Well, most readers will have at least a couple of books with them, but a book is a necessity of life, for me.
Grimm’s Fairy Tales
And acid laced pages.
Nighty night!
Well, it’s an excellent book, but it’s still a polemic for Heinlein’s political views wrapped up in the oh-so-approachable military SF genre.
Basically, it’s like a saner, more readable(but still quite unapproachable) peer to Atlas Shrugs.
The Kama Sutra.
The Demon-Haunted World, for sure. Runner’s up:
Cosmos and A Brief History of Time.
Failing that,You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News.
Le Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Short read, good for all ages and a wonderful story, too.
Bonus: it’s available in 230 languages and dialects, so it’s useful for worldwide hotel chains!
For serious reading: books about the American Revolution or the Civil War (Sanburg’s biography of Lincoln would be a good choice).
For light reading: The Billboard Book of No. 1 Hits. Each of 800-or-so chart toppers gets its own page of trivia and song history. A fun browsing book right before falling asleep.
I came in to suggest this. The naughty chapters, at least.
The Anarchist’s Cookbook.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac
I concur here. I don’t think any heavy reading is a good idea at all. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve bored in a hotel room, and opened up the Gideon Bible, and read, “In the beginning God created the heaven andthe earhafjkalasdkfjaksdjafksdkf,” and put it back.
I think the local history idea is good too. I have read the emergency situation facts section of the local yellow pages on occasion. It’s interesting how they vary from place to place. (California’s yellow pages will say stuff about what to do in earthquakes, Florida’s about hurricanes, Minnesota’s about snow and cold, etc.) And there’s maps. I like maps. All this stuff helps me realize that I’m not in a nowhere place but an actual somewhere.
Does The Necronomicon count as religious?
Short stories, different ones in different rooms. Reading Cervantes’ Exemplary Tales is less involved than reading his Quijote; being faced with 10-20 page stories is attractive, whereas two volumes 400-500 pages each is kind of scary and certainly not one night’s work. I’d also try to have books available in several languages.
One of my favorite hotels, which is family-owned, takes any books guests leave behind to the breakfast-room/TV-room. You can take any you want, leave any you’re done with, and there’s a wide selection of languages and subjects.
Living in a state that has several cities with epidemic levels of bed bug infestations has made me very paranoid about staying in hotels. :eek: Therefore:
The Bed Bug Book: The Complete Guide to Prevention and Extermination
by Ralph H. Maestre
The Farmer’s Almanac
Whole Earth Catalog
Hesse’s Siddhartha
I can’t believe it took until post #36 for someone to suggest the *Straight Dope *books. I ask you, how can we continue to fight ignorance if we don’t get the Dope to the masses? And after we get an SD into every hotel room, we can start sending out missionaries in white shirts and clip-on ties to knock on doors. 
People already do chemistry, physics, biology, anatomy and French class in motel rooms 