The Alternate and Historical Fiction Track hosted “Blind Date with a Book” Friday at 11AM in the Augusta room of the Courtland Grand. The event was intended to run most of the day both Friday and Saturday but had to be cut short when the books sold out in 45 minutes! All of the proceeds from the fair are going to Dragon Con’s official 2025 charity, NAMI Georgia. There were two rounds of book sales thanks to a second shipment of books courtesy of 2nd & Charles for a total of about 200 books sold to around 150 con goers.

Liz Carpenter, director of the Alt History Track, said that people came to the room all day Friday and Saturday looking for the book drive. “We have appreciated the interest from the con goers and really hope that we can secure a larger number of books for next year,” she said. She added that most of the sales were for 1 or 2 books, but one reader adopted 10 books all by themselves! Each book was sold for a suggested $5 donation to NAMI Georgia.

Blind date with a book is a concept where a book cover is covered and just a summary of the plot is written on the outside. It alleviates the reader from making a decision based on the title, the author, or what the cover looks like. Clearly it is a concept that appeals to the Dragon Con community. Hopefully this will become another beloved Dragon Con tradition.