A HOTEL FOR BOOK LOVERS

At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book – that string of confused, alien ciphers – shivered into meaning.  Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened.  You became, irrevocably, a reader.  Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading.

I love to read and remember the books, with blue covers, on the shelves of the middle school library.  I started with the first one and read through the series of biographies.  I flew with Amelia Earhart, researched with Madam Curie, and blazed a trail with Daniel Boone.  Agatha Christie taught me detective skills and Harry Potter ignited my imagination.  Books have taken me to countries I will never visit.  I can have one book beside the bed, one beside the couch, and read one while cooking.  And keep each story straight.  Yes, I love to read.

My sister, also an avid reader, said, “It is too bad we cannot find a hotel which caters to readers.  Instead of sitting beside a pool, we could find a cozy nook….and have trays of cheese, crackers, and fancy sandwiches quietly delivered to our nook….and of course glasses of wine.  Now, that would be a vacation!”

This got me to wondering if there are hotels like this and off to google I went.  There are hotels which cater to book lovers!  The ones I found would require boarding a plane and having a passport.  But, I was determined!  Surely I had missed something.  And there it was.  Just what I was looking for:  The Bookshop Hotel.

The website drew me in.  Located in a small town.  In a really old building.  With nooks and comfortable chairs.  Every afternoon at 12:30, there is a book reading, on the green,.  Still no address!  What website would not have an address and phone number!  Talk about poor marketing!  Then I saw a link to their Facebook page.  Surely, the information would be found there. 

The Bookshop Hotel page was full of pictures of the quaint houses scattered around Lily Hollow.  Finally, the name of the town.  Maybe this was a test.  You had to follow leads, with true determination, to find booking information.  Only then would you be considered a true lover of books and worthy of a stay.

I searched and saw the names of many books:  The River of No Return, The Fifth Avenue Story Society, Ink and Bone, A Place to Hang the Moon, The Adventures of Mr. Toad, Peter and Wendy, and on, and on, and on.  Was I ever going to find an address?

The answer is no.  You see, I was searching so hard for a hotel that catered to book lovers that I failed to detect one small detail – Agatha Christie would not be proud of me – The Bookshop Hotel is NOT a hotel.  It is a BOOK!!!  A book now on my Kindle.

There is a lesson here.  When searching for something, be sure of where the search is leading you.  Are you headed to a place of fiction or a place of reality?

While you ponder that last sentence, I will be reading a book.  A book titled The Bookshop Hotel.