The Omnivore creates a dating site for book lovers in London
Lonely book lovers in London -- pardon the alliteration -- need be lonely no longer.
The British book review website the Omnivore, best known to American readers for its Hatchet Job of the Year prize awarded annually to be most deliciously vicious book review, has launched a dating site for book lovers.
“Dreamy 23-year-old writer and journalist Henry has a particular penchant for American women writers,†begins the entry to one of the Omnivore’s “pin-ups.†Henry’s current reading list includes “Diary of a Man in Despair,†the real-life diary kept by the German novelist Friedrich Reck during the reign of the Nazis.
Just about all the “pin-ups†on the Omnivore have similarly excellent tastes in literature — the site’s editors choose who’s on it. If you live in London, you can contact them by writing to the Omnivore team.
“What’s on your bookshelf is so much more revealing than acronyms such as GSOH,†the Omnivore editor Fleur Macdonald said in a statement, mocking a shorthand for “good sense of humor†that’s a staple of personals ads.
The Omnivore’s Anna Baddeley, who said she was once unsuccessfully wooed by a suitor with a book called “Gender and Genius,†added: “To us, professional criticism and matchmaking are two sides of the same coin – we curate our Pin-ups as carefully as we compile book reviews.â€
The editors at the Omnivore aren’t the first people to tackle this idea. The book-lovers dating site Alikewise has been up and running since 2010 and is one a growing list of niche dating sites, including those for vegetarians, self-described “geeks†and farmers.
The Omnivore gives each of its “pin-ups†the kind of treatment authors get, asking each a series of questions such as, “What’s the sexiest thing you’ve ever read?†and “Which author do you have a crush on?â€
Hannah, 26, answers that she had a crush on “Paul Auster until I read his wife’s book and sank into a deep depression for two weeks.â€
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