Literary Retreats: Hotels with Libraries

“For bookish travellers, one of the best things about a holiday is the chance to sit back, crack open a new title and really read. We’ve ranged from Amsterdam to Tokyo to Thailand’s Gulf Islands in search of hotels with great reading spaces and book selections – so whether you’re always on the lookout for new books or just love being surrounded by the printed word, this is the list for you. Let’s get started…

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Book & Bed, Tokyo
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The 30 beds in this hostel are tucked alongside its 1,700 books, which are in both English and Japanese. Each small cubby is built right into the bookshelves. The accommodation at Book & Bed is aimed at no-frills travellers: each ‘room’ is equipped with just a mattress, a booklight, and free WiFi. But as accomodations here only cost around £26 per night, it’s none too shabby for pricey Tokyo.

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The Library Hotel, NYC
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This library-themed hotel takes the Dewey Decimal System pretty seriously – not only is the 6,000-strong book collection organized by subject, but each subject has its own hotel floor. Head to the 5th floor, for example, and you’ll find the ‘Math and Science’ section, with titles covering everything from astronomy to zoology. The Reading Room, located on the 2nd floor, is open 24 hours a day, and is stocked with complimentary tea, coffee, and cookies. Up on the roof The Library Hotel is the ‘Writer’s Den & Poetry Garden,’ a lovely indoor-outdoor bar and café space that serves up literary-themed cocktails after the sun goes down.

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Heathman Hotel, Portland
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The Heathman doesn’t just have a library. It is packing – hold onto your hats – around 2,700 signed books, some of them autographed by Nobel and Pulitzer winners. The library occupies a bright, airy mezzanine space, and its book supply comes from legendary Portland bookstore Powell’s Books. Guests can curl up in an armchair and read here 24 hours a day, or check out their chosen book and take it back to their room. With the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall round the corner and Portland Art Museum a few blocks away, the Heathman is a great all-rounder for culture fans.

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The Library, Thailand
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There’s a lofty concept at play at this 26-room beachside resort: the hotel itself is supposed to represent a book. Its minimalist, white walls, for example, signify a blank page on which visitors can write their own story (metaphorically, of course). If that all sounds a bit abstract, never fear – there’s also plenty of real reading matter to get your teeth into. The crown jewel of The Library is ‘The Lib’, a library space which is furnished with austere Bauhaus loungers, and a wheeled ladder to explore hard-to-reach titles.

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Hotel Not Hotel, Amsterdam
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If you think Hotel Not Hotel‘s name is confusing, wait until you step inside. Originally a market arcade, it has been transformed into a mash-up of design showroom, art gallery and hotel. One room is a tiny pod shaped like a tram car; another is a clapboard cottage complete with a picket fence and woodcarvings ‘based on Transylvanian symbolism’. So it’s fair to say there are a few quirk. Nevertheless, there is one constant you can orient yourself by: an extensive, wraparound library on the hotel’s mezzanine level. Naturally, some of the bookcases double up as doors to secret bedrooms…”