Here are two hotels that are built around the bookish crowd, one is very modern while the other is a bit more stately and both are very swank.
The Library Hotel is in NYC and seems to be close to everything fun and book related. Packages do not just include wine, cheese, blah blah blah (the usual) but they also offer deals for NYC Public Library tours and have a staff Librarian who will select books for your room, make runs to the Strand for books. There are so many great reading nooks in the photos, on their site.
Most every room has bookshelves on at least one wall (just like I’d like my house to be).
On the other side of the globe is the newly opened The Library hotel in Thailand. The whole place keeps high design in mind (which fortunately includes high bookshelves). It’s a great contrast to the New York hotel with it’s bright colors and stark white interiors. While I didn’t see any cozy reading nooks, there are plenty of benches and chairs positioned all over to allow the reading of great books and great views.
The folks over at Type Token featured the work of Hong Seon Jang the other day. The artist has a show in Denver right now where patrons can check out his cityscapes composed of lead type. This is truly amazing and a great way to show off type pieces. Most of the typography-related art that I run across consists of the printed letterforms, but this takes the mechanical type and pushes into the architectural realm.
These are classic and absolutely beautiful. Up front know they run $90 for each 17″ shelf, but they would be so handy. I’m pretty sure that every book lover needs two. These are angled just right to serve as “presentation shelves”. So you could have your signed firsts or mini collection of Alvin Lustig‘s New Direction covers, set out so you can enjoy and your guests can take a look.
But these table top bookshelves are also portable, so you’d need one to sit on your desk to hold all of the books you need access to, on a daily basis, as you write your book (you do have a book in you. That’s not a question. You do, whether you know it or not).
Of course, if you buy three, then you’ll have to start looking for the perfect library table to go under them… hmmmm…
This is one of the 4,728 first run printings from 1953 and can be yours for about $80,000. I wonder how many of the 4,728 are still around? The seller says that Ian Fleming designed the cover himself. That’s pretty cool if the concept was indeed his.
