BOOKENDS × CREADORA WORLD. romance edition. Blind date with a book.
<strong>Between The Lines</strong> is a reading party in Dubai, designed by Creadora World and hosted at Bookends, the UAE’s leading pre-loved book marketplace. Twenty strangers who love romance, one weekend morning, one novel each, drawn by chance from a scratch ticket. An hour of reading side by side, then a live game and, if you want them, the conversations. The first edition runs on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September 2026, 08:30 to 11:00, at Bookends in Dubai Digital Park A3, DSO.
<strong>30 AED</strong>, of which 20 AED comes back as credit on any book. 20 seats per session.
Everyone in the room came for the same genre, so the conversation is halfway there before anyone speaks. At 10:00 a live game gets it going: no icebreakers, no stage, nobody is called on, and even if you are introvert, you will definitely nail it! Yap about tropes with someone who knows exactly what you mean, or admit you have never read a romance and leave with a list. Most people come alone. That is rather the point.
And one small thing happens before you go. It stays inside the book, for whoever opens it after you.
Bookends picks one romance per seat and announces the titles on @bookendsae before the day. Which one is yours waits under the scratch panel of your ticket. Already read it, or own it? Swap with a neighbour when you arrive. Fell for it? Your 20 AED credit applies to it at the end, or to anything else on the shelves.
You don’t have to be a big reader. Everyone starts with the first page.
A perfect way to start your weekend morning.
At 09:00 it goes into one basket, in front of everyone. Switched off, airplane mode or full silent, your choice. It comes back at 10:00. Nineteen people are trusting you with their quiet hour, so the deal is strict: a phone that makes a sound ends the morning for its owner. On call that day? Tell the host at the door and your phone waits outside the room.
Nobody finishes. One hour is one hour, and nobody asks where you got to. The ticket chose the book, so the only hard part is done before you sit down.
No. Everything at 10:00 happens in pairs and small groups. No book report, no quiz. The rounds stay a surprise until the day.
Yes. Register each seat separately, pick the same morning, and tell us at the door. You will sit side by side and read different books.
The morning is one piece, 08:30 to 11:00. Plan for the full three hours; the second half is where you meet the people who read beside you.
Your phone is yours until 09:00 and again from 10:00, so the arrival, the ticket, the basket and the game are all yours to shoot. We photograph the arrival and the game as well, never the reading hour, and every guest receives the album by email within 48 hours. Tag @bookendsae and @creadora.world. Prefer to stay out of the pictures? Say so at the door.
Payments are final: no cancellations, no refunds. A seat can pass to a named friend if you tell us at least 24 hours before the morning, so the door list matches.
Bookends, Dubai Digital Park A3, DSO. The room reads and talks in English.
Basement parking, free for the first two hours. Enter by Gate 5 and park in Zone 3, G2, right beside the Lower Ground entrance of Building A3. Go in through the Lower Ground and Bookends is on that same level. By public transport: metro to Centrepoint or Al Rashidiya, then Bus 320 towards Academic City, get off at Silicon Park, and walk five minutes to Dubai Digital Park Building A3. Once inside, take the escalator next to Baofriend down to the basement.
Between the Lines is a format by Creadora World, a Dubai studio that designs live games and pop culture experiences. The conceptors of K-Winter event and K-game in collaboration with KOCCA and Korea360, we're open for collaborations with cultural institutions, venues and brands to build cultural experiences and offline gamified activations.
Bookends is the UAE's premier digital and physical marketplace for pre-loved books, dedicated to making reading affordable and sustainable. Founded with a mission to give every book a second life, Bookends offers an extensive, ever-changing collection of quality used books across all genres for children and adults.