It’s Valentine’s Day, and your home is dimly lit with candles. You’ve just finished a romantic, homemade dinner. There’s a warm bath waiting in the bathroom. But first there’s your date, firm and sturdy, tucked into a tan jacket. You take off the sleeve to find … your blind date with a book!

In February 2023, the University of Minnesota Libraries set up over 250 students and staff with a blind date and had 40 book matchmaking requests. And it’s looking to be equally popular this year. 

A Double Date…

Julia Gibbs, a junior kinesiology major, has already set up two blind dates this week, the first with “Juno Loves Legs” by Karl Geary, a love story between two teen delinquents growing up in 1980s Dublin. 

“It sounds really interesting! I’m really excited to read it,” Gibbs said. 

But before she had a chance to settle down with that coming-of-age bildungsroman, another book at Walter Library caught her eye. She hasn’t opened it yet, but the clues point to Native American and mixed-POV. 

It reminded Gibbs of her best friend, a member of the Creek Nation, and of her sister who works on a reservation. 

“I just love this stuff. And my parents and my sister live out in Montana near the Crow Indian Reservation. So it’s always been a part of us,” she said. 

A Second Date…

Blind dates are like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get. Yuemo Zeng, a system and network administrator for the UMN Law Library, learned that this week. 

“I checked out a blind date book for the first time in 2020,” Zeng said. “Yesterday I went to check out a book … and what’s the coincidence that the book I checked out is the same book I checked out in 2020!” 

In 2020 the blind date books didn’t have any descriptors on their paper coverings. The descriptions are nice if you want to avoid a particular subject, he explained, but it’s not as surprising. That is, unless you accidentally check out the same book twice. 

“It was definitely a surprise,” Zeng laughed. 

A Dark Fantasy Date…

Jaime Zolik peruses the blind date with a book table at Wilson Library. She’s a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology. She’s never done anything like this before, but she heard about it from her friends. 

“It’s really intriguing to force myself to read something given to me that I don’t quite know what it is yet,” Zolik said. 

She settles on the book subtitled “dark fantasy.” She reads a lot of sciency books, as expected of graduate students. But for fun she typically reads fantasy and romance, so why not add a dark edge to the mix? 

“I’m hoping this is a nice, entertaining read,” Zolik said. 

There’s still time to check out your blind date. Stop by Wilson, Walter, Magrath, and the Health Science Libraries before the books run out. And share your blind date on Instagram and tag @umnlib for a chance to win a U of M Libraries t-shirt.