Bookstores are setting up readers on ‘blind dates’ with books. Will it work?

Hank Sanders The Blind Date with a Book display at Strand Book Store in New York. Bookstores say that the concept, which masks a book's real cover, is beloved by customers. Never judge a book by its cover – even if the cover doesn’t say much at all.

The first thing customers see when they walk into the Strand Book Store in the Manhattan borough of New York City is a table of anonymous books with covers wrapped like Christmas presents and titles replaced by vague descriptions. The store calls it “Blind Date With a Book”. Already a subscriber? Log in Get exclusive reports and insights with more than 500 subscriber-only articles every month $9.



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