Sweets, flowers, chocolate – according to a survey, these are the most popular gifts for Valentine’s Day, but a carefully chosen book can be a much more meaningful gift than any of the above. On Valentine’s Day, Bookline is offering several activities: we can send literary characters who are “strangers” to each other on a date with the help of AI, recommend heartwarming reads to others in Bookline stores, and even bump into our favorite romantic reads on a blind date.
According to a survey by Drive Research, Valentine’s Day gifts continue to be based on classic surprises: 44% of couples treat their loved ones to sweets, while 33% express their feelings with a romantic greeting card. 32% of respondents choose flowers as a gift, while 29% celebrate Valentine’s Day with a dinner for two. Data shows that gestures expressing emotions and shared experiences are playing an increasingly important role in the selection of Valentine’s Day gifts.
Mary Poppins and Jon Snow? Antigone and Dracula? Hermione Granger and Mr. Darcy? To encourage as many people as possible to discover the joy of reading on Valentine’s Day, Bookline has created a game called “The Ingredients of Love” to tie in with the holiday. Participants in the online activity can pair 10 iconic female and 10 male literary characters, allowing AI-generated story descriptions to weave entirely new love stories based on the characters’ personality traits and relationship dynamics. With the help of fictional couples, the site assists players in selecting books by recommending titles that correspond to the love story of the given couple.
“We want to give our customers the opportunity to express their romantic, passionate, or even fateful feelings through books, so we are inviting our customers to play a game on Valentine’s Day. We are preparing several online and offline activities for the holiday, and we are also helping our customers make their choices with fun and creative book recommendations thanks to artificial intelligence,” says Brigitta Mészáros, brand manager at Bookline.
On February 14, Bookline stores will welcome book lovers with special surprises and hundreds of discounted books in celebration of Valentine’s Day. As part of the “Blind Date with a Book” campaign, six selected romantic novels are placed on store shelves in paper wrappers—so shoppers cannot see the titles of the books and can only choose what to read based on a short recommendation.
Visitors to the bookstore can write down the titles of their favorite books with a short recommendation on heart-shaped post-it notes, which can be placed on designated bookshelves in the store. Customers participating in Bookline’s Valentine’s Day activities will also receive a 15% discount coupon as a gift.
As part of Bookline’s Valentine’s Day campaign, those interested can also find exciting challenges on social media. The Bookline Book Club Facebook group is launching a creative storywriting competition, where participants can continue the stories of iconic literary couples, while on the book retailer’s Facebook and Instagram pages, participants can choose their own “literary crush”.
