It’s time for my monthly update for the Book Bingo Fund-raiser which I initiated for my local library. Three months in and we have reached the half-way point as we decided to run it for six months. My card is filling up slowly and (big announcement) …..I’ve got a line! For that I got a prize, which is a bookmark that I actually designed myself for the fund-raiser, but it’s the achievement rather than the prize.
One side of my double-sided bookmark prize
One of our regular readers has completed her card and was so bereft by not having the card dictate her reading choices that she has started another one- and I’m sure she’ll get that completed by the closing date.
For a reminder of last month’s update click here and if you compare closely you will see that this month I have gained three new balloons (There was an issue in that balloon stickers could not be got for love nor money in our town- we had gone through the supplies of them and had to substitute butterflies for a while- people were not happy). I held out until the balloons reappeared…..
Second one along on the top row was “A book not originally written in English”. For this I chose another of the set of Apollo Classics taglined “the best books you’ve never read”. I have already reviewed “The Man Who Loved Children” and “Now In November”. Book number three is a novel set in Sardinia and originally written in Italian – “The Day Of Judgement” by Salvatore Satta, my review of which will follow in due course.
The light blue sticker on the fourth row was “From the Library’s General Fiction Shelves” and was a book I had been itching to read for some time but the review pile and deadlines dominated, but off the shelves came “Life After Life” by Kate Atkinson, which will be another book I will be reviewing on here soon.
I recently read a book called “Rembrandt’s Mirror” by Kim Devereux and realised I did not know much about the artist who was the central character in the novel. Lurking in the children’s library I found a book entitled “Rembrandt” written and illustrated by Mike Venezia. In just a few short pages I got a good overview of the artist’s life and career. We must never forget how good children’s non-fiction can be for introductions to subjects. Whereas the novel did not fit in with my remaining squares, the children’s book did and it gave me my line for “A Library Book”.
I can see I have got quite a few library books to read from different sections of the library if I am going to complete much more of my card. So I better crack on and get visiting my local. How about giving your Public Library a visit (whilst or if you still have one!)
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Hi Phil,
Keep up the good work!
Children non fiction is great for people like me, English, the 2nd language. Invaluable -extending vocabulary for any topic.
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Hi Monika. I totally agree with you. There is so much good children’s non-fiction out there. For me with any new topic it is often the starting point and I can see how important it could be for extending the vocab for english as 2nd language readers.
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When i was a child, about a century ago, it was a rule of our local library you had to take two fact, two fiction. There were two librarians, both really scary, a tall skinny one with a pointed nose and wore pince nez. The other one looked like Peggy Mount and was fiersome. We took the required four books. I developed an insatiable appetite for anything to do with the solar system. I also picked up several fiction that I never read and some that I had no intention of reading but did. The fantasy world of Mrs Pepperpot and Milly, Molly, Mandy opened up and a host of other wonderful stories. I think I have said before, I feel really sorry for people that don’t read. They have no idea what they are missing out on. It doesn’t matter what genre you read, each has its own merit. I like you, have piles of unread books and who knows how many on the Kindle? I’ll have to live till 523 as well. Congratulations on your first line, will you fill the card? I’ll watch this space.
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I love this! Two fact, two fiction- never heard that before. I often think of people from my childhood as “looking like Peggy Mount”- People don’t look like her anymore- I wonder why that is? I loved Mrs Pepperpot (I’ll have to have a look to see if she is still in print, Alf Proysen, I seem to remember)- I think I was a bit discouraged from “Milly Molly Mandy” because it was deemed “too girly” (!) but that didn’t stop me loving “My Naughty Little Sister”!
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When we took the books back, Peggy Mount would sometimes question us on them, we used to think she had read every one of them. It was because we had to have two of each, that I got into Ed McBain, when I was 14, she sent me back to get another fiction and I just pulled a book off of the shelf. It was the start of a life long love of his 87th Precinct series, so this fiersome woman did me a huge favour.
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A superb story, Kay.
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