Long before dating apps existed, Helene Hanff fell for a London bookseller she never once met in person, building an entire romance across twenty years of letters that always circled back to the same subject, which book to send next. 84, Charing Cross Road turned that correspondence into a small classic, proof that nothing reveals a person quite like what they choose to read. A new app called Readme seems to be betting on exactly that same instinct, only with considerably less waiting around for the mail.

A Dating App Built by the Astrology Obsessed

Readme comes from the team behind Co-Star, the app that turned checking your birth chart into a daily ritual for a certain kind of extremely online person. Founder Banu Guler announced the new app on X this week, framing it as the natural next step for a company that has spent years helping people obsess over compatibility. Emily Segal, Co-Star’s head of brand, explained in the same announcement that the idea had been floating around for a while, since building a dating app that felt genuinely authentic meant admitting that astrology alone couldn’t carry the whole thing. Reading, it turns out, made a far more honest second act.

What Your Bookshelf Says About You

The premise is refreshingly uncomplicated: Readme connects people who read, or who simply want to date someone who does, matching users by overlapping taste in books rather than by a carefully workshopped one-liner. Segal put it plainly, noting that someone’s reading list tells you far more about their true spirit than the average dating profile bio ever could. Whether astrology eventually finds its way back into the mix remains unclear, but for now, Readme is betting that a shared favorite author might be the most honest opening line left in online dating.