If you follow me on Twitter (and you definitely should), you know I'm taking part in a summer bingo challenge hosted by Books on the Nightstand. Their generator randomly picks 25 squares for you out of 140 possibilities and constructs a card designed to get you reading out of your comfort zone. In theory, you could keep generating cards until you get one that most closely fits your reading taste, but where's the fun in that?

Here's my card and the books I'm counting so far:

I've knocked out a bunch of the more general squares with books I was planning to read anyway, but others are forcing me to think outside my wheelhouse. I just learned what qualifies as a verse novel last week, and I'm excited to check out Autobiography of Red, a modern retelling of the myth of Heracles's tenth labor. Confession time: I've never listened to an audiobook (gasp!), and I'm finally going to break out the earbuds to enjoy a re-read (re-listen?) of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or The Hobbit, thanks to solid recommendations from you lovely folks. I'm also on the hunt for a book about Islam for my "religion with which you are unfamiliar" square, if anyone has recommendations in that vein!

The challenge is also making me think a lot more about how I categorize my reads. I originally thought Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric would count toward the "currently on the bestseller list" square. Upon finishing it this morning, I took a step back and realized just how much the book had challenged my understanding of the black experience in America. I know I'm going to be rereading this one for the nuance I missed the first time through, and so it ended up on my "about a subject that challenges you" square.
I'm enjoying the process of seeking out new books so much that I might just generate myself another card when I finish this one, seasonal challenge be damned.