Shop Your Shelves Winter 2023

Shop Your Shelves is back for 2023! Due to popular demand and my own burgeoning bookshelves, I've set up a new bingo board for the first quarter of 2023. Below you'll find rules, explanations for the squares and a link to square, story and print boards.

The Board

Instagram Story and printable sizes available in Drive.

Rules & Tags

Bingo runs from January 1 through March 31, 2023.

The goal is to read what you already own, but we're making it a bit more flexible as the challenge continues. I'm still going to avoid buying books this quarter, but I have review/work obligations so I'll be reading some newer acquisitions regardless. I just won't count them for my board.

Don't count:

• Pre-orders that arrive after Jan. 1.
• Kindle Unlimited, Audible Plus or any books purchased with credits after Jan. 1.
• Library borrows, unless you already have them on loan or on hold
• Bonus challenge: Backdate this to Nov. 10, which is when the first challenge began or really challenge yourself and don't count anything you've owned for less than a year. (That last one was suggested by a Discord commenter and I don't think I'm that ruthless lol.)

All formats and genres are valid.

You can decide if you want to count re-reads, but I want to get through a chunk of my TBR, so I won't be.

You may use a book to fill up to three squares.

If you plan to join the fun on social, tag @LoveinPanels or use #ShopYourShelvesBingo so we can cheer each other on! We'll be chatting through the challenge in The Reader Room Discord group as well, so please send a message on social or email me (suzanne at loveinpanels.com) for an invite!

Square Explanations

Most of the squares below are pretty self-explanatory, so I haven't gone into detail, but they're all listed for clarity and accessibility. Each row's squares are listed left to right.

Row 1

Set Your Goals for the Quarter
This might mean setting your own rules re: purchase date, spending limits for new books, goals for cleaning out your collection or others. If you're just joining us, you might also want to count all your owned and unread books. Bonus points if you share with the class!

Favorite Color Cover

Plot Moppet
A book with a "plot moppet" pet or child. These are characters that exist in the book to further the plot but aren't well developed. An example could be a child who brings together her godparents after her parents die, but who's hardly on the page and doesn't have an arc of their own.

Out of Season
For this challenge, a book that doesn't take place during Jan-March. Reading a Christmas or Back to School book in January would be a good example. 

My Star Sign - A book with astrology as a component or which ties to your astrological sign in some way. I'm a Libra, so I'm probably going to be reaching for this one!

Row 2

Initials in Author Name

It's Not You, It's Me - When you can tell a book is objectively "good" or is a great fit for readers who aren't you... but you don't like it.

New to Me Author

Weed an Already Read Book - You could go through your keeper shelf and rehome a book, archive some books on your Kindle to clean things up, or find another way to say goodbye to a book you don't plan to reread.

Row 3

Multiple Authors - A book written by more than one author. This can include anthologies or writing duos such as Ilona Andrews.

Stand-alone - Not in a series.

Free Space

Why Did I Buy This? - Who recommended it to you? Where did you hear of it? What drew you to it? Don't remember? This is the square for you.

Never the Right Time - Every time you've looked at this book, it was the wrong time of year, you were in the wrong mood, or something horrible had just happened in the world and you weren't up for the content.

Row 4

Novella or Shorter Work

BIPOC Author

Oops, I Bought the Series - For when you liked Book 1 in a series and bought up the rest, but haven't gone back to read them. This is flexible, so feel free to count any book if you own multiple unread books by the author.

Published Before 2020

Impulse Buy - Saw this weird monster romance on Twitter, decided to buy it. Immediately forgot you owned it.

Row 5

Waited Too Long - When you bought this book, you were reading lots of Regency Romance/New Adult/Rockstars/etc. but now your preferences have changed. This square is for either reading a book you would have liked several years ago or giving yourself permission to say goodbye to it unread.

Review a Book - Any site counts. You could even write something up in your journal.

Self- or Indie Published

Interesting Title

Multiple Formats - You own this book in multiple formats or you own it in one format and borrow/read it in a different format from a library or friend. For example, I have a not-great habit of buying in print and reading in audio.

***

That's it! Download graphics here and don't forget to reach out for an invite to The Reader Room Discord or find us on Instagram @loveinpanels or #ShopYourShelvesBingo.

Happy reading!