'The Best Library Hotels' & Foyles Waterloo Station Is a 'Proper Bookshop'

Shelf Awareness

Stay & Read: 'The Best Library Hotels'

In honor of the recent National Libraries Day in the U.K., the Independent featured its picks for "the best Library hotels," including New York City's Library Hotel, where "each floor of this 60-room Manhattan hotel has been assigned a category of the Dewey Decimal System and kitted out accordingly. The eighth floor, for example, is 'Literature' with rooms entitled 'Fairy Tales,' 'Poetry', and even 'Erotic Literature.' All rooms come with a range of books, but bibliophiles can also hunker down in the communal Reading Room or the rooftop Poetry Garden, which offers spectacular views of New York--if they're not too engrossed in a novel, that is."

Foyles Waterloo Station Is a 'Proper Bookshop'

On the first anniversary of the opening of Foyles' Waterloo Station branch in London, bookseller Kat Hacheney's blog post considered "why this oasis of culture and calm has become a destination as much as it has a stop on the journey.... The press often seems determine to portray bookselling as a business in decline, but our first year here offers plenty of evidence to the contrary. Each morning Waterloo's flurry of intrepid passengers pours through our door and brings our shop to life. Even after a year people still walk up to us and say: 'It's good to have a proper bookshop here.' "

She also observed that "there's something very comforting in the thought that, amid Waterloo's daily hurly-burly, Foyles provides the answer to the challenges of a journey. And with the inevitable delays that come with commuting, it's always best to have a book on you."

Kolkata Is 'India's First City of Books'

Kolkata "is known for its love for all things literary," CNN reported, noting that "literary fever peaks here with the arrival of the year's most awaited event--the Boi Mela (Kolkata Book Fair)," which just ended last Sunday. The annual event draws approximately 1.5 million people.

Highlighting some of the city's best bookshops, CNN wrote that Kolkata "has countless havens for book lovers--some shops are part of big chains, some are tiny independent operations hidden in alleys, some fall somewhere between big and tiny."