The books that appear in many hotels, called hotel directories, are useful resources that tell guests all about the amenities the hotel in which they are staying has to offer, and what restaurants and other points of interest are nearby.

To Hillsboro resident Harrison Gallaugher they’re also collector’s items. Gallaugher, through prudent research and poring over Ebay listings, has amassed a collection of hundreds of hotel directories from all over the country — a cache that he said is still growing as he attempts to include even more directories.

Gallaugher’s interest in hotel directories began unintentionally when he was handed one by a stranger.

“Somebody gave it to me,” he said.

Gallaugher doesn’t remember exactly, but thinks it was at a store in Bainbridge when he was a kid. But that first hotel directory he received spawned an interest in them that would soon grow exponentially into an involved hobby.

Gallaugher said that he now has hundreds of hotel directories.

“I have always loved hotels,” explained Gallaugher.

Gallaugher said that while he orders a lot of hotel directories, he he even gotten his family in on the action.

“When we are driving down a freeway I do make my mother stop off at freeways to see a hotel,” Gallaugher said.

As a result, he has stopped at a lot of “hotel properties over the years.”

Gallaugher said that his ever growing collection has helped to inform him about hotels. He said that his collection includes hotels from all over the world and that he noticed that the same hotels, “seem to be in a lot of countries.”

He said that he has hotel directories for most of the major companies with which people are familiar.

He said he also has hotel directories for places that have since gone out of business.

Juliane Cartaino is a stringer for The Times-Gazette.