Bookstores and romance

Do you know your local bookstore is a good place to meet a date?

The answer is probably yes, thanks to our culture's growing tendency to push the belief. Sara recently addressed an extension of the idea when she wrote about speed-dating at the library.

And now, we have this eyewitness account of finding love in bookstores. An excerpt:

There are many reasons why bookstores are naturally romantic environments: the smell of paper, the soft lighting, the baseline understanding that those inside like to read, and are therefore probably not morons.

Am I the only one who's a little worried about this concept's rise?

Don't get me wrong: I love books and like Katie, I get sad when people say bookstores could become an endangered species.

But I worry that all this hype about bookstores being meet markets could erase some of the "underground" appeal that makes bookstores so romantic.

I have no experience with bookstore dating, but I assume one of the best parts about meeting someone in a bookstore is the fact that you're chatting with someone whose primary mission isn't to find a date.

Write a few more headlines about people meeting in bookstores and you'll have daters who visit the stores primarily to find a romantic connection. Not to mention all the cheesy pick-up lines you might hear in certain store aisles.

Agree?