The display inviting library patrons to “fall in love” on a blind date with a book.
Sometimes a book isn’t just a book — it’s a promising blind date or a ticket to a faraway land.
Since Valentine’s Day, the Lincoln Public Library has been offering a selection of “mystery books” — not whodunits, but rather books concealed in wrapping paper with only a couple of clues to help you decide whether this could be the book for you. They’ll be on offer until midweek.
Meanwhile, since this is school vacation week, the library is also offering prepacked bags with DVDs, books, and CDs focusing on particular destinations such as Florida, Italy and even outer space, even if this is a “staycation” for you. Reference librarian Laura Paryl, who’s been wanting to do this for a while, picked out and assembled all the materials.
As for the “mystery books,” the only clues for potential readers are genre, year of publication, and names of a couple of other “if you liked X” titles. Reference librarian Robin Rapoport chose them based on books that were successful at other libraries that have done similar “Blind Date with a Book” displays. Though she hasn’t read all the books on display, “there are definitely some personal favorites in there,” she said.
Rapoport eventually plans to post a list of the titles to relieve the suspense experienced by those who tried to judge a book by its cover (or wrapping paper), as well as response cards to find out what books people really enjoyed or didn’t.
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