100 Must-read Thai Books

[DavidHouston]

This is from the website: http://suphawut.com/books.htm

" late 1996, Witayakorn Chiengkul -- a prominent Thai writer, thinker, social critic, and director of Rangsit University's Social Research Institute -- received a one-million-baht grant from the Thailand Research Fund for the purpose of compiling an anthology of 100 important Thai language books. The culmination of this effort was preliminarily published in an article in the March 14, 1998 edition of the Bangkok Post entitled: "Doing Things by the Book." Here is the list of 100 "Must-Read" Thai Books (only some of which are available in English.)"

For our Thai friends or erudite foreigners, could you recommend one or more of these which might be appropriate for Thai learners to read? The list is published on the website reference above. If the book was written too long ago, the language may not reflect current usage. I would appreciate any thoughts you might have.

[yoot]

David,

Take a look on this page : http://www.geocities.com/thaibooks_100/typebook.htm

You can read details of each books on this list.

As for myself, I like the poem in มัทนะพาธา, but it's too difficult for Non Native Thai or even Native Thai to understand the poem. You can see some of them on this page : http://www.childthai.org/cic/love.html

Another classic books set is พล นิกร กิมหงวน, one of my favorite when I was young.

You can download some episodes from this page : http://www.geocities.com/samgler/mix.html

[jumnien]

There are so many great Thai books it's hard to decide. I asked my brother in law and he suggested Carabao's Greatest Hits with the lyrics and guitar chords included.

[LookSaMoon]

I like book " คุยกับประภาส" written by ประภาส ชลศรานนท์.

This book gathered his forum in Matichon.

It's about sharing his brilliant idea to the reader .

[sutnyod]

"Many lives" from Khun Pramoj. I like it because he writes with compassion and detachment (yes, it's possible) and chose his topic so that newcomers can get a good pictures of several lifestyles in Thailand (even though it is set in the past). The book is about a boat accident and tries to answer the question: why did those people die? What have they done, what was their karma?

[DavidHouston]

"Many lives" from Khun Pramoj. I like it because he writes with compassion and detachment (yes, it's possible) and chose his topic so that newcomers can get a good pictures of several lifestyles in Thailand (even though it is set in the past). The book is about a boat accident and tries to answer the question: why did those people die? What have they done, what was their karma?

I must admit cowardness. I was so frightened by the first story that I never got beyond it. Thanks for the recommendation; new is the time to get to story two.

[Artisi]

A great author who writes excellent books in English.

http://www.a2zpattaya.com/index.htm?main=pira_sudham.htm

[TheChiefJustice]

I am now on the second volume of สี่แผ่นดิน by the prolific ม.ร.ว. คึกฤทธิ์ ปราโมช. I recall watching the television series a number of years ago and enjoyed it so much that I was inspired to read the novel. I find anything written by ปราโมช to be a wonderful reading experience.