January 25, 2013

Best places for your holiday read

Modern technology has made it much easier to travel with plenty of holiday reads.  No longer do you need to pack a separate heavy bag full of books. With the arrival of the Kindle and the iPad, along with many other tablets, taking a whole library with you is easy.

Whilst there’s never a shortage of book recommendations by publishers and celebrities, where are the best places to enjoy them?

The Library Hotel, New York, USA

This hotel in New York’s Madison Avenue is a book lover’s dream. It holds 6,000 books for guests to cast their eyes over during their stay. There are books in the guest rooms as well as in the dedicated reading room. There’s also a writer’s den for those who are inspired enough to pen their own. The reading room is open 24 hours a day with freshly brewed coffee and tea on tap, plus water, cookies and fruit.

Each floor of the hotel is dedicated to a section used by libraries worldwide to categorise their books. Each room has a collection of books from that category i.e. Fiction or History or Cookery etc.

Hotel du Lac, Lake Como, Italy

Hotel du Lac inspired a book. This boutique hotel is a family affair. It was opened in 1956 on the shores of Lake Como and has remained popular ever since.

Its cosy feel and location inspired the 1984 Booker Prize winner (now the ManBooker Prize) by the same name. Author Anita Brookner set her love story, Hotel du Lac, with a twist on the shores of Lake Geneva, not Como, but with the hotel as the star of the book.

Where could be better to while away sunny days on the terrace reading, in between people watching or boat gazing on the lake?

Sylvia Beach Hotel, Newport, Oregon

Over on America’s west coast this hotel is one for serious book worms. There are no TVs, radios or phones in the guest rooms. The idea is a peaceful retreat where you can read or write to your heart’s content. Again there’s a small library and a reading room with refreshments on tap.

Overlooking the coast, many of the guest rooms, which are all named after authors have ocean views. You can stay in the classic Agatha Christie, the best selling Jane Austin, Scot Fitzgerald, J K Rowling or Dr Seuss.

If you’re inspired to get away from it all and bury your head in a book, check out Beat the brochure’s list of destinations for your own book lover’s paradise.