The Most Amazing Hotel Libraries

With a library tailor-made by none other than Kit Kemp—think overstuffed sofas, suzani fabrics, and artwork at every turn—you may not ever want to leave the Soho Hotel London.

You’d expect a hotel named after a library to have one, but you wouldn’t expect one like this: a 24-hour reading room with complimentary cappuccino (and cookies), overlooking Madison Avenue, along with a book collection of 6,000 volumes spread among all guestrooms (be sure to request a room with a topic you’re interested in). Want to read by the fire? Hit the 14th floor Writer’s Den.

You’re just a quick walk from the Harvard Campus, but this hotel library is even better: Hillary Clinton, Sebastian Junger, and Caroline Kennedy have all autographed their books and left them in the stacks. Book your stay when they’re offering one of their Author’s Breakfasts (Tracy Kidder and Ann Patchett were recent speakers).

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You could mistake the glossy white-on-white library here for an Apple store (indeed, it’s stocked like a real-life iTunes, with CDs and movies to rent in addition to books). Nab whatever floats your floating cocktail and head to the pool, which is a highly Instagrammable lipstick-red color facing the sea.

If your idyllic version of a library is a lakeside lodge with an open-beam ceiling and thousands of hardcover books for reading by a stone fireplace, Canoe Bay is your hotel. With bottomless coffee at-the-ready, good luck ever finding the strength to check out.

The professional bibliophiles at New York City’s famous Strand bookstore hand-pick the books that line shelves at this hotel’s lobby library. You’ll also find a 24-hour Apple workstation for late-night study sessions. Ivy League indeed.

Built in 1923, this Thomas Jefferson-themed hotel is everything a history buff could want, with Jefferson-signed documents adorning the walls and a Ralph Lauren-worthy library of leather-bound volumes for reading by the fireplace. Even the on-site bar, Quill, is a nod to early writers (and yes, they serve wine made at Monticello).

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This isn’t just a library…it’s a library bar, with ALCOHOL. In other words, it’s your high school dream sprung to life. But with 3,000 books signed by onetime guests you may have heard of (Toni Morrison, Orhan Pamuk) it may be your current fantasy, too.

The Heathman’s library is purported to hold one of the largest autographed collections of books on earth: some 2,700 signed tomes. On most weeknights they serve gratis wine from local Boedecker Cellars to accompany your perusing.