With Valentine’s Day less than two weeks away, if you are still looking for that special companion to spend the holiday with the Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library is here to help.

The library’s popular Blind Date with a Book program returned for the second year Monday and will continue through Friday, Feb. 23. The program enables patrons to choose a mystery book based on a brief description with the goal of introducing readers to book they wouldn’t normally choose.

“We did this last year and it turned out to be very, very popular,” library director Katrina Stokes said. “The idea is to give a new book a chance, but of course you can’t know what it is until you have checked it out and taken it home. Once you’ve done that, you unwrap it and read the book.”

The books are each wrapped in brown paper to keep their identity hidden until the reader leaves the library.

“I heard from one lady, who told me her son had tried it,” Stokes said. “He said it was like Christmas. He was so excited to pick the book and unwrap it and he won a prize. We’ve had people come and say, ‘I enjoyed this book so much I am here to get more from this author now. It is the discovery aspect.’”

There are audiobooks available as well as typical hardbacks. Each book also comes with a rate the date slip that readers can use to enter a prize drawing.

“If it was a great date, great tell us about it,” Stokes said. “If it was a dud, tell us why. Regardless if it was a good book or not so good for you, the slip when you return it to a librarian at circulation it goes into a drawing for prizes at the end of this month.”

Stokes said during the program last year there were multiple readers who said they enjoyed books they never would have picked up otherwise.

“I think my favorite comment from last year came from a teenage boy who said he normally did not like to read, but he liked the book he chose off the table,” Stokes said. “If I never work another day as a librarian I feel like I’ve accomplished something. I got somebody interested in something to do with reading.”

The books are from all different genres including mysteries, romance and even non-fiction. There are also kids and teen books available, as well as graphic novels. When choosing the books, Stokes said she has worked to choose ones by a diverse set of authors. As books are selected and checked out, more will be added in their place keeping the program going. There is no limit to how many times a reader can enter the drawing.

“I think it helps open your perspective,” Stokes said. “I try to get around to books that are written by different ethnic groups for example. There is a big push for diversity in library collections so one of my instructions to my staff, I said please keep diversity in mind. We want to encourage patrons to read about other people’s perspectives.”