The Good e-Book: Newcastle hotel swaps Bibles for Kindles
A U.K. hotel is stocking guest rooms with electronic versions of the Bible as a contemporary nod to the area's book publishing history.
The guests of Hotel Indigo can now browse the Bible on Kindles left in their room.
The Newcastle hotel has removed all the complimentary Gideon Bibles from its rooms and replaced them with e-versions loaded on Kindles, the Telegraph newspaper reports.
The hotel said it's the first in Britain to offer the service, which includes the ability to download any other religious texts that costs 5 British pounds or less. Guests can also order books, but those will be added to their hotel bills.
The hotel is trying out the service for two weeks to see if it wants to keep it or even expand it to the chain's 44 hotels.
Adam Munday, the hotel's general manager told the Telegraph that the idea was inspired by Newcastle's literary heritage. In the 18th century, the city was largest print centres in Britain, and the hotel is near the Literary and Philosophical Society -- the largest independent library outside London, housing more than 150,000 books.