If I had a little more time on my hands, or at least a little more patience, this would be the time to make up some cards for Book Award Bingo. Short lists are out this week from the National Book Critics Circle, The Tournament of Books, and my perennial favorite award ceremony, The Story Prize. The National Book Awards and the Booker have come and gone; and we’re still waiting on the Orange Baileys. (Actually, never mind the longlist on that last one—could I just have it in cocktail form, maybe with a splash of hot cocoa?)

And really, this might not be the year for that. You’re not going to have the same kind of tension as if you’d been holding a card with Wolf Hall occupying the center spot in 2009. Still, if you had Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life in a good position, you could probably make out. It’s one way to pass book award season. Bingo … or maybe just a drinking game. You could probably get Baileys to sponsor it, if only to get everyone to stop saying “Orange.”

(Image is “Bingo Card Journal” from Lisa Yarost’s Flickr photostream.)