Shhh! We’re Dating Here!
I was reading through a list of local Valentine’s date ideas when I came across the following:
Looking for love this Valentine’s Day? Find it at the Free Library of L’amour!
Throughout the beginning of February, we’re holding various free speed dating events in many of our branches, just in time for you to find a special someone to be your Valentine.
Participants are encouraged to bring a book they loved, hated, or just recently read to use as an icebreaker. One lucky couple at each event will win Author Events tickets to see Anne Rice, bestselling author of The Vampire Chronicles series, and have their first date at the Free Library on Valentine’s Day!
Included as part of the initiative are:
Events for singles ages 25 to 35
Events for single Latinos ages 25 to 35
Events for single Queer men and women age 25 to 35
Events for singles ages 35 to 45
Events for singles over age 50
How cool is that?
This just confirms that A) Philadelphia is a f*cking cool city in which to live, no matter what anybody says and B) our library system is first rate.
(Although I do feel sorry for people between the ages of 45 and 50—evidently you can’t play—and if you’re gay but over 35, you’re out of luck as well.)
At any rate, I want to go speed dating. No matter that I’m already happily in a relationship with The Wedding Date. Or that I’ve already tried speed dating and it was totally miserable… both times.
This would be different.
I mean, we’re talking speed dating in a library! I’d totally bring my copy of The Great Gatsby. Or maybe Crime and Punishment. Or perhaps my Complete Works of Jane Austen. (Not. The point is to pick up men, not repel them!)
But I can’t, because I’m already seeing someone and even though we’d both quite like to see Anne Rice (totally The Wedding Date’s fault, by the way; I’d never even read Anne Rice until I met him!) we won’t get to because you can’t win the prize if you don’t go speed dating and you can’t go speed dating when you’re already in a relationship.
Or can you?
More on that tomorrow…
In the meantime, I’m curious: has speed dating ever actually worked for anybody?
PS: I’m not making this up. For more information about speed dating at the Free Library of Philadelphia, click here.
Related articles
- Speed dating goes literary (theglobeandmail.com)
- Speed Dating vs Online Dating (blameitondisney.wordpress.com)
Kat Echevarría Richter 
10 Responses to “Shhh! We’re Dating Here!”
I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone having a real connection from speed dating, but I do think that the premise of getting out and meeting people sounds like a good idea.
Oh…I want to library speed date! But all of the books I would take/am reading right now are kind of nerdy. I wonder if people bring a book of a certain genre to make themselves seem a certain way. Are they going to categorize the dating pools by genre? “Romance novels on the left! Nerdy books on the right! Science Fiction in the center!” Which begs the question, can genres mix? Do opposites attract in the literary world? (Oh to be a fly on the wall!) Kat…I think we MUST put on our anthropologist caps and go to this!
I TOLD YOU KAT, I thought of you (CPR) when I heard about this event!
I know! I think this is hysterical!
I gave up online datnig because it was a *miserable* failure for me. I am on a dating hiatus from speed dating because it was too successful.
I did, actually, meet some terrific, datable guys via speed dating (via 8 Minute Dating, here in Jersey). But after I accidentally broke someone-terrific’s heart, I needed a breather.
Oh no! Sorry to hear, but I am glad to know that speed dating did work for someone finally!
So … nothing for people 46-49? (that’s where I fall) … we’re pariahs of some sort? :sniffs pits: hmmm … it’s not that … fie on Philly!
I know, right?
You and TWD could both enter the event and pick each other, in hopes of winning the tickets! 🙂 It would also be a way to ensure that this time, the experience wouldn’t be miserable. And it could be fun to do it on the down low.
See Wednesday’s post 🙂