The initiative functions as a highly bespoke literary quiz designed to map a participant’s psychological and aesthetic profile onto a curated syllabus. Rather than relying on the straightforward multiple-choice formulas common across mainstream internet trivia, Bookmatch leans heavily into the absurd, the existential, and the delightfully oblique. Last year’s iteration, for instance, challenged respondents with probing softballs such as, “You like it when a book _____ you,” with options ranging from skewers and soothes to seduces and startles. Previous years have skewed even more cheeky, asking quiz-takers to identify as a specific human finger or prompting them to navigate similarly surreal hypothetical scenarios.
These unconventional responses are processed to generate a customized ten-book reading list. Far from being compiled by automated code, these syllabi are curated through n+1’s vast and eclectic contributor network. For this year’s program, the pool of recommenders includes an array of notable cultural figures and literary heavyweights, featuring Susan Orlean, Tony Tulathimutte, Jia Tolentino, Vincenzo Latronico, Sarah Thankam Matthews, and Tavi Gevinson.
In addition to receiving a bespoke reading list, participants gain access to a special discount enabling them to purchase the recommended titles through the enduring independent bookstore McNally Jackson. For skeptics who might view the project as merely another internet novelty, proponents argue that the depth of the curation defies simple categorization. Personal testimony from past participants highlights the uncanny accuracy of the system, noting how a single quiz can successfully unearth hidden literary inclinations, bridging disparate tastes with surprising precision.
Past iterations have successfully matched readers with works as varied as Ian MacDonald’s Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties and Yukio Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, alongside contemporary releases like Charlotte Shane’s memoir An Honest Woman and the published diaries of Helen Garner. The experience of receiving recommendations that feel genuinely attuned to an individual’s inner life offers a striking contrast to the cold efficiency of modern data tracking. It presents a rare instance where digital infrastructure is harnessed to foster genuine human connection through the printed word.
Co-editor Dayna Tortorici recently emphasized that the pleasure of the thoughtful hand-sell remains fiercely alive through initiatives like Bookmatch. In a spirited announcement for the project, Tortorici pointed to a broader cultural friction, suggesting that powerful actors in the contemporary landscape are actively working to suppress what remains of an independent life of the mind.
In an era where major technological forces continually encourage users to surrender their cognitive autonomy for the sake of convenience—surrounded by AI-generated artistic output designed for easy dopamine delivery and sycophantic chatbots offering false certainty—engaging with culture can occasionally feel like inhabiting the bleak, alternative reality of Pottersville from It’s a Wonderful Life. Against this backdrop, the underlying message of Bookmatch is refreshingly direct: slow down, disconnect from the noise, and read a book—or perhaps ten books.
Those ten books, moreover, come recommended by living people whose taste and intelligence are hard-won and wholly singular, forged in the crucible of their own idiosyncratic minds. Engaging with such recommendations serves as a small act of reclamation, allowing individuals to claw back a measure of what broader cultural pressures attempt to erode, including personal peace, quiet pleasure, and the unproductive, ruminative hours that constitute a fundamental part of the human experience.
Bookmatch is currently open to participants through December 1st. To access the quiz and receive a customized reading list designed to skewer, soothe, seduce, or startle, interested readers are invited to make a donation of any dollar amount directly to the magazine via its official platform.
