Bibliophiles can enjoy a blind date with a book at this cafe in Chennai

For the past few months, the city’s favourite ‘anti-café’ as its known, Backyard in Adyar has been promoting the initiative that is aimed at increasing reading habits across the world. The idea is simple — readers can’t see the covers of the book or the name of the author, as they are all wrapped in brown paper. But on the front, a few hints and tags about the plot or genre are scribbled — enough to pique someone’s interest. 

“The idea is to not just promote the usual popular novels, but also the works of lesser-known authors. Also, we realised that there were thousands of second-hand books that are just lying around and Chennai doesn’t really have any place for owners to sell them. There are so many libraries that are being shut down and all the lovely books are then lost for readers. So, we chose only second-hand books for this project,” explains Akshaya Chittybabu, who runs Backyard along with Nithya Fernandez. 

From self-help guides and dramas to thrillers and law, the books are of every genre and appeal to a cross-section of people. 

Akshaya adds, “In order to make sure the readers get an idea of what they are picking up, we read all the books and write down intriguing pointers. It’s an enjoyable experience for us.” 

All the books are priced at Rs 100 equally, and the initiative is year-round, as and when the books are in stock. The team at Backyard hopes more and more people in Chennai will take to reading due to this initiative.