A SCHOOL library in Swindon celebrated Valentine's Day with a book blind date.

Lawn Manor Academy's library has been covered in romantic decorations for all of February in a bid to encourage pupils to take part in the event and fall in love with reading.

The idea is to get young people to read books which are outside their comfort zone by letting them choose a wrapped-up book based only on a short clue and reading level instead of the unseen cover or blurb.

Library officer Rachel Reynolds was surprised by how popular the book blind dates became.

She said: “I displayed 10 books as a trial, but so many pupils took up the challenge that I could hardly keep up with the demand.

"More than 50 pupils have loaned out the mystery books already. They were all very excited at the thought of opening their package – there was a real buzz in the library.

"My aim was to try something different, to get pupils to fall in love with reading and maybe to find the book love of their life."

School pupils enjoyed the literary love-fest. Year 11 pupil Richard said: “I think the idea has been good and very popular.”

Ashley from Year 10 said: “It has been a lot of fun and it was nice to do something different.”

The event will continue until the end of the month.