Hopefully you will recall that back at the start of February I devised a Book Bingo Fund-Raiser for the local library I volunteer for.  I posted about the setting up the Bingo scheme and its launch which we tied in with National Libraries Day.  You can read about it all here .  Karl over at karlstedman.co.uk has been taking a more non-fiction approach to it all and you can read about what how he has been getting on here.

It’s still early days – the Bingo is going to run for six months with just about another five to go.  As there has been a lot of interest in it I thought I’d give you a little monthly update.  All of us at the library have been bowled over by the success of it all- with a larger number taking part than we had anticipated and we are particularly thrilled that the place is buzzing with book talk.  Readers bringing their books back want to talk to us about their books rather than just plonking them on the issues counter and people are recommending books to each other.  I’m delighted with how it has taken off and the enthusiasm in which people are carrying out their reading challenges.  People are already talking about next year………

A few people have managed to get a line and have been presented with bookmarks I designed for the Friends of Shanklin Community Library.  I’m not at the line stage yet, but I’m doing alright.  I’ll show you how my card is getting on and tell you what I’ve read to get my balloon stickers (6 to date).

In my last post I just had two in the bottom line so I’ve gained another four this month.  On the bottom line they have been joined by “From your own bookshelves that you haven’t read yet” – that was Claire Vaye Watkin’s 2016 dystopian debut “Gold Fame Citrus” (reviewed here).  Diagonally above that is “A book published in the last three years” – staying with 2016 I went with the newly published “Freya” by Anthony Quinn (reviewed here) which I read on my Kindle.  The bottom of the two yellow balloons (why did I choose two of the same colour next to one another?) is “A book where the main character is younger than you”.  Take a bow 10 year old Dakota Pink from “Dakota Of The White Flats” (1995) written by Philip Ridley and reviewed here.  Above that is “with someone’s name in the title”.  This was another I read on the Kindle and is up there as one of my favourite new reads of the year so far.  “Jonathan Dark Or The Evidence Of Ghosts” by A K Benedict (2016) reviewed here.

I’ve got a couple of potential lines shaping up but my problem is I’ve got quite a stack of review titles at the moment so have not been borrowing from the library which I will need to do if I’m even going to get a line, let alone a full house.  But there’s still plenty of time.  Another update in around a month!  Maybe I’ll have the line by then………………….!