Fancy a little literary love? Already Read bookshop in Fitzroy North has started selling literary blind dates as a creative way to keep sales running (and Melburnians reading) during the shutdowns.
If you pop past the Scotchmer Street store you’ll see that its front windows are currently packed with brown paper-wrapped books. Each mystery book features a small tag hinting at what the book is about; yellow tags are for fiction and green for non-fiction.
Ros from Already Read says she can’t take credit for the idea. “It’s not a new idea, people have done it before,” she said. “But I thought it’s a good time when you’re in isolation. And being a book it’s obviously not going to encroach on any social isolation issues.”
She’s sold a number of the literary blind dates already, largely thanks to her neighbour Rohan who approached her about how to still operate while Melbourne was in shutdown mode. Then once Ros had established the literary blind dates, Rohan then posted it on Facebook for her, as Already Read is not on social media. “Clearly whatever he did worked because I’ve had quite a lot of emails,” says Ros.
If you’re interested in scoring your own mystery book date you can either take a look in the window yourself if you live locally or email Ros for a photo of eligible book bachelors. Either way, you will need to email or call (03 9489 1092) to finalise the sale, pick up or delivery (local only) as the store is currently closed for general shopping.