Blind Date Book Club

A convergence of interests

Today is Election Day in the U.S., which means I have the day off work and am catching up on emails with a Hallmark movie on in the background. Having already made my way through the channel’s entire “fall” collection (more than once), and not even remotely ready to dive into the Christmas themed flicks, I stumbled upon “Blind Date Book Club.” Just a few minutes in, I determined that the plot is a complete and total ripoff of “You’ve Got Mail,” which is to say I was entirely sold from the opening scene.

The concept of a “blind date with a book” is actually something I only learned about over the weekend, when I ended a run at our local farmer’s market and noticed a booth advertising this exact notion. The stall featured tables piled high with stacks of books wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string, each with a short scrawl across the front. I curse the fact that I failed to snap a photo at the time, being sweaty and tired and all, but here is one from the internet:

Am I late to the party on this? Is this how some people buy their books now, or is this just a quirky, small-town niche interest? The fact that I found this photo on Reddit tells me that this may be a wider phenomenon.

As much as I am loving the Hallmark “film” that’s playing as I type this, given that it combines my main interests of cozy bookstores and love stories (did I mention it’s set on Nantucket?!), the part where the book covers are wrapped in brown paper is the part I can’t really get behind.

I am a visual person, and I am known to, yes, judge a book by its cover. I love the designs, the blurbs, the author bio, all of it! That’s half the fun of shopping for books—seeing them arranged in their colorful glory, packed tightly into shelves and splayed appealingly on coffee tables, featured on aisle-ends and fighting for your attention.

Having said that, I actually adore the idea of a blind date with a book, and what it does for reading culture in general. I assume (based on the farmer’s market stall and the romcom unfolding before me) that a bookseller is wrapping the books in brown paper before writing the genre and a brief description on the cover, and it’s then up to the reader to decide if that tiny bit of information is enough to take the plunge.

It’s book recommendations with a side of mystery! It’s the trust you’re putting in your local bookshop, and the love you’re demonstrating for reading even when you’re not sure the book will be a hit, or something you otherwise would have selected. It’s faith that you’ll be enriched by the experience all the same, because sometimes the surprise of a book delighting you when you least expected it to is what reading is all about.

As someone who orders the same meal at the same restaurants every weekend, and vacations to the same spots year after year, perhaps I could use more of this uncertainty in my life. Just yesterday I finished A Secret History, which you may remember is a novel I had been putting off for years because I wasn’t 100% sure I would love it. Five-hundred and fifty-nine pages later, my only regret is not starting it sooner.