The Ultimate Bookish Date Night: How to Plan a Literary-Inspired Evening

Setting the Scene for a Literary Romance Experience

Who doesn’t love date nights? We absolutely love everything that goes into planning the perfect date night, and a literary-inspired evening is just what we need during the month of love! Adding a bookish twist is what we do best.

Come on; a literary romance experience is bound to take your date night from ordinary to extraordinary. It's time for biblio-cuddles (snuggling up while reading your favorite books together), great food, and dare we say a night to remember.

We can’t wait to get started with our special Once Upon a Book Club date night ideas!

Book-Themed Dinner: Culinary Delights from Classic Novels

Books and food happen to be two of our favorite things. The idea of a book-themed dinner with the odd glass of wine or champagne thrown in really hits the spot. We have the perfect book-themed recipe book where you can write down all of those mouth-watering recipes from your favorite books. It’s time to pick a theme from one of your favorite romances—we can’t help but be drawn to Bridgerton and the likes of Pride and Prejudice. Perhaps the thought of hosting a regency-styled dinner has caught our imagination.

A regency-styled dinner is all about elegance and refinement. We’re thinking of pastel colors, flowers, candles, and obviously all of the good China and silver. A beautifully set table will put you in the mood in no time. Now, onto the important stuff—like food!

When it comes to the menu, nothing quite says elegance like some smoked salmon or a watercress soup. For the mains, roast beef and Yorkshire puddings served with roasted vegetables and potatoes will definitely hit the spot. And for our favorite course, dessert, you simply have to go with a layered trifle!

Read Together: Sharing Favorite Passages

Couples that read together stay together! We love sharing passages from our favorite books, and it’s a great way to keep in touch with each other’s literary tastes. Picture the scene, snuggled up on the couch under a cozy blanket (we have the perfect white fleece blanket featuring Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata), reading to each other. Literary bliss!

As we said, it’s all about the detail, and adding a few extra touches like candlelight, a glass of wine (our super cute, stemless wine glass printed with the words "What Are Books Without Wine?" is just waiting for date night) complete with a charcuterie board, and you’re set to go.

Book-to-Film Movie Night

We love book-to-film adaptations and although, at times, they don’t quite live up to our expectations, they are still fun to watch. It is such a quandary, “Which one was better, the book or the film?”

Buzzfeed has a fabulous list that we recommend reading—18 Movie Adaptations That Actually Did The Books Justice. If you’re looking for a movie marathon night, J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is a brilliant option, or you can just binge-watch Bridgerton all over again!

Bookstore and Library Adventures

Bookstores and libraries are seriously exciting places, and we love being surrounded by shelves and shelves of books. Holding hands in a bookstore or library with your special person, well it doesn’t get much better than that. We’re just happy wandering around looking at book after book followed by the obligatory stop at our local coffee shop.

Here are a few ideas to up the ante:

Keep an eye out for local book fairs and book signings at your favorite bookstore, they are always so much fun.

Second-hand bookshops are like having your own treasure hunt; you never know what you will find. Add an extra twist by setting a budget and creating your own categories. These can be anything from who bought the most books to who found the most interesting books.

Libraries are brilliant for treasure hunts, and you can create personalized clues. Get creative, and you will have just as much fun creating one as your partner will have following the trail!

Blind dates—no, you’re not setting your partner up with someone else. Head off to your favorite bookstore and buy a book for each other, as you won’t know what you’re getting; it will be like having a blind date with a book.

Book Club Night: A Private Literary Discussion

It’s time to have an exclusive book club night. A private literary discussion for two is a great way to strengthen your literary bonds.

Choose a book you both haven’t read ahead of time. This is the ideal opportunity to try new genres and authors. Why not start your own bookish tradition and have a monthly book club date night where you take turns picking the books? You will be amazed at how much you learn about each other through discussing books and these are conversations that will carry on well past your date night.

Conclusion: Crafting Your Own Literary Love Story

Romances have a way of capturing our hearts and touching our souls and we tend to forget we are living our own love story. Your love story is unique and needs to be told, not necessarily for the world to read but for yourselves. Hey, who knows, you might have a bestseller there!

Writing your love story, besides being a whole lot of fun, gives you time to reflect on your relationship and imagine all the new adventures you will have together. And who knows, it may just give you some insights you didn’t realize.

You can write it together, or you can each write the same chapter at a time. We love that idea, as you will get to see things from each other’s perspectives, and you are bound to find out things you didn’t know about each other!

Chapter 1—Start by setting the scene, who you are, where you were, and what you did before you met.

Chapter 2—Your first encounter! How did you meet? What did you think of each other? And yes, that first kiss!

We’ll leave the rest up to you! We hope your date nights become Pulitzer Prize worthy and that your love story grows from strength to strength. Here’s to bookish date nights everywhere filled with happy reading and writing from all of us at Once Upon a Book Club!