do people ever leave books at hotels?
 

Well it's 8 months ago that I joined this group and I am back writing about the same problem. I am worried about having reading material for our 7 week trip in France.

I wonder if it's possible that people leave books at their hotels and perhaps I may luck out and find some of these "gifts" or am I whistling in the dark?..

Thanks.

I had the same idea. Finished two books, mind fluff mystery, paperbacks so didn't want to carry them home. I left them at the front desk. I told the receptionist to give them to someone who needed a book. He laughed and put them on a shelf. This was the end of my stay. There were a few already, so perhaps if you bring your used book to the desk and ask ...

I need a book to read at night. Can't fall asleep without it! Next time, I'm bring my iPod and audio books just in case.

But, this tiime I was lucky. I found a thick paperback biography of Marie Antoinette in the Versailles gift shop. It was well written, perfect for Paris. It took me 10 nights to read it; then I went back to Carnavalet Museum because I now appreciated so much better what I'd rushed through on a tour at the beginning of our stay.

In most major cities, it is not hard to find used bookstores or thrift shops. I usually pick up couple cheap paperbacks (no more than 1-2 euros), leave them at the hotel afterwards.

Thanks for the info...I hope I run into hotels that have had people like you. We both have ipods but I just can't fathom reading on one...nor on the PDA. However, who knows?..I have been known to read cereal boxes when nothing else is available.

I am going to buy thick, hard-to-read books. I too love mysteries. I assume with 11 hours of travel from San Diego to Paris I will finish one book..

um, you don't read on an ipod, you listen to the audio book. :-) I'm lucky. My husband likes to read and he usually carries more than enough for both of us. BUT seven weeks is a long trip. There were some paperbacks at the B&B we stayed at in Provence, most however, were in French. I probably wouldn't expect to luck out and find things unless you are staying at places that are primarily frequented by Americans, Brits, Aussies or Kiwis :-)

I've stayed at hotels with a reading/sitting room. There were a couple of bookshelves stocked with both English and French books so I'm sure guests may have donated them.

So there is hope..it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to lug all those Michelin Guides!! Well, I guess in a pinch I can read them for entertainment.

I did see a Let's Go Paris guidebook once, but I'm sure there must be at least one Michelin guide here and there.

I always leave my books in hotels or pass them on to others I meet. But, I've seldom been in places where others have left books or where there's a bookshelf you can help yourself to.

My local libraries sell donated books cheaply (50 cents) so I stock up for vacation reading and don't mind leaving them behind if I've paid almost nothing for them.

My advice is to cram in a few paperbacks into your suitcase since English books in Europe tend to be expensive (if you can find them).

In Paris, at the Hotel du Palais Bourbon, there were a few paperbacks in the little sitting area across from the front desk.

In Positano, at the Hotel Poseidon, there was a dresser in the hallway, and people, including the maids, left books and abandoned magazines on this dresser. It was great: both my husband and a friend traded books they had finished for books on the dresser. I grabbed a magazine, as I had my own books with me.

For lenghty trips, I too choose books that take a long time to read. It is pointless, I think, to take anything that I'll rip right through.

Do you like fiction? The great English Victorian authors can surely provide you with things that will take at least a couple of weeks of casual reading to get through. How about Middlemarch? Barnaby Rudge? The Way We Live Now? Two of those would get me through a long trip, and you can probably pick up something else along the way.

The Jeanne d'Arc had a whole library full of books, guidebooks as well as books on Paris.

I always pick up at least 2 books at Shakespeare & Co. so I always have something to read at the café or on the plane ride back.

ciao!

Don't pack big, thick, hard-to-read books! You'll kill your poor self lugging them around!

I buy a lot of cheesy paperbacks - a LOT because I read quickly, cheesy because I don't want to become too attached - then shed them throughout the trip at hotels, B&Bs, even in the airport.

The beauty of this system is that I sometimes can help out another heavy reader going through withrawal shakes.

And I get more room in my suitcase to bring home treasures. <grin>

Oh! I forgot Shakespeare and Co. Do go. It's the neatest bookstore. And the history of how the owners gave free or subsidized room to starving writers so great. Right across from Notre Dame, I think, Marais district. They'll stamp your books with their stamp. Fun, even if you don't need a book.

I have a little story for you Loisco...

I am an avid reader and always carry at least two books with me on vacation. However, I am a freak (absolute FREAK!) because I adore hard covers. So my husband, then fiance, and I were on a trip, I was at the end of one book, I knew I would finish it on the plane, so I threw in a new book along with my present read into our carry on. My poor sweetie states as we are clipping along at a fast rate through the airport for our flight, "Wow, it feels like there are a ton of books in our carry on!"

I just silently went "Gulp" to myself, ha, and later told him there were indeed a couple thick ones, ha, we had a good laugh when I told him I thought I could slip a couple hard covers in there without anyone noticing, ha.

I try now to bring, dare I say it, soft covers.

Hi, ny name is Tiff, and I am a hard cover-aholic.

:S-

Ooooh, Tiff, me too,

May I join your club? If a book is a new release and sounds really interesting, How do people manage to wait until it's out in paperback?

Hardcovers just feel so much more substantial, although I do try to avoid them while traveling.

I remember, going on vacation and buying a Rosumund Pilcher hardcover 'Winter Solstice' at Heathrow airport just after it'd beeen released, I loved it and still have it.

I have to say reading about a wonderful wintery christmas in Scotland didn't quite feel right while sitting in a lounger in Turkey :-D

loisco - I left 'Secret Life of Bees' at the Jamaica Inn (Ocho Rios) but swapped it for 'The Tipping point', I think I got the better deal :-)

Try www.bookcrossing.com

loisco,

A suggestion that works for me; but first a bit of background.

Years ago, while cruising the Med in a sailboat, it was a feature of pulling into a new port to see who would come from other cruising boats to "help you tie up". There would almost always be the skippers or crew from other boats standing on the quai with a shopping bag sitting at their feet. After they would take a line and watch you make fast, they would make a bit of polite small talk and ask the queation, "Do you have any books to trade?"

Out would come your own shopping bag full of tattered paperbacks and they would dump theirs for a delightful swap of future entertainment.

Now, when traveling abroad, I remember this and never fail to ask any traveler I meet, "Do you have any books you have finished?" Into their backpack they dive , or even run back to the room, to dig out the extra weight of the used up novel they have been lugging around.

Never hurts to ask, and you meet some lovely, literate, people.

:-)

loisco,

Have you (or any of the other posters here) heard of bookcrossing?

To be honest I haven't tried it myself but I read an article in the local paper the other day & it sounds like fun. It might work for you in France.

Here's their website;

http://www.bookcrossing.com/

Jim

This really is not a big problem, since if you will be going to any larger towns or to any cities, you will probably find bookstores with at least some English-language books. Or, if you don't like the selections in English, instead of getting a big difficult book in English, you can get a small easy book in French, which will require about the same degree of time and effort, and it might be fun to read in the language o the country you're visiting for more of a "total immersion" experience.

I think a few times I did see a shelf of used guidebooks and fiction books at a hotel or agriturismo for guests to borrow or take, but more often they were in Italian (where the hotel was). I wouldn't count on finding books at the hotel.

More of the places I've stayed have had small guest libraries than not, possibly because I like to stay in B&Bs. If my husband and I aren't traveling together and swapping books I always leave a book I've finished there and sometimes pick up another. Can't say that the books I pick up are always great, but I usually judge them by their cover and the first page. Just finished one I found in a B&B near Gatwick whose cover suggested a somewhat thoughtful story, but it was so bad that I kept asking myself why I didn't just drop it, but I wanted to see if the beautiful traveling designer would finally realize that the old friend was The One, and not the smarmy narcissist she was attracted to. Good thing I read fast.

Ayla,
I think you are right about swapping for the Tipping Piint. Fascinating book, I'm in the middle of it now.