Book Bingos
One of my goals for 2026 was to read more, but I’m a rebel without a cause about other people’s reading challenges so I made some of my own. Not specific to the year, ’cause if I see a deadline I either give up halfway or speedrun it super hard and make myself burnt out and miserable for no reason. I’m uploading the blank bingo cards here in case you’d like to play or are looking for inspiration to make your own.
Exploring the World
There’s no prize, there’s no deadline, there’s no hashtag, there’s no Discord group. This is just something I threw together inspired by the read around the world challenge. Seemed like a neat way to remember to check out more international books.
ID for “Exploring the World Through Books” 5x5 Bingo:
First Row, left to right:
- By aRussian author.
- By a West or Central Asian author.
- By a Southeast Asian author.
- By an East Asian author.
- By a South Asian author.
Second Row, left to right:
- By a North African author.
- By a West African author.
- By a Central African author.
- By an East African author.
- By a Southern African author.
Third Row, left to right:
- By a Hawaiian or Puerto Rican author.
- By an European author.
- Free Space.
- By an Australian or New Zelander author.
- By a Pacific Islander author.
Fourth Row, left to right:
- By an Indigenous, Aboriginal, Native, or First Nations author.
- By a Mexican or Brazilian author.
- By a Central American author.
- By an author from a Caribbean Sovereign State.
- South American author.
Fifth Row, left to right:
- By a Lesbian author.
- By a Gay author.
- By a Bisexual author.
- By a physically disabled or chronically ill author.
- By a mentally ill or neurodivergent author.
End ID.
There are only three rules to play the “Exploring the World” Book Bingo:
- This bingo focuses on the authors, not where the book is set or who the characters are. Fantasy/Sci-fi, immigrant stories, and anything else counts as long as the author fulfills the square. (Feel free to play it counting only books originally published in the area named in the square if you want, though.)
- You must finish the book. (Entirely up to you if you want to count books you finished but didn’t particularly like, or if you only want to count books you enjoyed, though.)
- Each book only counts for one bingo space. Let’s say, for example, that you read a book by a neurodivergent lesbian from East Asia. You would have to decide whether to place it on the Lesbian author, Neurodivergent author, or East Asian author square. The idea is to explore as many different perspectives as possible.
Other than that, feel free to modify the bingo include or be about comics/graphic novels/music/movies/TV Shows or any other media or art form you’re interested in.
Here’s a handy refernce list of which countries are in which area:
Asia
North Asia (and part of Eastern Europe): Russia.
West Asia: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
East Asia: China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, and South Korea.
Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor), and Vietnam.
South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Africa
North Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara.
West Africa: Benin, Burkina, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Helena (UK), Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
Central or Middle Africa: Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Dem. Rep. Congo (AKA Congo-Kinshasa), Rep. Congo (AKA Congo-Brazzaville), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé & Príncipe.
East Africa: Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Réunion (France), Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia and Somaliland, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland.
The Americas
If you are wondering why Mexico and Brazil are in the same square: I arbitrarily decided to do that because both are big and thus tend to export more media than the smaller Latin American countries.
North America: Canada, Greenland (DK), United States of America, and Mexico.
Caribbean Sovereign States: Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of The Bahamas, Barbados, Republic of Cuba, Republic of Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Republic of Haiti, Jamaica, Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis (Saint Kitts and Nevis), Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
If you are wondering why “Caribbean Sovereign States” specifically: Because the non-independent Caribbean islands have the nationality of whichever country controls them. For example, Puerto Ricans are US citizens (that’s why I lumped them in with Hawaii, which despite being in Polynesia is also part of the US).
Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Islas Malvinas, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Oceania
Australia and New Zealand: Self-explainatory.
Pacific Island Countries:
- Melanesia: Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.
- Micronesia: Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau.
- Polynesia: American Samoa, Cook Islands, Easter Island (Chile), French Polynesia (Tahiti), Niue, Pitcairn, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu. (Hawaii is in Polynesia, but I gave it its own square for this bingo
Europe
I didn’t feel like sectioning up Europe in the bingo like I did for the other continents, but here’s a list divided by zones in case you want to make your own bingo with them or are just curious.
Northern Europe: Denmark, England (United Kingdom), Estonia, Faroe Islands (DK), Finland, Greenland (DK), Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Northern Ireland (UK), Norway, Scotland (UK), Sweden, Wales (UK).
Western Europe: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Switzerland.
Eastern Europe: Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. (Also part of Russia, but the bingo already counted Russia on its own.)
Southern Europe: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia (Hrvatska), Cyprus, Gibraltar (UK), Greece, Italy, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey (East Thrace), and Vatican City State.
