NIPIGON — Nipigon, Red Rock and Dorion residents are being invited to go on “blind dates” with new books at their local libraries.
Nipigon Public Library Librarian Sumiye Sugawara said the program, which is running until Feb. 13, is a great way to get people to check out books they might not have considered before.
“[Readers] pick out a book that's wrapped so you don't know what's in it, it's got the first line or two lines of the opening chapter or prologue on the piece of paper, and they decide from that whether they would like to read it or not,” she said.
“They don't know what they're getting, we do put genres on them so they would know if it's literature or horror or suspense, romance, something like that.”
Sugawara said that the “blind dates” help readers see beyond the cover of a book and gets them looking at something “just a little differently”.
“So, what we do is, we try to promote books that had good reviews but maybe didn't circulate super well, maybe because it just didn't catch people's eye, but it still had a really good bunch of reviews going for it,” she said.
“And so, we're trying to promote stuff like there's no point in promoting this stuff that's already flying off the shelf, it's just defeats the purpose of the program and it's like a blind date we don't promise you're going to like what you take, but if things don't work out, simply return it, no hard feelings.”
Each book comes with a bookmark that lets readers rate and comment on the books they try and each one gets put into a draw for a prize.
In addition to the blind date with a book program, the trio of libraries have launched the reading in colour reading bingo, for which residents can pick up their bingo cards from their local library.
“We're trying to get people to look at books, that they normally wouldn't pick up again, so it says read a book with the word pink in the title, or orange in the title, read a book with a blue cover, or blue on the cover.” said Sugawara.
“So, we're trying to, instead of going to book saying I like suspense, we're like, wait a minute, try something you haven't tried before, you can still pick something in a genre you like, but just pick it out differently.”
For more information about these and other upcoming programs, visit the Dorian, Nipigon, or Redrock Public Library websites.