FOR more than a century, The Gideons International have been
placing Bibles in the drawers of hotel rooms around the world.
The actor David Suchet, who plays Hercule Poirot, became a
Christian after reading a Gideon Bible that he found in his hotel
room during a stay in the United States.
But guests at Hotel Indigo, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who are
looking for spiritual sustenance, will now find a Kindle e-reader
by their bedsides, with the Bible loaded on to it. A statement from
the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which owns the hotel, said
that guests "will also be able to download their preferred
religious books via the hotel's free Wi-Fi during their stay".
The hotel said that the decision to replace Gideon Bibles with
Kindles was inspired by the "literary history" of Newcastle, which
"was formerly a publishing hotspot".
The general manager of Hotel Indigo Newcastle, Adam Munday, said
that the hotel had decided to place Kindles in its rooms to reflect
the area's literary history "in a very contemporary way".