Good Books On Thailand

[saeb]

I would really think that in order to quantify a 'good book' about Thailand we would need to know what the poster actually wants to read:

Novels?. Pretty much the same really - murder - drugs - supersmart foreigner.

Or ; - girlies - sucker foreigner- death.

Travel books seem to be all much the same.

Non fiction is a different ball game altogether as anything that may seem to be deemed as critical to Thailand is difficult to get hold of in country.

I have an interesting one upstairs which I bought in the U.K. - it's a bit banal but when the author actually gets into the roots of where the teak forests went and who got the money it hits the nail on the head. Whilst the info is widely known in Thailand it is a case of selective amnesia when it comes to pointing fingers.

(Thailand The Last Domino by Richard West)

I stick with Alice Through the Looking Glass or even better perhaps - anything by Robert A Heinlein.

[Arsenal]

[

Not really convinced but I'll take another look since your observations are generally thoughtful..The SCMP article sounds interesting:seems it might have had self confessed elitists like me in mind!Anyway I am afraid I lost interest in this thread since with Chuchok's contributions it suddenly descended into infantilism.

[ProfessorFart]

Novels?. Pretty much the same really - murder - drugs - supersmart foreigner.

Or ; - girlies - sucker foreigner- death.

Quite well summarised. If you actually want to learn something about Thailand from a Westerner's perspective give expat novels a very wide berth. Try reading some of the factual books around particularly anything by William Warren.

[Ulysses G.]

Why do the books mentioned deserve to be rubbished? To me a book is like a bottle of wine. If the person that tastes it likes it, then it is good. No need to get some wine snob to tell you how much you should like or not like it.

Chuchok seems pretty sensible to me.

[OldAsiaHand]

with Chuchok's contributions it suddenly descended into infantilism.

Look who's talking!

Wow....there's a witty put down. Maybe you should try this one next time: 'So's your old man!' That will really having everyone rolling on the floor.

[Ulysses G.]

How about, Your momma wears army boots!

[chuchok]

Not really convinced but I'll take another look since your observations are generally thoughtful..The SCMP article sounds interesting:seems it might have had self confessed elitists like me in mind!Anyway I am afraid I lost interest in this thread since with Chuchok's contributions it suddenly descended into infantilism.

Explain.

[udon]

Look at Siam Smile/s by Hugh Watson.

I admit, the cover is dumb, but the text is informative, funny and right on the mark.

Cover is dumb and so is the text, and so are its admirers

32 posts in less than 27 days, mostly derogatory to other members.

You've had one public warning for flaming.

Lighten up or you can look forward to a holiday.

udon.

Moderator

[saeb]

Look at Siam Smile/s by Hugh Watson.

I admit, the cover is dumb, but the text is informative, funny and right on the mark.

Cover is dumb and so is the text, and so are its admirers

32 posts in less than 27 days, mostly derogatory to other members.

You've had one public warning for flaming.

Lighten up or you can look forward to a holiday.

udon.

Moderator

Brilliant innit?. From a query about what to read to guerilla warfare in a matter of days!.

Different people have different choices about what to read and choose to read.

After all, I may think that someones wife is ugly but it is not my place to say so- after all it is his choice. I believe that people actually BOUGHT Jeffery Archer's books and that takes some explaining!.

Anyone remember when Sid the Sexist (Viz mag) went on holiday to BKK?.

Brilliant!!.

I'll try and dig it out and forward it if anyone wants it.

[OldAsiaHand]

It always happens on any thread about books that have anything at all to do with Thailand. Absolutely always.

I've said before that I thought it more than passing strange that Thailand evokes such emotional reponses in many people -- both favororable ones and unfavorable ones -- that any comment on actual words that have been published about this place always triggers a holy war. Can you imagine people rushing to pee on each other over what their favorite books are about, say, Los Angeles?

Once I started a thread on why the mere mention of the words 'Bangkok' and 'books' in the same sentence caused such emotional responses, but it became such a slanging match ('You're a liar! You never read that book! You don't know anything!') that some moderator shut it down. Good Lord.

[saeb]

It always happens on any thread about books that have anything at all to do with Thailand. Absolutely always.

I've said before that I thought it more than passing strange that Thailand evokes such emotional reponses in many people -- both favororable ones and unfavorable ones -- that any comment on actual words that have been published about this place always triggers a holy war. Can you imagine people rushing to pee on each other over what their favorite books are about, say, Los Angeles?

Once I started a thread on why the mere mention of the words 'Bangkok' and 'books' in the same sentence caused such emotional responses, but it became such a slanging match ('You're a liar! You never read that book! You don't know anything!') that some moderator shut it down. Good Lord.

Books can be an emotive subject - depending on the content and folks point of view.

The Little Red Book and Das Kapital tending to polarise viewpoints which eventually led to bloodshed. (For example).

The trouble with books about Thailand is that people actually believe the crap which appears in novel or short story form. I mean, how many 'spies' have you met loitering around Nana or Patpong?. "I am that book".

Once talked to a couple of guys in a bar in Sconnie Botland who were of the opinion that Thailand was about the size of Singapore and was basically comprised of one street called Patpong.

They read it in a book...........they said.

Kafka - essential reading before disembarkation at Don Muang.

[OldAsiaHand]

...The trouble with books about Thailand is that people actually believe the crap which appears in novel or short story form. I mean, how many 'spies' have you met loitering around Nana or Patpong?.

Exactly the same number that I've met in London. So I gather that means that John Le Carre just writes a lot of crap, huh? Gee, I never looked at it that way.

[saeb]

...The trouble with books about Thailand is that people actually believe the crap which appears in novel or short story form. I mean, how many 'spies' have you met loitering around Nana or Patpong?.

Exactly the same number that I've met in London. So I gather that means that John Le Carre just writes a lot of crap, huh? Gee, I never looked at it that way.

Sorry, I think perhaps I didn't clarify the point:

Personally I have never met anyone who claimed to be a spy in the U.K. - but I sure have met a few hanging around bars in BKK.

It is a bit a of a laugh to meet people who seem to relive whatever is the latest bestselling 'action' book in whatever airport they departed from.

When that number came out about the SAS getting stiffed in Iraq, Bravo 2-0, the amount of guys I met who were 'members' of the SAS who suddenly appeared in BKK was quite surprising.

Hereford must have been half empty........

And, personally, I thought that the SAS would have known that it gets terribly cold in the desert at night. Terrestrial radiation don't cha' know.

John Le Carre is a brilliant writer - Little Drummer Girl is one of my favourite books and I think particularly pertinent in our present times.

However, spies are a pretty low life form on the evolutionary ladder and generally don't advertise the fact of what their job description involves.

[eljeque]

There is one book out which a the life story of a little runanway girl in Thailand entitled, Only 13. It provides information on the rural, poor countryside where she grew up; her parents working in the Bangkok; her difficulties with other family members and her multiple runs where she ends up working in Bangkok, Pattaya and then on to German massage parlors and Swedish strip clubs.

This is only her perspective, but it is a reasonably accurate view of the country from the eyes of the poor of Esarn, which is where 1/3 of the population resides.

I got the book from Amazon in the USA. The book has a website too, www.only13.net