"Her shirt said book slut, I'll read any book once," says Iris Tashjian to a woman she sat down with.
Tashjian and 36 other people in their 20s and 30s came to a first ever LBGT literary speed dating night. Donya Drummond set up the event where everybody is asked to bring a favorite book to talk about and break the ice.
"People that read, they are a certain sectior of society and so they have that automatically in common," said Drummond.
Most of the people never speed dated before. Anthony Macias says this type of gathering works for him.
"I love to read and I love the public library and I'm really looking at socializing, meeting people…literate people," says Macias.
Tashjian's laugh and smile told me that she enjoys new experiences.
"I love reading and why not have some fun meeting some new people in that environment?" says Tashjian.
Before the speed dating began, people had time to mingle and chat. They seemed to be sizing each other up possibly choosing the most promising future dates.
One of the more difficult aspects of the literary speed dating is trying to figure out exactly what kind of questions to ask to see if you have something in common with the individual across from you in four minutes.
"I'm going to ask, 'What do you like to read? How often do you read?'" says Macias.
Everyone is identified by number. No names. After the speed date they write down the number of those they want to see again. Drummond says it'll take three days to notify them of their matches. She hopes they will come back to the library to meet.
