My first blind date… with a book

I tried something new for Valentine’s day this year and hit my favorite bookshop, More Than Words. To my delight, they had a selection of books wrapped in obscure brown paper and ready to be taken home!

What’s a blind date with a book?

So if you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing about these before, a blind date with a book is a popular feature for bookshops and libraries to do around Valentine’s day. The idea is that the staff will wrap books of their choosing in paper so that you can’t see the cover, title, blurb – NOTHING! They’ll write a short quote or blurb of their own making, maybe draw a photo, something that will give you a little hint of what’s inside. If you feel that special spark, you take the book and give it a shot!

It’s the ultimate way to prevent judging a book by its cover, author, name, etc. While that’s not always a bad thing to do, it can reveal some great books that you might never have found otherwise! It’s also just delightfully whimsical, and I love seeing what other people chose for books worthy of love. 😊

You caught my eye…

Please congratulate me on my impressive restraint, because as of writing this I have yet to tear the covers off my date and take a peek at what’s beneath. I wanted to come into this as blind as you, dear reader. So to start, here’s what I ended up picking out of the batch to take home with me.

If you can’t read it, what we’ve got is a book wrapped in brown paper with the words “something to Remember” and #Heyboo written on it, complete with a winking face. So, why did I go for this one? Short and sweet, my friend, short and sweet. There’s enough to intrigue, but not so much that I feel like I have any solid idea of what’s in here – and I like the mystery!

So far, my guesses as to what exact book this contains are pretty minimal. I’m also trying not to think about it, because if I guess it my surprise is kind of dimmer, you know?

• A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
  This guess is because it says something to remember, which immediately triggered this. He’s also a super popular romance novelist, so I could see them wrapping up some chick lit for this blind date.
• Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
  This guess because this was a recently popular book and certainly was something to remember. It has romance elements, but also has a lot more depth than a typical cheesecake read.
• Has Aziz Ansari written any books? Because if so, it could be something by him. When I hear “boo” that almost immediately triggers thoughts of him (I promise it’s not weird). Listen to any of his routines or watch any show he’s in, and you’ll get it!
  Update: OMG he totally has a book! No idea what it is about, but it exists and I think that’s an immediate add to the never-ending TBR. 😍

Oh…. Oh NO

Well, turns out I might be on a date with a stalker / serial killer. Opened it up and these were the words to greet me:

WELL, that’s completely non-creepy and definitely not written in something that may or may not have originated inside a human….

I read the blurb, and it’s a snippet from the novel describing a detective examining a corpse of a murder victim, complete with tongue sliced out. 😨 Even just reading the blurb had me a bit nervous. If you aren’t already aware, take a look through what I usually read and review, and you’ll get that murder books are not in my usual rotation. (To say the least.)

So here’s what I’ve ended up with. Suffice it to say that my guesses were DEFINITELY incorrect! Haha! Obsession in Death by J.D. Robb. Apparently this is number FORTY in the series, so that means it’s either really good, or so far past the point of when it should have ended that I’ll have to take it all with a grain of salt.

I’ll definitely read it! I still have high hopes, despite it not being something I would usually pick up. I mean, like I said above, that’s the whole point of this! My fear is primarily that it will be too graphic for me, so if I leave off, that would probably be why.

Take a chance on me

(Please accompany the reading of this heading with the related tune by ABBA. I know I am — and it’ll be there for a while, I’m sure.)

So, okay, maybe my date showed up with something red spattered on his overalls, a fistful of white lilies, and a smile big enough to be manic rather than enthusiastic. As long as we’re in a public place, it probably can’t hurt to have dinner this once, right? Just make sure to give him a fake number if he asks… and not reveal any info that’s too personal… and cut my hair, change my name, and join the Witness Protection program ASAP.

It might not be my very next up read, but it’ll definitely happen. If nothing else, I have to see how the hell #heyboo will match this read. Also, on that note, kudos to whomever chose and made the teaser cover for this because WOW did it work. 😂 I’ll do an update on it once I get into it, and hopefully I’ll be able to stomach it!

PS – I had to create a new tag for this post — “thriller” — since I have apparently never read one and put it on this site. I refuse to tag it as “murder” though, because I don’t want those kinds of questions.