Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Find Your Soulmate Between the Covers

Patrons at a New York book store might come in looking for the latest blockbuster novel…but leave with a love match.

Independent bookstore Word on Brooklyn's Franklin Avenue has created a match-making bulletin board to see if the books people love could possibly bring them together.

Store manager Stephanie Anderson told the Greenpoint Gazette the board invites visitors to write down their favourite books and authors - think “likes and dislikes, turn-ons and turn-offs” of a literary nature - along with their contact information, in hopes of finding a “literary soulmate.”

“It actually started when a friend of mine walked into the store and saw two books together behind the counter, one by Neil Gaiman and Steve Toltz, and she said, ‘tell me those are for the same guy, and please tell me he’s single!’ So, I got to thinking we could match people by literary taste.”

With the burgeoning popularity of internet dating cites, Anderson thought the match-making board might serve as a way for people to meet, to interact, and to bond over a mutual love and interest in reading.

“Book people are really talkative actually,” Anderson said. “It’s funny because reading is something people do by themselves but they love talking about it, they could talk about it for hours. Even with all the social media—which we at Word also love—people fundamentally love to group together, and books are a perfect thing to group around.”

“Books are romantic and I don’t know why!” Anderson said. “You can learn so much about someone by the books they read—not the books they’ve read, but the books they really love.”

A brand new project, Anderson has yet to see any matches be made, but is optimistic about the prospect of literary love blossoming via bulletin board.

“In an ideal world, a couple would meet on the bulletin board and get married in the basement,” Anderson said. “I mean, they could propose in the children’s section!”


- I think this story is too cute for words!

And then it got me thinking.

I love books, I buy far too many of them and read every spare moment I get. BUT in the 3.5 years my partner and I have been together I have only seen him read one book (about motorsport legends of New Zealand). His regular reading is restricted to daily perusal of websites and monthly editions of PC Powerplay magazine.

Yet we are very content together.

And If I had waited for my perfect match on a bulletin board, I might have missed out on my own happily ever after.

That said, if I was single and living in Brooklyn I'd definitely be putting my info up on that board!

1 comment:

Caffeinated Weka said...

LOL - in the 1 1/2 years my sweetie and I have been together, I have seen him read the first six pages of Richard Hammond's second book (which was his Christmas present and which I keep threatening to read before him), whereas I always have several books on the go at once and can't read enough! To think: I'd have missed out on my sweetie if I had decided that a shared love of books and reading was a pre-requisite to a happy relationship.