Fri, Feb 13 · 7:00 PM CET
You've seen them in the book shop. You've seen them in the library. You've seen them online.
The Blind Date with a Book.
This is the book trend perfect for Valentine's, and perfect for a swapping group like us!
For this special event, please bring a wrapped book. On the front please write:
the language of the book
a few short bullet points about the book. Get as creative (or not) as you like, as long as it's a truthful description. I've seen fascinating paragraph versions and also one liners.
For example: "You will love this book if you love -similar author / general genre / band-singer the book reminded you of / actor who played the lead in the film / etc-". Other examples include writing the first line of the book. Or your favorite line of the book.
Beside that, it's just similarly structured as the "classical" bookswap:
We put the book(s) we brought down on the tables.
Each book gets a post-it so people interested would write their names on.
We browse and discuss the books with one another while sipping coffee or hot chocolate, or eating cake. THIS TIME try to avoid naming the book and author.
We write our names down on any books we’d like to take home.
At the end of the evening, negotiate any books that are contended and take a new-to-you book home!
I've mostly only seen the trend at book stores and Libraries and when I just Googled it, saw that a lot of people are totally tricking the wrapping out. Please don't bother going that far unless it would give you great pleasure.
NOTE - this is NOT a person dating event.
We know of at least one book swap marriage and several other book swap relationships so it happens organically without us pushing for it and making it all awkward :)
Similar to our pleasant swapping post-it format, our expectations below apply to this event as well.
We look forward to swapping with you!
GROUP EXPECTATIONS for PLEASANT SWAPPING
Please bring a book! It's not that you bring one you take one, but do try your best to bring something.
Books stay on the tables, open for sharing, until you are ready to leave so that everyone can have a look. We are notably not first come first serve. Please wait until you are leaving to bag the book.
If two or more people want the only copy of a book, negotiate. Maybe one of you reads it first and then gives it to the others. Or perhaps they have found another book instead. Or leave it to fate and toss a coin. The best part: now you have found somebody whose taste you can really admire. In any case, please don't walk away with a book with several names on it without letting the others know.
Political discussions with consent: make sure the people you are talking to would like to have a political discussion with you.
Please respect this space as first and foremost a community for connecting readers over their love of books and reading, stories, and narratives of all sorts. Please be respectful of tastes and opinions.
If something is bothering you, please reach out to the organizers, and we'll do our best to resolve it.
Lastly, don't expect your book back. It will find a new home. If you love it, let it go.
Major LANGUAGES (and genres) of this meetup: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian; Fiction, Non-Fiction, Serious Reading, Light Fun, “classics", Krimis, Booker winners, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Self-Help and more. You never know who can read what languages, and there's no accounting for taste.
We are a delightful and international group of readers.
