Hotel Babylon

I've completed Hotel Babylon. It chronicles 24 hours in the life of an unnamed receptionist at a London 5-star hotel. It's not as scandalous as I thought it would be -- it was no surprise that "hospitality" is a polite word for price gouging -- but was still compulsively readable. I did find the micromanagement and science behind the practice of overbooking to be bewildering.

It helped that the anonymous co-author gave several examples to illustrate how crazy guests can get in a strange place they (temporarily) call home. More importantly, it's telling how their craziness is quite predictable and categorizable. I don't think there's anything original or outrageous left for a hotel guest to do.

A bit of advice: it wasn't in the book, but I understand that when a hotel maid cleans the bathroom, only one rag is used, and those glasses by the sink are the last things that get wiped down.

Next at bat: 3 Nights in August, by H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger.