With Valentine’s Day coming up, the Media Center is honoring this holiday and their love for reading with the “Blind Date with a Book” tradition for the third year in a row.

The event was started in Feb. 2015 and has been a success among students. For this tradition, the Media Center specialists cover the display features books with a cryptic label hinting at the contents of the book. Each book comes with a “rate your date” slip which is later used in a raffle.

“I think the idea came from Pinterest,” librarian Tami Burton said. “It’s definitely the most popular promotion that we do.”

All of the books are new books selected from popular lists and by other media specialists in the county. The selected books cover a wide variety of genres to include all interests.

The cryptic labels are written by all three librarians to give a prospective reader just the simplest idea. These unique book covers are so popular because the mystery behind the book intrigues students.

According to librarian Tracy Bottiglieri, from 2015 to 2016 there was an increase in 39 more “rate your date” slips being submitted, with a total of 72 slips being submitted in 2016.
“Last year I read around 14 books,” senior Jeremy Chang said. “I like the surprise of not knowing which book I check out.”

Last year 84 books were used for the event and 142 books were checked out during the event.

“It gives me a chance to read new types of books,” junior Jiawei Bai said, “books that I wouldn’t have given a chance otherwise.”