St. Henri bookstore wants to find you true love with a book

CTV Montreal: Don’t judge a book by its cover A St. Henri bookshop is combining blind dates with reading by setting customers up with books they might not have otherwise chosen.

Dating isn’t just for people looking for a romantic match anymore. A Montreal book store is hoping to make a match of a more literary kind.

St. Henri Books are calling their program Blind Dating With A Book.

“We have a selection of books that we’ve wrapped and we have maybe three or four descriptions on the cover,” said St. Henri Books’ Alex Nierenhausen. “It’s discounted so it’s somewhat of a lottery system. You’re going in blind and not getting a lot of information, but it’s a lot of fun for people and they buy several at the same time.”

The store opened in the spring of 2018 with hope of creating a community space and fostering a love of reading, with a small but curated collection focusing on local authors and tastes. Laura Clarke became a loyal customer who took a chance on a blind date, ending up with Thomas Harris’ iconic horror ‘The Silence of the Lambs.’ She said while it might not have been her first choice, she keeps coming back due to the personal touch and neighbourhood vibe.

“It’s fun. You’re going out, you’re being social even though you’re going home by yourself to read a book,” she said. “It still gets you out. You never know who you’re going to bump into on your way here. I just bumped into someone I hadn’t seen in a long time.”

Nierenhausen said he knows opening the store in the age of online shopping was a risky move but has found there’s still a place for local brick-and-mortar stores.

“People want to get back to sort of a more tight-knit community style of living,” he said. “Of course Amazon is extremely easy and fast but people are realizing that it lacks humanity.”

The Blind Date With A Book program runs through the month of September.