Library Hotel
As a onetime children’s bookstore owner, I am especially drawn to this hotel, breathing the air of books and the romance that comes with them. The lobby is like a slightly roomier study, with squashy chairs sitting between shelves of books set to soft jazz tunes. Upstairs, the library hits full steam, as the rooms are organized according to the Dewey Decimal System. Thus, every floor has a theme, each of the sixty rooms its own subject, and they are replete with books on the appropriate topic (I, personally, would like to explore room 1100.006, “Love” in the Philosophy section).
On the second floor, a lounge works as both a reading haven and a host to daily wine-and-cheese events. And the theme continues to the top floor where there is a bar called Bookmarks. Here, too, books pile into every corner, while plants sprout in each room, and outdoors, wooden benches laze below tulip-shaped stonework atop the walls. Inside, literary drinks are cheekily named: the Hemingway, the Pulitzer, and the Tequila Mockingbird. Each looked tempting, but we selected the house specialty, Bookmarks, to sample, where passion fruit, Appleton rum, grand marnier and champagne are blended together to create a sweet, delicious drink. Borges imagined heaven to be some sort of library; failing that, I’m sure he’d be quite happy here.
