Books on the Nightstand Bingo

One of my favourite podcasts is Books on the Nightstand. I really enjoy the style of the podcast, and find the two presenters both intelligent and entertaining. Then there's the part where I have had any number of excellent book recommendations from them. I think the biggest success has been The Martian by Andy Weir  (episode 267, back in February) recommendations for which have cascaded from me to friends and family, and their friends and family. Seriously, go and read it. Even if you normally would not read science fiction.

A couple of episodes ago (I am horribly behind, and only heard it last week), they announced Beach Blanket Book Bingo as a way of doing some interesting summer reading. Well, I have no beach holidays planned (sadly no holiday of any kind, actually!), but I do have some time off work coming my way, and some reading would be an excellent thing.

As a child I read. Always. Except when I was writing. Somewhere in the midst of educating myself and working to pay the bills, the time and inclination I have for reading has diminished. I still love it though, and am always keen to read when a good opportunity arises. So I was rather enthusiastic about this book bingo idea, and I have decided to follow it on my blog. Apparently the plan is that this bingo game should end on Labor Day. When is that, you may ask? I had no idea, but the all-knowing Google tells me it is the first of September this year. Which is a reasonable time, but not adequate for being too ambitious.

So, I acquired myself a bingo card from here. They change each time you hit refresh, so I hit refresh, and then print. In line with not being too ambitious, I have decided to go for one of two rows. Either a vertical row featuring

1. By an author of a different gender
2. Translation
3. A novella
4. Published before 1970
5. A play

or a diagonal linewith a free square featuring:

1. Currently on the bestseller list
2. Translation
3. Historical Fiction
4. With only words on the cover

As you can see, the common theme is translation. I have two books on the shelf I have been meaning to read for ages which are both translations: Penguin Lost by Andrey Kurkov and The Dinner by Herman Koch. The latter was something I heard about on a podcast somewhere and Penguin Lost is a sequel to Death and the Penguin, which is a book I absolutely loved.

Given that, I think Penguin Lost will be my translation book, and then I will take the rest of the bingo card from there.