Blind Date with a Book steals the show at Sharjah Book Fair
National
By
Caroline Chebet
| Nov 09, 2026
Forget the ordinary bookshop ritual where you can turn a book over, read the blurb, and weigh the synopsis before you commit.
At the ongoing annual Sharjah International Book Fair in the United Arab Emirates, one stand takes all of that away.
Instead, it gives you a rare opportunity for a blind date, a date where you have no capacity to judge a book by its cover. That is because there is no cover.
There is no candlelit table.
The venue, however, is a set of shelves lined with parcels in plain brown paper, each marked with the same line: Blind Date with a book. No title, no author, just a small hint about who you are about to meet.
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As with any meeting with a stranger, the rules exist but are built on surrender.
You declare your type, whether fiction or non-fiction, adult or young adult, and let your fingers hover over the shelf.
“When getting into this Blind Date with a Book, you let us know the kind of ‘date’ you want, whether it is fiction or non-fiction, adult or younger reader,” explains Emilyn Bolante from Little Puffin Publishing.
Blind Date With A Book is one of the innovative ways Little Puffin Publishing has come up with to encourage readers to unlock the mystery and buy books.
In this ‘dating corner’, you find rows of mysterious packages standing shoulder to shoulder, swaddled in plain brown paper. Once a participant picks a parcel, that parcel becomes their date.
The price is also part of the gamble. Some dates cost 45 dirhams (Sh1,500), others 65 (Sh2,300). When you unveil your date, you might find yours discounted by as much as half the original price.
According to Emilyn, the ‘matchmaking’ ritual has been quietly stealing the show for three years at both local and international book fairs. The secret, she says, is driven by readers' curiosity.
“It is a game that is interesting to a lot of readers, and most of them would anonymously choose the blind dates, and it has turned out really great. Often when we attend international book fairs, all our books are sold out!” she said.
This blind date is one of many stands at an event that brings together 1.7 million titles in 210 languages under the theme “Made of Stories”.
The event is in its 45th year. Sharjah Book Authority organises it and has brought together more than 3,200 publishers and exhibitors from 126 countries, with 1.7 million titles in 210 languages. Over its 12 days, the programme stretches to 1,500 events, from panel discussions and poetry nights to publishing workshops and a Thriller Festival.
Sharjah International Book Fair is currently the world’s largest fair for buying and selling copyrights for the sixth consecutive year.
The event has made the Emirate of Sharjah an international hub that connects publishers and literary agents with opportunities to negotiate book and translation rights, explore co-publishing, and reach new markets and readers.