New Book/magazine Availability In Los

[phormio]

Moving to LoS at the end of the year from the US and was wondering about the availability of newly published books and recent magazine issues in Thailand. I love to read - one of my favorite passtimes is to sit in a Barnes & Nobles or Borders and peruse the magazines or read a book while sipping on some coffee.

I was in BKK back in 2002 and don't believe they had anything like it at the time.

Anyplace where you can do that in Thailand?

Thanks.

[shopgurl]

It depends where you are moving to, if Bangkok, you can find recently published books at retail bookstores such as Asia Books or Kinokuniya. Other choices would be used book stores, Dasa Books (dasabookcafe.com) is new and has quite a nice selection, this is one of the few places you can sit down and enjoy a good book as well as a cup of coffee or tea. I would expect (hopefully-cross my fingers) that other bookshops like these will sprout up soon!

As for other provinces, if you're looking for foreign/english books, this will greatly depend on the foreign population in that province, better make trips into Bangkok like how some residents do it.

Happy reading....

[pluto_manibo]

one of my favorite passtimes is to sit in a Barnes & Nobles or Borders and peruse the magazines or read a book while sipping on some coffee.

The closest Borders is in Singapore on Orchard road, it is amazing....great selection of books cds, magazines. In Thailand you also have Bookazine which is of no comparison to the aforementioned, however they do have a selection of english magazines covering a variety of subjects, and a limited selection of newly released books. They also offer 20% discounts off cover prices on magazine subscriptions (very wide selection). Your best bet is to get some subscriptions or choose from what is available...and head for Starbucks.....Enjoy

[phormio]

I can remember running all over downtown Bangkok looking for a recent edition of the New York Times(unsuccessfully) during my last visit, about 2 years ago.

Shopgurl,

Thanks for the tip on DasaBooks - I never heard of it before.

I suggested to my wife(whose Thai) that maybe we should open up a Borders(or talk Borders into opening up a location) in Bangkok. She laughed and said that the Thais would grab the books/mags and rip them apart - that it wouldn't work out. I wonder how the Singapore Border's has dealt with this kind of problem.

Thanks.

[Up2U]

Browsing is not encouraged - buy and read at home is the way here.

magazine selection is poor, because of the limited market, I suppose.

Bookazine have several branches, but basically the same stock in each.

Several second-hand bookstores around - check local Eng.Lang. papers.

[phormio]

Any libraries with decent /recent English language periodicals and newspapers?

[OldAsiaHand]

There are plenty of English-language books around in Bangkok (and a few in major resort areas), but they are mostly mass-market paperbacks, so newly published books are hard to find. Kinokuniya at the Emporium does import a limited number of current best-sellers from the US (usually discounted by 20%), but that's about the extent of the supply.

Asia Books imports paperbacks from the UK and Bookazine from the US, and both of them are good sources for paperbacks but carry very, very few current hardbacks. Magazines, on the other hand, are no problem. You can get most US magazines at all three places within a few days of publication, although you'll pay about doube the US cover price to cover the air freight.

I, too, would recommend either Borders of Kinokuniya in Singapore for the experience of hanging around a bookstore that you enjoy. They areally re the only American style bookstores you will find anywhere at all in Asia.

[OldAsiaHand]

Any libraries with decent /recent English language periodicals and newspapers?

There is only one English-language library in Thailand, the Neilson Hays Library on Suriwong, and it is a venerable historical institution. You can join for a small fee, but I really wouldn't recommend it. The building is lovely, but the collection is awfully moldy. Mostly the kind of junk you'd find in the library of a small and not very prosperous junior college in the States. many of the books are also in pretty poor condition since the building wasn't air conditioned until fairly recently.

[phormio]

...

I, too, would recommend either Borders of Kinokuniya in Singapore for the experience of hanging around a bookstore that you enjoy. They areally re the only American style bookstores you will find anywhere at all in Asia.

Why not have a Borders in Bangkok ?

Is the English Language Expat community big enough to support one?

what do ya think, old hand?

[pluto_manibo]

I think Thais are not very big fans of reading, if it doesn't have pics in it. Most of the books, I have seen have huge writing and are very skimpy......