Well. Not only has the Halloween Bingo been fun, it has really advanced this year's reading goals! For the game, I at least started and "finished" (with reviews) 32 books: 20 audios, 3 ebooks, and 9 bound books. Of those, I DNF'd 5 (one with the intention of going back to try again later), but completely read 27 (25 squares +2 wild cards).

Goals:

• 13 books knocked off my 2018 TBR mountain
• 10 previously unread books from my physical bookshelves*
• 1 book from my "remembering dad" project
• 2 Book Riot's "We Need Diverse Books"
• 2 Banned books
• 0 Nancy Drew
• 0 Public Library physical books

Not bad for 7 weeks of reading! I do need to step up my borrowing of physical books from my public library - I borrow plenty of digital media, but I know the library depends on borrowing stats to maintain its funding. 

*One book from my physical bookshelf doesn't count as read/completed, because I pulled it down, looked at it closely, and decided to just put it in my donation box unread because I didn't really want to read it. It was a freebie that I picked up somewhere, years ago, and had been cluttering up my bookshelves since. It counts to my bookshelf TBR project because it's an unread book removed from my shelf. I'm only letting myself buy 1 new book for every 2 I take off my bookshelf in an effort to keep myself from being buried in books. 

I was following up on this post from Reading Is My Escape From Reality, which was reblogged from Leah's Bookish Obsession, and discovered that the Houston Public Library's e-card is free to all Texas residents, sponsored by the local grocery store chain HEB. Took me 5 minutes to sign up with my drivers license number, and now I have access to all their audiobooks on Overdrive!  Wooooohoooooo!

Seriously, HEB, when are you coming to North Texas so I can show you some love? 

Thanks to Lillelara, I've found the new library app (Libby) that seems to be a vast improvement over the Overdrive app. I spent last night playing with it, as a distraction from watching the Rangers lose yet again. 

Pros:

It works like Overdrive, in that it syncs with your library Overdrive account and allows you to download the books you've checked out. There are some enhancements on the audiobook functions, and a vast improvement on the ebook functions.

I've never been successful with the ebooks on Overdrive, as they seem to get lost when I try to download them, so I can neither read them nor return them until my checkout expires. I've only been able to do ebooks from Overdrive by sending them to my Kindle app. But I tried checking out, downloading, reading, and returning several ebooks on Libby last night, and they all worked just fine. 

It's also more seamlessly integrated with the Overdrive library, which makes browsing for books much, much easier. It automatically syncs your checkouts and holds  with the Overdrive library website, too. 

Cons: 

My "wishlist" of almost 200 ebooks and audiobooks that I've carefully compiled and synced with my larger TBR list, using the Overdrive website, does not sync with Libby. It instead uses a "tag" system, which is completely separate, and is less than useful as you cannot see the book's availability when browsing your tags list. So, for example, if I want to check something out right now and start reading it right away, I can go to my wishlist on the OD website, and filter by "available", and browse through books that are already on my TBR list and are immediately available for checkout. This isn't possible on the Libby app. But, I can still do it from the OD website, check it out there, then open the Libby app to immediately download and listen/read. 

It's still not perfect, but it's a huge improvement over the current Overdrive app. I might even start reading some ebooks, which is a good thing since so many of the books on my TBR are only available from my library in that format. 

I think public libraries don't get enough love, so I decided that I will make a point of visiting the public library in every town I happen to pass through. Since I don't travel a lot, that means mostly libraries in North and Central Texas. I was in Frisco last weekend for a salon appointment and had time to stop over at the library. My apologies for the quality of the photos, I just have an old iphone for a camera. I didn't take many pictures of the children or teen areas, since I didn't want to look like a creeper.

Library – Frisco TX

http://www.friscolibrary.com/

This is a modern full-service library, warm and inviting. It’s set as part of the city services building complex and arranged on three narrow floors stacked on top of each other. Each floor has a separate entrance from within the city building. It has occupied this current building since 2006. Before that, the city leased an old house on main street, run by a part time librarian and volunteers. The city library only dates back to 1990, which reflects the city’s history. It was a small rural community until the DFW suburban growth spilled over its borders and it became the fastest growing city in the US from 2000-2009, growing from a population of about 6000 in 1990 to about 117,000 in 2010.

The entire main street/city services complex is a good reflection of the city. It’s a modern developers’ wet dream: a mixed use complex with faux-historical properties and lots of green space, walking space, and living space, as well as restaurants, a movie theater, shops, etc. But I saw very few people walking anywhere except to and from their vehicles, even though it was a gorgeous day out.

The library was well used, even for a Saturday afternoon. Patrons everywhere were sitting in cushy chairs, reading, as well as students sitting at tables and desks with homework out. There were banks of public access computers on every floor, with about a third in use. It was quiet and well-lit with natural light from tall windows and warm artificial light in the darker corners. I loved the lighting on the bookshelves. It was well staffed with librarians who were friendly and welcoming.