I’ve heard about book stores offering blind dates with books before but thought that it was mostly indie stores that did this and unfortunately there aren’t any near me. So you can imagine how excited I was when I stumbled upon a section of books like this in Barnes & Noble!! For those of you who haven’t heard of this, “Blind Date with a Book” is when a book store wraps up books so that you can’t see them and the only way you can choose whether or not you want to give a book a chance is by reading a really short hint that’s provided with it. I think it’s a really cool idea because it might push you out of your comfort zone and cause you to read a book you wouldn’t normally read, or even one you’re unfamiliar with. I was intrigued by several of the hints on the books and I’m probably the world’s most indecisive person so of course I couldn’t choose just one and I ended up buying two. Below are pictures of the hints and the books after I unwrapped them.
Book #1:
The hint was “Darkly funny let’s go on the journey!” I picked this one because I had recently read Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke which was darkly funny and I loved it so I was in the mood for another book with a similar kind of humor. And the book was…
Book #2:
The hint was “Sometimes you need a little weird in your life,” so I chose it because I agreed and thought I needed a little weird in my life. Weird can also be really funny. And the book was…
I’m really happy with both of the books I chose and I’m really eager to read them! I’ve heard so many great things about The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and it’s pretty much a classic so it’s about time I read it. As for The Call of Cthulhu and other Weird Stories, it sounds so unique and I’m eager to find out more about it.
If you ever get the chance to go on a blind date with a book I highly recommend it! Let me know if you’ve ever done something like this or if you’ve read either of these books 🙂
Struggling Bookaholic 
I really love the idea of this. I don’t think my local book store does it, but I know there is an online subscription you can sign up to so I might give it a go!
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I really like the idea too. This was really fun and I wish more book stores did this. I like subscription boxes a lot too. Which one are you thinking about signing up for?
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I’m already signed up to Willoughby Book Club, but if you Google ‘Blind Date With a Book’ there is a subscription literally called it so I’m debating signing up.
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That’s awesome! Thanks for letting me know 🙂 I’m going to check it out!
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I am so curious what they mean by “other Weird Stories”. I will say it looks like your blind dates worked out. 🙂
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Me too! I’m eager to find out so I have to start reading them soon. Thank you 🙂 I was honestly so happy with the ones I got that I thought about getting one more but I didn’t because I’m trying to stop buying so many books hahaha.
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Isn’t that always the impossible struggle? haha
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I haven’t done the blind date with a book, but I am a huge fan of Hitchhiker’s – we used to listen to the audiobooks on family holidays – so I really hope you will enjoy that!
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Thank you! That’s great to hear and I’m so glad you enjoyed it 🙂 I usually don’t read sci-fi very often but this book sounds so unique and hearing how much you like it makes me want to give it a chance so I’m definitely going to read it soon!
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I love that you found a bookstore that did that AND that you were pleased with the outcomes. BOTH of those are on my TBR list, waiting patiently lol. At my library I created a Blind Date with a Book display for the Month of February in the Teen/Adult area and so far everyone has loved it. It’s fun picking out the books, but the hardest part was making up the descriptions. Huge props to everyone else who has done this, it’s time consuming! I even included Rate Your Date bookmarks for our patrons to return if they like. I wish another place would do it around me, I already know what’s on my own display so it’s not as fun without the surprise element.
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That’s awesome! What are some of the books you used? I can bet making the descriptions was hard because you have to give the person a good idea of what the book is about without giving away which book it is. I like the idea for the bookmarks too! I hope somewhere else near you does it so you get to try it for yourself 🙂
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I chose a selection of YA and adult fiction, some but tried not to pick the popular best sellers. I did put a few like Big Little Lies and The Alienist out because some people are more likely to read a book if they know there is a movie/tv series about it. I did a range of genres but tried to keep it quirky, funny, and light. Confessions of a Shopaholic, A Dirty Job, some Jeeves and Wooster books, and a few cozy mysteries 🙂
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this is such a cool idea! I hope one of my local bookstores does this soon. I’m so interested to see what you think about Hitchhiker’s Guide. I’ve been wanting to read that one for so long and have never gotten around to it!
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I hope you get the chance to do this!! It was a lot of fun. The only challenging part was that I’m awful at making decisions so it was so hard to pick which ones I wanted because they all sounded so good haha. I still haven’t gotten around to reading it but I will definitely let you know what I think of it when I do! 🙂
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