a square!

The December issue of Library Journal includes a list of the best self-published ebooks of the year:
Yokai by Dave Ferraro (fantasy)
Dangerous and Unseemly by K.B. Owen (mystery)
Steam Me Up, Rawley by Angela Quarles(romance)
Blue Karma by J.K. Ullrich (science fiction)

>119 LShelby: - awesome - how difficult is it to make your own bingo cards like this? - are there any tutorials online?

I'm not sure if a January thread was opened. If so, point me to it.

I've put my first marker in my Bingo card: Survival Story. The End is Now is actually an anthology of survival stories, all taking place during an apocalyptic event. 3*

I went ahead and created a Bingo thread for January: http://www.librarything.com/topic/211333. Feel free to visit and add your books read this month!

Here's an interesting link for the "Under 200 pages" square:

http://www.feedyourneedtoread.com/feature/acclaimed-books-under-200-pages/

>164 LoisB: Cool! Thanks for posting.

My first square! I have 'Read a book in translation' and it was a very good book! The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez.

>161 lovelyluck: "LShelby: - awesome - how difficult is it to make your own bingo cards like this? - are there any tutorials online?"

Sorry I didn't reply earlier. I've been been pretty much offline for over a month, so I missed seeing this post until now.

How hard is it to do?

If you are talking about making one to use here, you just need an image file of the right size, with the categories in the right places so that the markers end up where they are supposed to be.

You send me that card image. I upload it to my server.
That it.

I have never posted a tutorial, but it's not really a difficult task to make a card image if you have a graphics app that does multiple layers: just use an existing card image as a reference (or I can email you a template to make it even easier). You put the categories in the boxes using your app's text tool, and then decorate the background any way you like.

(... If you meant that you want to know how to do the programming end of it all, I'd be happy to help, but let's take the discussion somewhere else.)

Here is the March thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/219776

The April thread is here http://www.librarything.com/topic/220808#.

Is it too late to join?

>172 Sace: Anyone can hop in at any time! The bingo card is found in post >119 LShelby:, along with instructions on how to put it up in your reading thread. Feel free ask any other questions you have - someone will be glad to answer.

>173 RidgewayGirl: Yay! Thank you!

I think I have a stupid question.....

Where do I put my Bingo card? I put one on my https://www.librarything.com/topic/223382 Categories thread, but now I'm not sure that's where it goes.

>175 Sace: Yes, we usually track our bingo cards in our individual threads and then report our matches in the monthly BingoPUP thread. Here's this month's thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/223007

Thank you! I might not actually get anything read until June...or December...but I'm already checking out my bookshelves and trying to see what I can read.

>177 Sace: For some of the categories, you will likely find that something you are reading anyway will fit one of the squares! Good luck!

>178 LibraryCin: Thank you! I think the squares are perfect. Fun to find books to fit, but not so challenging that I throw up my hands. Everyone did a wonderful job coming up with them.

>179 Sace: Exactly! There are always a few I need to hunt for something for, but many of them work out, anyway.

>180 LibraryCin: I am beginning to think I work in an opposite way with any sort of challenge. I prefer to make the books I read fit as opposed to choosing a book based on the cue. It's the rebel in me. "I'm gonna do what I want and rationalize it to fit the requirement."

hmmm. Does that make any sort of sense?

>181 Sace: sounds like me!

>182 majkia: I'm glad I'm not the only one!

>181 Sace: me, too!

I used Amphigorey Again to fill the comics/graphic novel/manga square. Otherwise, it might not get filled. This was a reread. I love rereading Edward Gorey.

>185 sturlington: Oh I have an Edward Gorey here at home I need to read (though I've taken care of that square I think.)

Any thoughts on whether this one fits 'title uses wordplay' - The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived - 'never' versus 'ever'? Of if that's reaching, I can wait and see if something else pops up.

>187 LisaMorr: I think it would work, but I also had trouble interpreting a book for this square, so maybe take my opinion with a grain of salt! :-)

I didn't get any hits this month. Oh well, there is always June.

I made a July thread for sharing our July BingoDOG reads: https://www.librarything.com/topic/226635

I have only one square left to fill - self-published. I was searching for ideas and found these:

Marcel Proust: Remembrance of things past
Lisa Genova: Still Alice
John Grisham: A time to kill
Robert James Waller: Bridges of Madison County
Virginia Woolf
Beatrix Potter: The Tale of Peter Rabbit

I've started an August thread here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/228724

Yay for me! On August 7, I finished my Bingo Dog Card!

>193 countrylife: Congrats!