Library Hotel

There's a line in an INXS's song Heaven Sent that goes "She says she works in the library uptown". For the first dozen or so times I heard the song, what I heard was 'she says she works in the library hotel.' The line used to confuse me. Library Hotel? What was that? I did know that as a librarian, and a book fanatic, the idea appealed to me. This afternoon I found out that the Library Hotel actually exists. I think I'll start planning my trip now.

The Library Hotel is a small boutique library in Manhattan. The lobby is decorated with bookshelves. The public areas are filled with reading chairs, lamps, and more bookcases. Each room is filled with books by subject. And even more fun, the ten floors are themed on the Dewey Decimal system. One floor is filled with History and Geography themes, another focuses on literature, the fifth floor should be science related.... I'm so in love with the idea of staying in my favorite classification section (we all have them).

I love the card catalog wall behind the reception desk.

To add to that, the hotel is beautiful. The Poetry garden below is the kind of place I could imagine sitting with a glass of red wine and a book of Shakespeare sonnets or Charles Bukowski poems. There is a writers area which includes some rather spectacular views. Or sit down in the medieval themed restaurant and watch the people go by which reading Chaucer (not that I've ever read Chaucer). This is my type of place. I really do need to plan a trip. Although Manhattan has never really drawn me in, this hotel would be worth the visit.

Ranting

I have a rant that I simply have to get off my chest. It's from this weekend. Now first I should let you know that I had an amazing weekend. I headed up to Minneapolis for the annual juggling festival up there and had a ton of fun. I got together with friends for dinner on Friday night followed by some geek shopping at a games store. We ended the night with video games.

The next day we met more friends up at the juggling festival and I spent the whole day working on my contact juggling. I've picked up a passing trick but its still so rough that I'll have to work on it for a while before I'm ready to show anyone. After the festival and the raffle we headed back to our friends Lon and Lisa's house for dinner, good conversation, and more video games.

Sunday we headed out of town about 11 and had lunch with my brother and his family. They bought a new house in September and I had to admit that it was our first visit up to see the place. It was amazing. The decorating they have done is just perfect. My sister-in-law (and brother) have great taste. We ate lunch with them but most of the afternoon was spent climbing trees, playing card games, and just talking.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend. It was only spoiled by one thing. The one thing I have to rant about. The hotel. Jeff and I stay in the same hotel every time we go up there. This time was a bit different though. There was a convention of Minnesota Football Coaches at the hotel. I was a bit worried when we checked in but the concierge put us up on a private floor. You know the kind you have to swipe your key to get the elevator to take you to. Yeah, swanky. Except that when we came back on Friday night we were shocked, and a bit disheartened to see all three rooms adjacent to ours open with the coaches drinking beer in the hallway. Now normally I wouldn't have a problem with this, but it was nearly 1 in the morning. Gone was the idea of a quiet night.

I put in my earplugs and tried to get some sleep. No dice. My anxiety had already kicked in. About 1:30 they decided to head off to a different party (woohoo) but the damage had already been done. I lay in bed from 1:30 to 3:30 in the middle of a massive anxiety attack. From 3:30 to 5, I simply forgot how to fall asleep. The anxiety had passed, I was just too tired to sleep. I finally dropped off for about an hour and a half but was up again at 6:30. This time I just stayed up. I was exhausted on Saturday but still had a good time. It just makes me angry though.

My mother would shush us children in hotel hallways at 9 o'clock at night. "Be respectful, people may be trying to sleep." She'd say to keep us from running and yelling past rooms. It was the same in the morning. We were always taught to be aware of how our behavior affected other people. We were quiet to be nice to them. I'm slowly learning that a large portion of our population was never taught this valuable lesson in common courtesy. Jeff called the front desk one night on a group that were yelling to each other down the halls after getting home from the bars at 2 am. That one had woken me up from a sound sleep with earplugs in. Another night we called the desk about the room above us where the group was blaring some sort of thumping bass music and jumping on the beds. It sounded like a full marching band.

Perhaps I'm an old grouch. I certainly feel that way calling the desk to complain about my neighbors noise. I keep thinking that I'm too young to be bothered by this stuff. So I pack my earplugs and pray for a quiet night. But I'm beginning to wonder if this has nothing to do with age. And everything to do with respect. I was taught to be respectful of others sleep and piece of mind. I was taught not to disturb people. That was just common courtesy. Lately I'm wondering if I'm in the minority on that one.

So if you happen to be vacationing in a hotel, and you see a women walk past with earplugs in and a grim look on her face, know that it's me. And try to keep it down.

Any Vacancies?

I've become a huge fan of Neatorama recently. It posts several times a day with bizarre, unique, and interesting news stories/articles from around the Internet. It will summarize the actual article, offer a picture, and then links directly to the source. I tend to prefer it over other sites because it doesn't just recycle others material as its own. The only problem I've found with the site, is that once I start clicking, the interesting stories seem to lead to more interesting stories. I can lose whole days just following their links.

A couple of days ago they had a link for some of the more unique hotels in the world. The story included information on a wine cask hotel in the Netherlands, a hotel in Costa Rica built out of plane, an undersea lodge in Puerto Rico, and the one I fixated on, Propeller Island City Lodge in Berlin, Germany. The image the site chose for an example wasn't the best but I was intrigued by the idea of a hotel where every room has a theme. Now you'll say that you've heard of these theme hotels before. Where one room is a fairy land with castle included, the next has a western theme, one has an undersea motif, and so on. This isn't like that. These are not motifs and they are certainly not cheesy.

All of the rooms are pretty tastefully appointed although some of them may not sit well with the more puritanical American ideas. Many of them are very simple rooms, a single bed in a spartan room with pictures of the ocean on either side, an interesting forest room where the bed is outlined with tree stumps. These are fun and unique. But many of the rooms have a bit of an edge to them. One room offers a stage along one of the walls with curtain and single chair set up in front. Another (pictured below) had a platform with a cage on it with a bit of a dungeon look.

My favorite room was a hammock type room where the bed was suspended well off the floor. The industrial look appealed to me although with all the wires and boards holding the bed up there was little room for anything else. Others have a more classic look. Or these was a prison cell complete with drop down bed and stand alone toilet. This is humorously named The Freedom Room.


One room was filled with mirrors tilted at every angle with a single bed in the middle. Another offered just a queen sized white bed lit entirely with blue lights. Others were a bit on the creepy side. This more interesting design offers a split bed that doesn't encourage cuddling. A gigantic guillotine rests right in the middle.

This is clearly a destination hotel and I would think would only be comfortable for a night or two. But I can easily see myself booking a night or two there. The only problems would be figuring out which room to choose. Too many choices!

Images pulled from Unique Hotels of the World. Click the hotel name above to see the rest of the rooms.