Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

February will bring new opportunities for community members to explore new books with the return of “Blind Date With a Book.”

The Chilton/ Clanton Public Library is hosting the event for teens and adults throughout the entire month.

“We want to give readers opportunities to expand their reading choices to include authors and literary styles or genres that they may not have considered before or may not have known about,” Library Director Bernadette Roche said.

The format is a good way to try new books because it is free.

“If the person doesn’t like the book, they can simply return it, no problem,” Roche said. “But what we hope is that people will be pleasantly surprised by discovering new authors or genres they may not have ever previously read or considered reading and will be so pleasantly surprised by the experience that they find a new favorite author or a new favorite genre. The library offers so many popular book genres: realistic fiction, romance, fantasy, dystopian, science fiction, mystery, paranormal/supernatural.”

Books available for “dates” will be wrapped up hiding the title and other information that might give away which book it is and will be on display.

“Readers literally do not have any idea what author or title they are selecting,” Roche said. “Readers will choose a book not based on the author, title, or even the literary type. The selected books are completely unknown to readers — call them ‘literary surprises.’ After the selection is made, the book is borrowed in the same way as any book would be. Readers simply take the book to the circulation desk and check it out as they would any other books. The only thing that is exposed is the barcode, so that the book can be checked out. The book is then un-wrapped by the patron and enjoyed.”

All of the books selected for this program are fiction. 

“Children are not included in this program for obvious reasons because parents select their children’s reading materials based on many criteria, and that selection process needs to be unhindered,” Roche said.

For more information, contact the library at 205-755-1768, visit the library website chiltonclantonlibrary.org or visit the Facebook page.