Suggested Reading re: Thailand

[ivan96822]

Can anyone suggest any good, quality books about LOS?

FYI, just finished Jake Needham's novel TEA MONEY and I absolutely hated it. From the convoluted plot, weak dialogue, contrived list of characters, loose ends, and other grievances, I will not take suggestions of this magnitude seriously.

Thanks for the recommendation, Stickman. I don't think.

[ivan96822]

And oh, yeah...

The main charachter does not drink or womanize...

Lame.

[Ulysses G.]

I liked Steven Leather's "Private Dancer" and so did all my friends. It is also a best seller in my bookstore and has been for many years. The main characters all drink and womanize.

There are a bunch of good books about being in prison in Thailand:

The Damage Done by Warren Fellows (also called 4,000 Days)
Escape by David McMillan
Bangkok Hard Time by Jon Cole (this one has a lot of good info about being a Western teenager in Bangkok during the 60s)
Welcome to Hell by Colin Martin

For something more positive:
Touch the Dragon by Karen Connnelly (memoir about being a Western teenager going to school in Denchai, Thailand back in the 80s).
Borderlines by Charles Nicholl (an interesting, well written travel book by a fairly major writer about what happened to him when he visited Thailand in the 1980s)

Edited January 24, 2014 by Ulysses G.

[kurnell]

You can learn all you need to know on TV

[AyG]

"Touch the Dragon" is an excellent read.

I'd also add "Phra Farang" by Peter Pannapadipo. The story of a Westerner's life as a monk in Thailand.

A classic, which every Thai person reads in school, is Our Wars With the Burmese by Prince Damrong Rajanubhab. It was formative in the creation of the Thai national identity such as it is. It gives an insight into "Thainess". Unfortunately, it's not the easiest of reads. Published by White Lotus Press.

And if history is your thing, Van Vliet's Siam is fascinating.

All of these (except possibly Touch the Dragon) should be readily available in Asia Books or Kinokuniya.

[CharlieH]

Plenty of fact, fiction, fantasy,, who dunnit, thriller, sex, crime, all right here on Thai visa and its all FREE !

[In Search of Space]

The"A ...... Smile" trilogy by Christopher Moore are pretty bad to follow, I did like "Bangkok Rules" and the series about the blonde, Bangkok policeman on yaa-ba all the time, started to get pretty crazy