Which books are on your shelves?

[Kirstie]

Hi all,

Today is World Book Day in the UK, which involves children dressing up as their favourite characters from books for a literary-themed day at school. I must have passed about 5 princesses and 3 pirates on my walk to work this morning!

As this day is to celebrate books, this is a great opportunity for us to discuss our favourites! 

Which books do you have on your bookshelves? Do you tend to read more paperbacks or e-books? Which are your favourites books/genres/authors?

I am really enjoying historical fiction at the moment - I love that you can learn more about a period in time whilst enjoying an interesting story! I read The Secret Wife by Gill Paul recently, which is about the Romanov family and set during the Russian Revolution - it's not an era that I knew much about and I found it really gripping and powerful! I would definitely recommend it. 

I look forward to hearing which books you enjoy! Maybe we could even start a book club 😉

Kirstie

[J-Renato0]

Hi @Kirstie

The guests do not have access to my books! They are in my home, not in the properties I have to let.

Anyway I hang on the wall of the apartments I have to let some copies of old Rio paintings.

The average guests that comes to Rio stay between 5 nights and 1 week. There are many attractions to visit and things to do in the city, and I think most of the guests does not have time read.

What I always leave in the apartements are Rio Guides, some book to quick learn basic Portuguese, leaflets about things to do in Rio, and an apartment guide with basic information to help the visitor to have a good experience in the apartment and surrounding area.

To finish, I tend to buy books when I think they are interesting.  I am not an avid reader.

Jose Renato

[Kirstie]

@J-Renato0,

Ah I see! As you say, I imagine that visitors to Rio are too busy seeing the sights to stay in and read! I'm sure they find the basic Portuguese book helpful though - it's much easier to get by in another country when you can understand the basics of the language!

Kirstie

[Annette33]

Hi @Kirstie ,  and all 🙂

Being an avid reader myself, I have stacked a  whole bookshelf in our rental apartment, so I am just going to list what I leave in our apartment for our guests to read:

assuming that they are on vacation and are not going to read War and Peace while here, we have some collections of prize winning short stories, magazines and articles about Arizona, hiking gides for area, a book on the Grand Canyon, a collection of adventure stories from Outside Magazine.  

On the night stands are "last lecture" by Randy Pausch and "this is water" by David Foster Wallace, both short , inspiring reads, and also a fun book on dreams with great grafics and interesting interpretations.

Also - but not on the night stand! - 2 books on the terrible  Yarnell fire in our area that  killed 19 fire fighters in 2013 (the Granite Mountain Hotshots), and I just added the newest book on Airbnb, "the Airbnb Story" . Finished reading it - and did not like it. My review on Amazon will be up shortly. Has anybdy else read it? opinions?

cheers,

Annette

[Kirstie]

Hi @Annette33,

I think you're right that your guests are unlikely to get through a big heavy novel like War & Peace in a short visit! I'm sure they appreciate bring able to flick through books and magazines about the area though and it's a good idea to also have a couple of short books to keep them occupied! The two you mention both sound really thought-provoking and inspiring.

That's interesting you've read 'The Airbnb Story' -  what didn't you like about it? Maybe you could share some of your review here?

Kirstie

[Dev4]

@Kirstie

This is such a timely topic!! I started hosting a new unit since March 1st week and my client has a nice book self. I decided to stack a few on my personal favourites - works by JR Tolkein, Paulo Coehlo and Robin Sharma. Although, I fear that the guests don't take my books accidently. 

[Helga0]

I would not fear that guests take books accidentally;-) after every holiday season, we found that the books on the "Take any book you want home" shelf Increased. After 5 years, the books had quadrupled. 

[Dev4]

@Helga0

It is interesting that the number of books increased. I noticed that in our kitchen as guests would bring in items and leave it for the next guests vs. throwing it. 

@Kirstie

Thanks Kirstie, I will try to put a few books in my other units too.

[Kirstie]

Hi @Dev4,

I think @Helga0's probably right - travellers often don't have room in their bags for extra books! I imagine they'd enjoy having a read while they're on holiday though. Others here in this thread have mentioned some good types of coffee table books with short stories or photos in that you can flick through and don't need to commit to - maybe you could get a couple of those!

Kirstie