Blind Date with a Book

The cliché, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, creates a conundrum.

You go to a bookstore (no, not surfing Amazon) and pick up a book with an appealing mountain scene on the cover. It looks interesting since you are a naturalist and love to camp. You’ve never heard of the author. You compare the blurbs on the back cover with the image on the front. Do you want to buy the book? You’re not sure. You’re well aware that blurbs are probably written by friends of the author or of the publisher or by another author indirectly promoting his or her interests. You read the first paragraph on page 1. Not bad, but you’re not hooked. Perhaps it’s a little too wordy, or the sentences are long and a little cumbersome. It’s all unfairly superficial. You flip through the book: 426 pages, a slog to get through, especially since the type is small. Yet, you’re interested in the subject. You can’t make up your mind. You have too much information, and not enough at the same time.
You know that you shouldn’t judge the book by its cover – remember? – or by its blurbs, but knowing whether you would like the book requires reading it. Catch 22. How do you decide?

I walked into a new, small charming shop called Shelf Indulgence Used Book Boutique (clever name) in Sarasota, Florida last week. It had opened the previous week. One of the owners – Nichole Snyder – was on the porch wrapping books in brown paper and writing on the wrapping. I asked her why she was doing that.

“Making blind dates for curious readers,” she said.

What?

I went inside to check out the store. There was a stand with a number of wrapped books, each containing a few statements on the wrapper to kindle my curiosity, and a modest price tag. I picked one that seemed intriguing (Murder, legal thriller, best selling author, soldiers and software companies…). I had only my curiosity to make a decision. No cover photo (only wrapping with teasers on the front), no blurbs, not even the author’s name. The story could be riveting; or it could be…well, nothing special.

I bought one of the books to find out.

Curiosity and imagination trumped information. Isn’t that often how it works today, or at least for me?

We have information overload for just about everything, and so we revert to what we imagine. We retreat into our own head and hopes, and take a chance on a “blind date.” Curiosity-fed imagination lacks the limits of reality and tempts us. A blind-date book is an ingenious idea. More power to this creative store.
My wife was a blind date, and the best date I ever had. Curiosity became my reality.

I haven’t unwrapped the blind-date book I bought yet, but can’t wait to satisfy my curiosity.