I used to read all day long when I was a kid. In high school, I could be seen walking down the hallways with my face buried in a book. I even cycled home one day while reading Harry Potter in the middle of traffic. Reading was my life, but that changed after I graduated high school. I was so stressed and tired that I couldn't stand the thought of reading while I was enrolled in a teacher training program. Whenever I picked up a book, a wave of guilt hit me. I couldn't justify spending even 10 minutes on reading while I still had papers to write and classes to teach. Those feelings slowly faded after I quite that program. Once I'd started university, I began to feel much better about reading again. Still, I wasn't exactly having fun. A lot of books I read were on the reading lists for my literature classes. I struggled through Pride and Prejudice. I hated every page of J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace. Sylvia Plath's poetry wasn't exactly my thing either...

With the start of my second year at university came the freedom to read whatever I want. I quit the literature classes and focused on linguistics instead. Yet still, I didn't read the books I wanted to read. My parents have literal mountains of second-hand books just taking up space in their house, so they wanted to read away that mountain range in the spare bedroom. I did my part, but it took a lot of the fun of reading away. Last month, I decided to do a reading challenge to make reading fun for me again. I literally went with the first one I came across: Book Bingo.


God, I feel old and pathetic, admitting that I play and enjoy bingo. But if it works, it's not stupid; And it works. I drew inspiration from book bloggers that have shared their bingo cards online. I took a square here, borrowed a row there... The end result is a card that'll challenge me without making me read genres I really don't want to read, like picture books and historical fiction. I'll have to read in all the languages I'm fluent in. I'll have to pick up books I'll struggle with, books I never thought I'd like, books that'll change my perspective on the world. I literally can't wait.

As of right now, I've already checked five squares off with the three books I've read since making my card. In my version of the game, you're allowed to use one book to cross off multiple boxes as long as it fits the criteria. I've read a book with a female main character, a book written by a female author, a fiction book and a book that takes place in the USA. My required read for my Life Writing class at university took care of the autobiography and my current read will cross off "a book set in the past" and "a book that takes place in another country".


One thing I don't so is playing for prizes. Since I'm the one paying for it, it would be more of a reward than a prize anyway. So playing for rows is not the main objective here. It's a fun extra for which I'll happily read a fantasy book with a male main character written by a male author next. My goal, however, is to complete the entire card. I've put myself on a book-buying ban for new books until I finish the whole thing. I simply don't have the disposable income to keep spending money on random new books like I've done for years. From a sustainability point of view, it's better to buy books second-hand. The piles of second-hand books in our spare bedroom almost touch the ceiling anyway, so I literally have no valid reason to go out and buy brand new ones. So no new books until this entire field has been checked off. When that time comes, I'll go to the local bookstore to buy Slated by Teri Terry. That book has been on my wishlist since the summer of 2012 and Cora from Tea Party Princess recommended it to me recently as well. It's about time I get my hands on a copy.

Knowing I spend about an hour a day reading on the train to and from university, I don't think it'll take me too long to finish this card. At this point, I'm pretty sure I'll be making a new card the minute this one is completed. Of course, I'll need new challenges and a new reward for the next one. Leave those ideas down below! I need something interesting to tackle next.