A Book Blind Date Could Rekindle Your Love of Reading

If your to-be-read stack is looking a little uninspired right now—or you find yourself perusing the shelves at the library or bookstore and find nothing that catches your fancy—perhaps you need a new way to find a good book. Enter the book blind date, which is the perfect opportunity to add a little adventure to your reading list, and maybe even happen upon your new favorite author or genre.

Ready to get set up with a potential new (book) love? Here’s the full scoop on book blind dates—including what it is, where to get set up, and how to plan your own book blind date party.

What Is a Book Blind Date?

As the name implies, you get “set up” with a book without being able to judge it by its cover. The book is wrapped up (generally in brown paper or a simple gift wrap) and the barest of descriptions is shared—so you can decide based on just a sense of the book’s subject and style. (Or if you really want to go wild, you can always just grab one of the wrapped books without even looking at the description!)

How to Get Set up on a Book Blind Date

Since the book blind date concept has taken off, you’ll find them available pretty much everywhere books are sold—and so they’re often lovingly curated by people who know books best. (In other words, they’re more likely to be a hit!)

Check your local bookstore

Seemingly every indie bookstore has a display of wrapped books with clever little descriptions—so go ahead and grab one! (You can even find them on some indie bookstore sites, such as New York’s iconic bookstore, The Strand, which is currently offering several options, including the clever: “Squid Game Meets The Bachelor in This Dark Academic Satire!”)

Shop on Etsy

Just type in “book blind date,” and you’ll find thousands of options among its sellers. In fact, Etsy says that searches for “book blind date” have surged in recent years. And bonus: Some creative sellers even include book-related goodies to enjoy while you’re reading. So even if the book’s a dud, you might enjoy the tea or bookmark that came with it.

Visit your library

Yep, you can get set up on a totally free book blind date! Many public libraries follow the trend and add that element of surprise to your book selection.

Check out the big retailers

Even the biggest book retailers, such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon, are selling blind date books—though you currently have to go to a local Barnes & Noble to find the blind dates.

How to Plan a Book Blind Date Swap

While you can get set up any time you want, why not make it even more fun and hook up your whole crew with their own book blind dates? It’s the perfect excuse for a party—and here’s how to make yours a success.

Choose the guest list

Obviously, your guests should be folks who enjoy reading—your book club definitely is a good start! You may want to ensure that you choose people with a range of ages and personalities, so you end up with a wide variety of intriguing books.

Consider a theme

Some swaps feature a theme to help guests narrow down which books they’d like to bring. Consider a few options to get you started:

• beach reads
• books that should be made into movies (but haven’t)
• books you’d bring with you to a desert island
• books you didn’t love—but you know someone else will
• scary books (that don’t have to be horror!)
• time travel books
• books that should be a classic (but aren’t—yet)

Have guests write a short description of their book

The key here is balance. The person who’s setting up the blind date should give just enough detail to tantalize the potential reader, without giving away the whole plot. But, the description should give enough detail that someone who has already read the book would likely be able to tell.

A few thoughts to help you write a good description:

• Compare it to something else—like a popular book, movie, TV show, or other reference. For instance, you might describe Lessons in Chemistry as Julia Child meets Marie Curie.
• Sell the story. Include info about what you loved. Was the plot twisty? Were the love scenes juicy? Did the characters feel like your new BFFs?
• Warn about any potentially problematic details. Some people are sensitive to violence, swear words, or racy content—so you may want to communicate that it’s “spicy” in some way to avoid setting up your conservative pal with something that definitely won’t be her cup of tea.
• Make it fun. No need to be serious! Add puns, jokes, or other details to add some humor.

Have a few extra books on hand

You don’t want anyone going home unhappy. Ensure that there are additional books on hand, so even the last person who picks has plenty of options.

Share from your own bookshelves

You don’t have to go out and buy a new book for the swap for your fellow book lovers (unless you simply can’t bear to part with your favorite). This is the perfect time to pull a book (or five!) you loved—but probably won’t read again—off of your own bookshelves to help share the wealth. Plus, that’s an easy way to ensure that there are more than enough potential book blind dates.

Decide how people will pick

Some parties keep it casual and have guests mingle and spread the books around so they can check out the descriptions and grab one they’d like. You can also let the person with the next birthday pick first, then choose clockwise from there. Or do it secret Santa style: You can have each guest pick a book and read the description—and later pickers can force a swap if someone else’s description sounded too amazing to pass up.

Open the books together

Once everyone’s set up with their “date,” have everyone unwrap their books at the party. That will help avoid someone going home with a book they already have, as they’ll be able to swap with someone else or pick a new book from the extra options.

Decide what to do with the extras

Once everyone’s set with their blind date book, extras can be distributed to people who want more than one date to take home—or they can be donated to a free library, a nursing home, or a hospital to provide good reads for people who need them.