Reading from the runes

Librairie Avant-Garde in Nanjing provides 'blind dates' with books for readers looking for something unexpected. Yang Yang reports.

Life is like a box of chocolates, so they say, or perhaps a box of books sent from Librairie Avant-Garde in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

"Just leave us a message, whatever you want to say, and we will pick the right books for you," says the "blind pick" web page of the bookstore on Taobao, China's largest online shopping platform.