Blind date with a book

A post by Graduate Intern Nancy Harber

According to Wikipedia, ‘Blue Monday’ (or, the most depressing day of the year) is calculated using an actual equation. The formula uses many factors, including W (weather), T (time since Christmas), Q (time since the failure of new year’s resolutions), and Na (the feeling of needing to take action). Some have dismissed this theory as pseudoscience, but clearly those people have never faced the bitter cold months of winter in the North of England.

On the 20th of January this year, we at the Bill Bryson Library indeed ‘took action’ against this dreaded day and defended ourselves from the blues the best way we know how – with books. Our ‘Blind Date with a Book’ initiative was simple: we took one hundred fiction books of various genres from our collection, wrapped them in paper, and wrote nothing but the genre of the book and its first line on the front. We had everything, from Jane Austen to mind-melting science fiction, from 19th century short stories to feminist poetry, and many texts were even recommended by our students themselves!

The way we see it, blind dates are high risk, high reward. Sure, you might meet the love of your life, your new favourite book, or you might end up with a dud that you only end up getting a few pages through before giving up on. The fear of the complete unknown is scary, and so we gave our students just the first line each book to give them a little taste of what was to come, should they pick that book up. A little way of testing compatibility without throwing yourself in entirely blind, and without, most importantly, judging a book by its cover.

Some may argue that the most imperative line in a story is the first line you read. It can hook you in, or instantly put you off. I asked our blog team for the first lines of books that they love, and they came up with some beauties. For instance, “I warn you that what you’re starting to read is full of loose ends and unanswered questions…” immediately lets the reader know that they are going to be wandering through a maze when reading The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney. “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…” is the perfect introduction into Daphne de Maurier’s Rebecca – already we feel haunted by memories that aren’t familiar to us yet.

At our Blind Date with a Book event, all one hundred books were gone from the display and taken on their dates by the end of the day, so clearly our students agree that a good first line is enough to tempt and pique interest! If we’ve learnt anything from this event it’s, of course, to judge a book by its contents and not its appearance, but also, that no matter how bleak the day may look on the surface, there is always an opportunity for it to brighten waiting just around the corner at the Bill Bryson Library.