{"id":91959,"date":"2015-11-13T17:00:04","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T22:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=91959"},"modified":"2015-11-13T17:15:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T22:15:16","slug":"book-and-bed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/","title":{"rendered":"Book and Bed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo: Book and Bed<\/p><\/div>\n

Plenty of hotels around the world feature libraries, or aspire to various bookish overtones\u2014rooms named after different writers, curated volumes in each suite. But most of these spots have, you know, something else going for them, like pools or cocktails or cozy accommodations. Then there\u2019s Tokyo\u2019s\u00a0Book and Bed<\/a>, which I learned about from Mashable<\/a>, and which is, by contrast, defiant about its lack of comforts. \u201cThe perfect setting for a good nights sleep is something you will not find here,\u201d the hotel\u2019s website says:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

There are no comfortable mattresses, fluffy pillows nor lightweight and warm down duvets.<\/p>\n

What we do offer is an experience while reading a book (or comic book).<\/p>\n

An experience shared by everyone at least once: the blissful \u201cinstant of falling asleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is already two a.m. but you think just a little more \u2026 with heavy drooping eyelids you continue reading only to realize you have fallen asleep.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Our concept is thus a readers\u2019 haven\u2014an accommodation bookshop.<\/p>\n

(Books aren\u2019t sold, though. It\u2019s just an expression.)<\/p>\n

Dozing off obliviously during your treasured pastime is the finest \u201cmoment of sleep,\u201d don\u2019t you agree?<\/p>\n

With books as our central theme, we decided to create a hostel offering the greatest \u201cmoment of sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The space is a sort of bunkhouse, with sleeping nooks built into bookcases. Now, why you couldn\u2019t just as well read while staying somewhere more comfortable, with more privacy, is not something the owners address. But I like their uncompromising style\u2014and at under\u00a0forty U.S. dollars\u00a0a night, it\u2019s certainly an affordable way to read yourself to sleep. Maybe people like the children\u2019s-room feeling of the low couches for sprawling and reading the hostel\u2019s seventeen hundred \u00a0books. Or perhaps there\u2019s just something comforting about everyone around you reading\u2014an experience you can\u2019t even find in a library anymore.<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review, and the <\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plenty of hotels around the world feature libraries, or aspire to various bookish overtones\u2014rooms named after different writers, curated volumes in each suite. But most of these spots have, you know, something else going for them, like pools or cocktails or cozy accommodations. Then there\u2019s Tokyo\u2019s\u00a0Book and Bed, which I learned about from Mashable, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[20204,13795,4131,1945,20205,53,14081,1947,13084],"class_list":["post-91959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-book-and-bed","tag-book-culture","tag-hotels","tag-japan","tag-mashable","tag-reading","tag-reading-culture","tag-tokyo","tag-wtf"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAt Tokyo\u2019s Book and Bed, Readers Are Encouraged to Doze Off<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on a bizarre new conceptual bookstore in Japan.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book and Bed by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"November 13, 2015 \u2013 Plenty of hotels around the world feature libraries, or aspire to various bookish overtones\u2014rooms named after different writers, curated volumes in each\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-13T22:00:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-11-13T22:15:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/beds_photo_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"856\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Book and Bed\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-13T22:00:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-11-13T22:15:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/\"},\"wordCount\":346,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/beds_photo_1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Book and Bed\",\"book culture\",\"hotels\",\"Japan\",\"mashable\",\"reading\",\"reading culture\",\"Tokyo\",\"wtf\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/\",\"name\":\"At Tokyo\u2019s Book and Bed, Readers Are Encouraged to Doze Off\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/beds_photo_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-13T22:00:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-11-13T22:15:16+00:00\",\"description\":\"Sadie Stein on a bizarre new conceptual bookstore in Japan.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/beds_photo_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/beds_photo_1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Book and Bed\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"At Tokyo\u2019s Book and Bed, Readers Are Encouraged to Doze Off","description":"Sadie Stein on a bizarre new conceptual bookstore in Japan.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Book and Bed by Sadie Stein","og_description":"November 13, 2015 \u2013 Plenty of hotels around the world feature libraries, or aspire to various bookish overtones\u2014rooms named after different writers, curated volumes in each","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-11-13T22:00:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-11-13T22:15:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":856,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/beds_photo_1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"Book and Bed","datePublished":"2015-11-13T22:00:04+00:00","dateModified":"2015-11-13T22:15:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/"},"wordCount":346,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/beds_photo_1.jpg","keywords":["Book and Bed","book culture","hotels","Japan","mashable","reading","reading culture","Tokyo","wtf"],"articleSection":["Our Daily Correspondent"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/","name":"At Tokyo\u2019s Book and Bed, Readers Are Encouraged to Doze Off","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/beds_photo_1.jpg","datePublished":"2015-11-13T22:00:04+00:00","dateModified":"2015-11-13T22:15:16+00:00","description":"Sadie Stein on a bizarre new conceptual bookstore in Japan.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/beds_photo_1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/beds_photo_1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/13\/book-and-bed\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Book and Bed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91959"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91976,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91959\/revisions\/91976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}