We love Laura Miller's Salon.com piece on reading retreats, which mentions several quite different types that take place in a castle, a monastery and a guest house in Bulgaria. These retreats, unlike the very successful Books on the Nightstand retreat last April, do not feature authors or events--they are all about silence, privacy and sometimes shared cooking duties.
While Miller herself notes that she would not want to stay in a fine hotel or choose summer for her own reading retreat, the interesting thing about these retreats and the people who run them is the acknowledgement that many people are looking for permission to read more. It's the old dilemma... so many books, so little time!
