I’ve never seen a Thai person reading a book

[stoneinfocus]

Always useful to make the effort to divide societies into 3: low, middle, and high. 

 

Thailand has markedly fewer middle level people than countries in the top 10 of the HDI, so the likelihood of seeing them read a book, especially outside of a major conurbation, is small, hence the fact that this thread exists. If you're poor, you've got other, more pressing, things to attend to. I suppose rich people read too, when they're not consuming, driving too fast and just generally being appalling. 

 

There's also the notion that the golden age of reading is behind us, brought about by fascinating screen-based tech' that compels us to look, click and swipe. I used to read loads, but since, say 2014, not so much. Looking back, that was when I got a phone good enough to read on. How ironic. Trouble was, it was also good at taking photos, and myriad other things, and soon I got sucked in like most others. 

 

I used to read before sleeping, but then it changed to listening to podcasts. I'm trying hard to reverse this, as I tend to sleep better with the phone off. 

 

Anyway, I used to see the odd person reading on the BTS. Mostly in Thai, but also in English, and probably in Chinese and Japanese too. 

[ohno]

3 hours ago, flexomike said:

who said they have to be reading western literature, they do have Thai books

How would "dave dave" have known that they were reading a Thai book?

[Hummin]

My X wife did read books, and she got totally hooked on Paulo Coelho and Wilbur Smith to mention two when I introduced to her a few books of them to learn better english. 

 

My gf now, I have maybe seen her read two books in 6 years soon. 

Edited January 4, 2022 by Hummin

[KannikaP]

14 hours ago, pgrahmm said:

Here's a few of my wife's books....If you look closely, she has them labeled,  sequenced, numbered, catalogued, and indexed.....

 

I'm trying to source a lawyers bookcase large enough to contain both/all of our books....I just keep mine alphabetically by author.....

 

WHY do you keep all that paper? Decoration?

[Eff1n2ret]

3 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

They're reading on their phones. It might not be great literature, but it's still reading. Print is dead.

Do people really read books on a phone? I have both a tablet and an e-book reader and I'm fine with those, but whilst I can skim through a Daily Mail article I wouldn't want to read anything of substance on such a small screen.

[userabcd]

 

Was in Dasa bookshop the other day and saw Thai people perusing and buying English books to read, I guess they mostly read at home.

 

Have also observed many Thais buying books in Kinokuniya, Asia books and Thai book shops.

 

During pre-covid times, book fairs around Bangkok were well attended and all sorts of books were being bought by Thais.

 

Nowadays in public most youngsters carry their phones around and are addicted to them. Notice on trains and in restaurants and everywhere many people have their faces stuck in their phones.

 

Also, on the other hand, have never seen any foreigners reading a book in a coffee shop.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by userabcd

[Broken Record]

9 hours ago, cdemundo said:

Reading books in public is rare everywhere these days.

On my last flight to Asia a Taiwanese woman struck up a conversation with me because she was interested in the fact that I was reading a book and ended up giving me her contact info.

On the same trip an "air hostess" (or whatever the PC term is nowadays) started a conversation with me about me reading a book, what was the book etc. It ended up being an extended conversation.

Discussing this with my brother he said "Interesting that reading is so unusual that people initiated conversations with you cuz you were reading."

I said "you miss the main point, not People, women. women never start conversations with me."

 

With so many women lining up to have deep meaningful conversations with you and offer contact details, you didn't get through many pages of that book did you, what book was it ?

 

 

[richard_smith237]

There some ‘anti-Thai’ sentiment in this thread, the title itself highlights that. 

 

I haven’t read a book (Novel) for over 10 years. I used to read about 20-30 per year. 

We can just get tired of reading or run out of good things we like to read. 

 

The last time I was on the BTS I did see some Thai’s reading ‘actual paper’ books, its was of note because the BTW was crowded and they were stood up reading !!...   Most people have their heads buried in their phones, reading. 

 

My Wife has a book by her bed and has started reading again - she used to read a lot until we had our son. 

She always reads books in English (novels).

 

 

The advent of online streaming (Netflix, Prime etc) and the speed of internet, explosion of websites and social medial has of course reduced the amount of ‘attention’ books will received - people can readily ‘seek out’ there escapism by picking up a phone and watching or reading something else. 

 

Books....  they’re not dying out of course, but it makes perfect sense that fewer people are reading, not just in Thailand, but anywhere. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kwasaki]

4 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

There some ‘anti-Thai’ sentiment in this thread, the title itself highlights that. 

 

I haven’t read a book (Novel) for over 10 years. I used to read about 20-30 per year. 

We can just get tired of reading or run out of good things we like to read. 

 

The last time I was on the BTS I did see some Thai’s reading ‘actual paper’ books, its was of note because the BTW was crowded and they were stood up reading !!...   Most people have their heads buried in their phones, reading. 

 

My Wife has a book by her bed and has started reading again - she used to read a lot until we had our son. 

She always reads books in English (novels).

 

 

The advent of online streaming (Netflix, Prime etc) and the speed of internet, explosion of websites and social medial has of course reduced the amount of ‘attention’ books will received - people can readily ‘seek out’ there escapism by picking up a phone and watching or reading something else. 

 

Books....  they’re not dying out of course, but it makes perfect sense that fewer people are reading, not just in Thailand, but anywhere. 

 

I can only remember reading 2 books in my lifetime, Jaws & another kinda action story,  try the Bible a couple of times to try and understand what's it all about but always found it great help to get you off to sleep. ????????

[JustAnotherHun]

I never saw a bar stool farang reading a book.

[DaLa]

My observation is I don't see many people drinking coffee in a bookshop. I just don't know what to make of it.

 

I have bought my (Thai) wife 2 books in 12 years. First one was when we were planning a trip to Taiwan which was a travel guide in Thai. Never made it past page 1. Second was for an SLR camera I bought her, again in Thai , never made it past page 1.

 

I thought it was only men that threw away the instructions to equipment and just randomly pressed buttons to make something work. When I try to fix something by referring to the instructions I ask her to read (they are in Thai) and translate.  99% of the time, stone silence. God knows how she got a business degree out of a well regarded Bangkok University. 

 

Back to the coffee in bookshops, maybe reading doesn't make you thirsty. 

[Broken Record]

21 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

There some ‘anti-Thai’ sentiment in this thread, the title itself highlights that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anti Thai sentiment on this forum, never.............:)

[Broken Record]

16 minutes ago, JustAnotherHun said:

I never saw a bar stool farang reading a book.

I read a few profiles on ThaiFriendly this morning whilst drinking coffee.

[katatonic]

11 hours ago, it is what it is said:

 

OP your observation could be a result of the environment and individuals you associate with.

 

my thai friends are generally well educated (at universities in thailand and abroad), professional, many widely travelled and mostly read books in both thai and english.

 

many of my friends have children at school and university and they too read books in thai and english, often asking me to recommend books.

 

there is a wonderful thailand out there, just get out of the bar!

My experience too. My wife and both of her sisters read a lot. When we first met my wife had a reading room in her house lined with bookshelves. Mainly in Thai, but lots of foreign authors. She even had everything by Jeffrey Archer! And she had never met a farang.

[AlexRRR]

Dont see many people in the west reading book anymore with kindle and Ibooks that might give you an idea......now why dont you walk into a book store in Siam Paragon or go to library in BKK your bound to find loads of Thais reading books...

[pgrahmm]

57 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

WHY do you keep all that paper? Decoration?

She's had/built on them for years.... She fiercely protects them.... She's been asked, but absolutely will not loan any out.....

They're kept in a room that's laid out as a library, gym, wardrobe, & mini theater.... There's a nice little nook in there to hide away quietly and read....She also reads books electronically.....

Our youngest daughter also is building her own library.....A book is usually one first things she buys when she gets a little jingle in her purse....

Her older sister, nope....

[silverhawk_usa]

I am an avid reader.  I have a full library of hard and soft cover books.  My Kindle is loaded and read daily. However, using the OP's logic I guess I really don't read as no one has publicly seen me reading.  Also, the huge number of coffee shops that have sprung up over the years must not be for Thai's as according to the OP Thai's don't like coffee. Got it. :0

[recom273]

1 hour ago, KannikaP said:

WHY do you keep all that paper? Decoration?

We always had a termite problem in our old house, down to the fact that the Chinese landlord was too tight to keep up the pesticide program. One day, she came to the house to inspect the damage and saw my collection of paper school text books that I had stolen accumulated over the years .. she exploded .. "see, see, the termites are attracted by the paper! see! see!" 

 

Going back to the OP, in 15 years my wife has read some book to get the lottery numbers and a couple of English colloquial phrase books from see-ed. I have asked her many times if she would like a book when we were about to depart on a holiday. It has never interested her.

Edited January 4, 2022 by recom273

[sead]

I've never seen a library. 

[Kinnock]

Found some interesting data on Statista.com about e-readers by country.

 

E-reader useage in Thailand is 6.6% vs over 20% in UK.  Cost of buying an e-reader may be a factor,  but all the metrics look low for Thailand, supporting the hypothesis that Thai people are not, generally, into reading.

 

I don't think this is good or bad, so the sensitive types shouting 'Thai-bashing' should stop making judgements, and I certainly would not use the UK as a beacon of intellectual culture (reverse evolution is the current trend in UK), but it's just an observation.  I think Thai people have better things to do than read a book, or at least more pressing priorities.

 

 

[richard_smith237]

25 minutes ago, Kinnock said:

Found some interesting data on Statista.com about e-readers by country.

 

E-reader useage in Thailand is 6.6% vs over 20% in UK.  Cost of buying an e-reader may be a factor,  but all the metrics look low for Thailand, supporting the hypothesis that Thai people are not, generally, into reading.

 

I don't think this is good or bad, so the sensitive types shouting 'Thai-bashing' should stop making judgements, and I certainly would not use the UK as a beacon of intellectual culture (reverse evolution is the current trend in UK), but it's just an observation.  I think Thai people have better things to do than read a book, or at least more pressing priorities.

 

I think thats a valid analysis....    

 

The e-reader metric is clearly distorted by the difference in socio-economic demographics between Thailand and the UK where Thailand has a far less proportion of the population who can spend on luxuries such as an e-reader.

 

Obviously such a discussion naturally involves comparison, thus comparing with a country of a similar population also makes sense to some extent when highlighting differences and similarities.

 

We could also use ‘books sold per year’ but have to be careful with that statistic as public funding in schools is significantly less in Thailand, so book sales in general are reliant on a nations economic policy. 

 

Thus if available ‘private’ book sales (i.e. not to schools or businesses) but to individuals, also second hand sales to individuals and loans (library) to individuals is a better metric to rely upon. 

Does Thailand or the UK even collate such data ?

 

 

There is also a significantly greater proportion of the Thailand population which is ‘under-educated’ which also corresponds with the hypothesis that Thai people are generally not into reading, or fewer Thai people read than their western counterparts. 

 

 

All of that said, as you mention (Kinnok) using information and statistics to draw a reasonable hypothesis is not Thai-bashing, and this is not what people (including myself) have highlighted....  It is the ’never seen a Thai person reading’ type comment which lends towards the Thai Bashing edge of the spectrum when it presents the bias that Thai’s do not read or even cannot read and are thus not as good as the rest of us etc.... 

 

Using data, statistic and facts when presented in a balanced and intelligent manner is not Thai bashing whatever the conclusion, however, using a singular observation to establish a negative generalisation is.

 

 

[TropicalGuy]

18 hours ago, ohno said:

How do you know that they aren't reading a book on their iPad/phone/device?

 

Do you go walk round the whole coffee shop staring at people's screens and demanding to know why they aren't reading Western literature?

 

After all, it's not as if you'd be able to read anything in Thai ????

 

Fair Comment if harsh. My uni grad Thai lady has NEVER read a single book in the ten years I’ve known her.

Thais also don’t consume eggs or hot coffee very much either!

[Kwasaki]

28 minutes ago, TropicalGuy said:

Fair Comment if harsh. My uni grad Thai lady has NEVER read a single book in the ten years I’ve known her.

Thais also don’t consume eggs or hot coffee very much either!

Probably to graduate your lady got sick and tired of reading, like I did to qualify for award.

[cdemundo]

3 hours ago, Broken Record said:

With so many women lining up to have deep meaningful conversations with you and offer contact details, you didn't get through many pages of that book did you, what book was it ?

 

 

I made the point that women never begin conversations with me.

Did you read that?

You say "so many women lining up" I very explicitly pointed out that 2 women initiated conversations with me.

No boasting was involved.

The whole point was that reading in public is so rare that 2 women initiated conversations with me because I was reading in public, and that basically never happens.

As for you, as God said to Abraham, "Go forth and multiply with yourself".

[JustAnotherHun]

4 minutes ago, cdemundo said:

I made the point that women never begin conversations with me.

For me it's different. When I walk on some Sois there are plenty of woman starting a conversation with me.

It starts mostly with a "hallo, sexy man".

I might be more handsome than you ????

[cdemundo]

2 minutes ago, JustAnotherHun said:

For me it's different. When I walk on some Sois there are plenty of woman starting a conversation with me.

It starts mostly with a "hallo, sexy man".

I might be more handsome than you ????

That is not the start of a conversation, that is the start of a commercial transaction.

 

[mahtin]

14 hours ago, Broken Record said:

I've never seen a Farang reading a classical book in a beer bar. 

Guilty, but was in Jomtien, not Pattaya.

Using a Kobo H2O.

 

@OP Ever hear of Pira Sudham?

Thai author, writes in English, subject mostly People of Esarn (his spelling.)

[TropicalGuy]

2 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

I think thats a valid analysis....    

 

The e-reader metric is clearly distorted by the difference in socio-economic demographics between Thailand and the UK where Thailand has a far less proportion of the population who can spend on luxuries such as an e-reader.

 

Obviously such a discussion naturally involves comparison, thus comparing with a country of a similar population also makes sense to some extent when highlighting differences and similarities.

 

We could also use ‘books sold per year’ but have to be careful with that statistic as public funding in schools is significantly less in Thailand, so book sales in general are reliant on a nations economic policy. 

 

Thus if available ‘private’ book sales (i.e. not to schools or businesses) but to individuals, also second hand sales to individuals and loans (library) to individuals is a better metric to rely upon. 

Does Thailand or the UK even collate such data ?

 

 

There is also a significantly greater proportion of the Thailand population which is ‘under-educated’ which also corresponds with the hypothesis that Thai people are generally not into reading, or fewer Thai people read than their western counterparts. 

 

 

All of that said, as you mention (Kinnok) using information and statistics to draw a reasonable hypothesis is not Thai-bashing, and this is not what people (including myself) have highlighted....  It is the ’never seen a Thai person reading’ type comment which lends towards the Thai Bashing edge of the spectrum when it presents the bias that Thai’s do not read or even cannot read and are thus not as good as the rest of us etc.... 

 

Using data, statistic and facts when presented in a balanced and intelligent manner is not Thai bashing whatever the conclusion, however, using a singular observation to establish a negative generalisation is.

 

 

Insufficient data and wrong conclusions. We know very well Thais are largely poorly educated, by rote learning, even at uni. They read only when they have to, study or work.

 

Near zero Thai adult book or newspaper reading. Those e-reader stats here are probably Games.

 

Dull lives like nearly all Asians. Money Status. Food Work Sleep mainly.
 

UK certainly the MOST overall Intellectually &. Creative Advanced Society and TOP in Science & Arts , all over last 300 years. ALL worlds top 20 unis are in USA or UK (USA Mother Country). UK has originally invented nearly Everything in the Modern World starting with Industrial Revolution. Had better powered flight design 12 years before Wright Bros. execution. 

[TropicalGuy]

18 hours ago, moe666 said:

That Thais do not read books is a racist trop that goes along with they are lazy and do not laugh. Thais do the same things that every other person in the universe does. I have read this and and the other two as well over the years I have been here.

Detest awful dumb leftist words like “trop” or “dogwhistle”…..sickening.

Confine usage to red flag Corbyn -worshipping cult meetings.

use civilized words; “cliche” and “provocative”….

 

[TropicalGuy]

19 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

The OP has spent more time in bars than libraries!

OP wrote “coffee shops” not “beer bars “ !!! Off Topic big time.