Samhi C.

Features Editor

skc5908@psu.edu

Going to Barnes and Noble during breaks usually involves more than an hour of perusing shelves just to walk away with one or two books, the cost of each in the range of ten to twenty dollars, that we think will interest us the most. Except, this also means, oftentimes we stock up on books that are very, very similar, trapping us in a loop of reading the same story ten times with only a few details changing. 

But there is a solution to this predicament: a blind date with a book. 

On Friday, Feb. 2 at 5:30 P.M., the Lion Entertainment Board, LEB, hosted Book Bash in Bruno’s Fishbowl. 

For the event, LEB procured more than a hundred books. After individually wrapping them in brown parchment paper to hide titles and covers, they wrote the genre as well as a few vague details about every book on top of the wrapping. 

It is an interesting experience to dive into a selection of anonymous books and only get a few details to help us choose one. It takes away the inherent judging of covers and summaries that do not always function as the best gauge as to what a book will be like. It lets us choose a book based on instinct, something that will suit our interests but also give us something we may not have expected. 

I, because I am me, chose a Fiction book for which the descriptors were “fate”, “free will”, and “love”. 

When I unwrapped the parchment, I found a copy of Jill Santopolo’s “The Light We Lost”. Honestly, the cover is beautiful and the summary is actually compelling. However, with such a cliched title, the chances of me even taking a look at the cover or the summary if happening upon this book myself probably would have been limited. 

But now that this book is on my shelf, guaranteed, I will give it a read and come back to you, Beacon Readers, with a review.