Can you recommend any besides those from Paiboon Publishing (ending with "Thai for Advanced Readers"), "Thai Reference Grammar" by James Higbie and Snea Thinsan, and "Essays on Thailand" by Thanapol Chadchaidee?

I've really enjoyed the Paiboon series, I still listen to the CDs attached to the textbooks, but I'm looking for some new materials. Have also been using some books designed for Japanese-speaking learners of the Thai language that I had bought in Japan.

Today I went to Asia Books and ended up buying "Learning Thai: Just Enough to Get By and More" by Warankna Tuwayanonde and Paul Wallis just to brush up my conversation skills.

Maybe it's time to start reading newspapers and books for native Thais (have already read 2 books written in Thai with the help of a dictionary; am also watching Thai-language TV).

The Andrew Biggs books and Chris Delivery Shows are a good -- backwards -- way to learn. I'd also suggest following the Thai school cirriculum...you can buy the books and corresponding workbooks at bookstores in any major city. The school books are great at extending advanced learning, and also give you a quantifiable sense of your skill level that is easy to communicate to others.

"Thai for Advanced Readers" really isn't advanced. It's beginner stuff and nowhere near preparation for reading a newspaper. If you can get your hands on the texts used by Union or Unity language schools that would be a good next step. (The texts are also used by a third school - can't remember its name.) If you've just finished "Thai for Advanced Readers" you'd probably want to start at level 5. If you're a bit more advanced than that, try module ปัญหาสังคม.

Although the stories are a bit dated (1970's) the Thomas Gething reader series worked for me. 58 lessons of male/female recordings and pdf files to boot. The first 20 lessons have questions after the end of the text. Gething repeats many of the vocabulary terms and sentence structures as the lessons progress. It's all available free at

http://siamwestdc.com/thaireader-UH/index.htm

There's also the U Wisconsin Madison Thai reader project: http://readingthai.wisc.edu/ especially Volume II.

And bilingual texts of various levels and kinds at Sealang: http://sealang.net/lab/justread

These include the texts from the Mary Haas reader, texts compiled by the US govt for its LangNet site, Thai translations of classic western short stories from Wanakam.com, Thai-English articles from Bangkok Post, and so forth.

Challenge yourself with a short daily newspaper article - feel free to post any questions you have in this forum, it will benefit both yourself and the rest of us learning. The gossip section tends to be the easiest. If you go for Western celebrity gossip you can check your understanding using Google as the gossip usually originates from English language sources.

Or you could try the "Thai Cultural Reader" by Jones Mendiones Reynolds. A bit dated but a little more advanced than Thai for Advanced Readers. Were a couple of copies in Paragon branch of Kinokuniya last time I was in there.

Thank you for the advice(s).:jap:

I'd also suggest following the Thai school cirriculum...you can buy the books and corresponding workbooks at bookstores in any major city. The school books are great at extending advanced learning, and also give you a quantifiable sense of your skill level that is easy to communicate to others.

That's what I did today: bought a Thai-language textbook for P4 students at SE-ED.

Buy some Thai children's school books. I've been learning every day for 6 years now but still find บ5 (5th grade) a challenge lol . . .

If you're interested in spoken Thai rather than the more formal written language, how about getting some cartoon books. Perhaps not the Doraemon kind, but the ones telling stories about historic figures? The fonts used do take a bit of getting used to, but once you're past that you'll encounter new vocabulary and learn more about Thai history and culture (at least from a Thai perspective).

Here's my current strategy on cracking the newspaper nut:

Pick a popular newspaper subject....let's say 'vehicle accidents'

Google "รถชน" along with "ไทยรัฐ" or your own favorite newspaper. You could add the name of a province if you wanted to further define your search.

Stick with a single subject for a few days....you'll end up seeing much the same vocabulary from article to article. After you feel comfortable with the vocabulary, try a different subject....murders, robberies, sports, etc.

Another avenue that includes video: look at http://www.mcot.net/cfcustom/cache_page/171463.html

There's a short article about a vehicle accident. Tackle the reading part of the article, then watch the 1 minute video that follows the script.

I'm not knocking the ป3-6 books....been there, done that......but they're mentally depriving and don't work for me in the vocabulary-building department. If you're at the level of a ป4-ish school book, you can google-in to your favorite current events subject and have something a bit more interesting to read (and discuss with your partner).