It ain't the Gideon Bible...

You want to read something funny? The Ritz Carlton hotel chain got the brilliant idea to offer to their customers along with a mint on the pillow, a book, a collection of stories, by well-known authors. They made a deal with Atria Books (a division of Simon & Schuster) to put together a paperback collection of original short stories by its best-selling authors, and Ritz-Carlton would give away copies for a month as part of its turndown service. Quoting a New York Times article:

Then came the problem: the book’s contents turned out to be a tad rougher than, say, the Gideon Bible, and at the last minute, the Ritz started getting cold feet. “They submitted the manuscript and we rejected it,” said Julia Gajcak, vice president for marketing and communications of Ritz-Carlton. “There were some language issues, and there was some racy content.”

By racy content they meant bad parenting, deaths of family members and swearing which were a bit too abundant for the hotel's taste.

But by allowing the hotel chain to eliminate some of the objectionable material, swearing mostly, the publisher and the hotel have come to an agreement to go forward with deal. The story collection should be in Ritz Carlton hotel rooms by the summer. (HotelChatter)

Some of the authors of "Turndown Tales" are Judy Picoult, John Connolly, and Susan Isaacs.

Atria Books is denying that they've allowed censorship of the book.

theteach