 Literary Gift Guide, Part 4 We now head into probably what is for most of us a gift price range that is, well, out of our price range. But even if you can’t or won’t put this much money into a gift, it can be fun to browse. Sometimes you can decide to save for it, other things you may want to only dream about. It matters not. Just have fun. And take care of yourself. Pressures may be out there, but stress is something self-imposed. Instead of allowing it to take root you take charge. Decide what gives you pleasure—and do it, even if that is nothing. And, yes, I do have my (fake but luscious) Christmas tree up, lighted, but with no ornaments since I cannot trust the cats with shiny objects. That gives all of us pleasure. Happy holidays! $500 - $750: Who knew that the law and sausage could have anything in common? Antique bookends are always lovely and these Dickens characters or this Book Load would make lovely gifts. Consider also these glorious Literature Art Deco bookends that feature a nude Roman man sitting while writing on a tablet. These Cockatoo on Book ones are a dollar under this limit, but I figure that’s close enough for something this beautiful. An unusual piece of art is this Heraldic Book Plate, the Royal Coat of Arms of Scotland, flanked by two unicorns and topped by the helm and crest, including the Honors of Scotland. The illustration is taken from a 1654 bookplate for the New Atlas of the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland. $750 - $1,000: A bookcase made of books? Yup, and it can support a normal load of books too. Prices range from $900 to $1,100 depending on the scale of the piece and shipping costs. An unusual piece of wall art by Colleen Attara—She’s an Open Book—is handmade by the artist in Pennsylvania; though there is more than one each is made individually and will vary slightly. If you like nesting tables but are looking for something out of the ordinary these Library Nesting Tables might do the trick. Though the book spines are faux, they have nevertheless been expertly bound with goat skin leather and embossed by hand. The tales are lacquered for protection and the hinged compartments can be used to store television remotes or other practical (and less attractive) necessities. Hotels: Note: I have placed the literary hotels I have found in this price range rather than listing them in the various price categories because the prices per night vary depending on the season, the room, and the number of nights you stay. The rates listed do not include any taxes or service charges that may be required. That said, here’s some of what I found in the U.S.: The Library Hotel in New York City is one of the best known of the literary ones. It is fashioned from a 1900 brick-and-terracotta structure into a luxury hotel with ten guestroom floors, each one dedicated to one of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System: Social Sciences, Literature, Languages, History, Math & Science, General Knowledge, Technology, Philosophy, The Arts and Religion. Each of its sixty rooms is individually designed and decorated with art and 25-100 books that relate to the room’s unique theme. (There’s more than 6,000 books in the hotel.) Prices begin at about $160 per night and a special Book Lovers Deal offers 20% off “their best flexible rate). The famous Algonquin Hotel in New York City is probably the most famous of all. It has a history of drawing literary giants, among them Gertrude Stein, Simone de Beauvoir, and the members of the Algonquin Round Table, the most famous of whom are probably Dorothy Parker and Harold Ross. And of course there’s the famous Algonquin cat (actually, a number of whom who have filled the role since the first one wandered inside in the late 1930s. Rooms and suites are available beginning at approximately $280 per night. The Washington Square Hotel has a history of tolerance if Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas’ stay there was any indication. Thomas came to the hotel having been kicked out of his previous one for loud, late-night partying and outlandish room service requests. The staff here was more to his liking and then nearby Greenwich bars were too. Today, the Art Deco furnishings and “Paris of the 1930s” bar are a bit more sophisticated but the location is still great. Rates begin at about $159. Another New York City hotel is Hotel Elysee, which is irretrievably linked to Tennessee Williams. His final play, A House Not Meant to Stand, was written in his suite at the hotel (the room is the Sunset Suite); guests were known to complain that they could hear him typing late into the night. Rates begin at approximately $223 per night. If you prefer B&Bs, the Jumel Terrace looks like a great place! Built into a brownstone, it only has an apartment and a single room (with its own mini library) but they share room with an antiquarian bookstore specializing in Harlem Heights local history. “Rooms are furnished in a comfortable, eclectic mix with bookish comforts,” they note. Rates are available for the apartment for daily, weekly, or monthly rental; a weekday double begins at $250. The room rental, available only for one to three days, starts at $200 per night. Those visiting Washington DC may want to look at the Akwaaba, a Victorian beauty with eight guest rooms, each one uniquely decorated and tailored around African American authors (Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Langston Hughes, Walter Mosley) and classic genres. Prices begin at $145 per night. For Miami-bound fans The Betsy is a wonderful choice. The owner’s father was poet Hyam Plutzik, a Pulitzer Prize finalist so poetry readings are common and bookmarks embedded with flower seeds and inscribed with lines of his poetry are left on pillows at turndown. In addition, every room has a selection of books. There is also on-site bookstore. Prices begin at $375 per night. The Hotel Rex in San Francisco notes that it takes it inspiration from “the San Francisco art and literary salons of the 1920’s and 30’s.” This one-time bookstore now hotel hosts literary events all year long. Its lobby and the Library Bar are lined with bookshelves that are accented with vintage typewriters. In addition, bikes and maps of the city marked with literary spots are available. Prices begin at $169 per night. Edit Wharton fans who want to visit The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts should consider staying at Blantyre, which is an exquisite country house hotel where” every guest room has at least one Edith Wharton book, a children’s classic and two volumes of poetry. Rates begin at $675 per night. The eastern shore of Maryland is home to the Alexander House Booklovers’ Bed & Breakfast. Each room is decorated in a creative interpretation of a famous author’s own room in her or his time. Among others you’ll find Langston Hughes and Jane Austen. It has a lovely café with plenty of board games as well as the Mark Twain Reading Parlor. Rates begin at $125 per night. The White Whale Motel in Barnegat Light, New Jersey, offers inexpensive rooms in a small, quiet town on the northern tip of Long Beach Island. They close during the winter and will re-open in April; reservations can be made now. The inn looks much simpler than most listed here but it offers a full library and a shady back yard with hammocks, perfect for reading. The beach is a short walk away. Rates begin at a very reasonable $65 per night. Sinclair Lewis, one of my favorite authors, and his popular journalist wife Dorothy Thompson, once lived in what is now Twin Farms, located in Barnard, Vermont. It calls itself an intimate, all-inclusive country hideaway set amid 300 acres of meadows and woodlands in an unspoiled valley, 15 minutes north of Woodstock.” Accommodations include cottages, the farmhouse, the lodge, and the main house, which is where Red’s Room, named for Lewis, is located. Rates begin at $1,300 per night. In Bellows Falls, Vermont, Readmore Bed, Breakfast, and Books, a Victorian B&B with a passion for books and reading, offers beautiful rooms, delicious food that can meet almost any dietary requirement, a library, ladies’ parlor, game room great room, rose garden with gazebo, and a large, wrap-around porch. They only have five guest rooms so the ambience is as laid back as the inn is beautiful. Rates begin at $150 per night. If your children love the Chronicles of Narnia, consider a visit to the Majestic Mansion in Athens, Tennessee. The King of the Mountain room is for parents, the adjourning Aslan Room is for the children. The connection is through a wardrobe entrance (just like the book), and the Aslan has a mural, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, the famous lamp post, and copies of the book for their reading pleasure. Rates begin at $95 per night. DeSmet, South Dakota is the place to go for Little House on the Prairie lovers. The Prairie House Manor Bed & Breakfast is the hometown of author Laura Ingalls Wilder, and the home that is now the B&B once belonged to Banker Ruth from the book, The Long Winter. Six rooms (four upstairs, two downstairs and disabled accessible) offer unique decors that will have guests thinking they are in prairie luxury. Rates begin at $89 per night. The Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter of New Orleans is considered the center for the Southern literary elite, among them William Faulkner and Tennessee who both described it as their favorite hotel. Rates begin at approximately $250 per night though there are special packages. Rooms named after Faulkner and Truman Capote go for much higher rates. Are you traveling internationally? If so check out these places from around the world: Le Pavillon Des Lettres, in romantic Paris is an ideal place to stay. Even their ad copy is beautiful: “Totally out of time, the Pavillon des Lettres combines Arts & Literature with a beautiful chic fine design and decoration. 26 rooms for 26 letters of the alphabet, the Pavillon des Lettres will honor 26 international authors of whom text will be painted above the bed. The Pavillon des Lettres won’t be just a Romantic shopping and eating break in Paris, it will also be an impossibly chic find for those who like literature, galleries and modern art and prefer to stay away from the flashy big hitters.” Rates begin at approximately $255 per night. Another famous Paris literary hotel on the Left Bank is the one where Oscar Wilde expired. At the time it was a dingy place (Wilde wrote about it: “This poverty really breaks one's heart: it is so sale, so utterly depressing, so hopeless.”) but L’Hotel is now one of the loveliest, filled with nineteenth- century memorabilia and a book-lined bar. Rates begin at about €270 per night. Is Marrakech on your itinerary? If so the La Mamounia, which in 2010 launched its own annual literary award to promote Moroccan authors, is worth your consideration. The hotel also features a library containing books on all aspects of Morocco and is decorated with black-and-white photographs of writers with a link to the region. Prices begin at $720 per night. The Hotel Friedenau is the first literature hotel in Berlin and where Christoph Meckel wrote Bockshorn (1973), and nearby are houses of other famous authors including Günter Grass, Rainer Maria Rilke, and more. It features nineteenth-century Biedermeier furniture and collections of books, biographies, manuscripts, drawings and photos of the local authors. The hotel is more simple than many others listed here; prices range from 85 to 95 for a single and 110 to 130 for a double (and that includes VAT). Heading to Greece, home of Homer, Sophocles, Hippocrates, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, and more? If so, the Eleónas Hotel might be the place to stay. Within walking distance of the sea and surrounded by a working olive grove, its ten simple but lovely rooms—five single and five double—offer the usual amenities but note, proudly, “books instead of a television.” Hay-on-Wye is a town on the border between England and Wales that is passionately devoted to books. Though there are other activities, the primary one here is looking at books, searching for books, buying books, and reading books. The multiple bookshops ensure that no one goes without. You can get information on places to stay on this page by using the drop down box to choose among hotels & inns, guest houses & B&Bs, self-catering, farmhouse B&Bs, camping & caravan sites, or places around the town. Upcoming Book Festivals and Fairs: The Pub House: What all of their books have in common is a commitment to quality. I have yet to see a bad book from this house. I currently own Inspirations from France & Italy by Betty Lou Phillips. It is exquisite, and on my “to buy” list are the rest of them by her. While I cannot even think of buying the homes or items she shows what makes these books so wonderful to me is her sense of design. She communicates it so clearly that I can make changes in my own home with the knowledge I pick up from reading her books. Mystery of Coyote Canyon is a young adult thriller centered on Colonel Kit Carson’s military campaign against the Navajos; interwoven in the story are the ruins of cliff dwellings in Canyon del Chelly. The Tassajara Cookbook comes from the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center located in California’s Ventana Wilderness. It is famous for its gourmet vegetarian cuisine, and in this book the never-published-before recipes include savory sandwich spreads, pâtés and loaves, egg and tofu sandwich fillings, salads, chutneys, sauces, marinades, and butters, as well as baked goods and sweet treats. Imaging Books & Reading: Of Interest: The library has the largest collection of these manuscripts in England—more than forty out of 500 worldwide—which range from brilliantly illuminated volumes privately commissioned to small, plain ones for lesser patrons. This online exhibition is a wonderful chance to explore the beauty of these incredible works of literary art. Until next week, read well, read often and read on!
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