Books

[tom07]

Apart from the Asia Books kiosk at the airport there's nowhere in CR province that I know of to buy new books in English (very happy if anyone can correct me on this). So I've recently started to order online from Asia Books - the prices in their online store often seem to be lower than in their bookstores, and there's no delivery charge. I select their free delivery by EMS option (I've used EMS for deliveries from Japan and China for very large parcels, and it's faster than any international service I've ever used, with a great online tracking facility). If you want a book that they don't stock they will order it, delivery wil be a bit longer, no extra charges.

I'm sure there will be some who prefer electronic readers, but for anyone who enjoys books this is a great service.

Edited May 20, 2015 by tom07

[fatfather]

E-book

Fatfather

[tom07]

Thanks FF, yes as mentioned I know some will prefer electronic readers (including ebooks); and certainly ebooks have the advantage of cheapness, but the choice of ebooks is very very limited compared to book books.

Edited May 20, 2015 by tom07

[BoogerRed]

Thanks FF, yes as mentioned I know some will prefer electronic readers (including ebooks); and certainly ebooks have the advantage of cheapness, but the choice of ebooks is very very limited compared to book books.

At this point, it seems quite the opposite!

[emoji6]

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tom07]

Really? Well maybe the ebook market has moved on since I last checked about a year ago. The last time I looked the ebook market was just geared to really old classics, self-published books and a few other niches.

I've also found that the formats and functions of ebooks can be pretty limited, and that some major distributors don't allow download ebook purchases to Thailand.

There are several reasons why I prefer real books, but the main one is probably to do with my eyes. I do read a huge amount and always have done, and the idea of spending that length of time staring at an electronic screen doesn't appeal.

If anyone's got any up to date info on ebook readers or the ebook market generally I'd be interested to hear it.

Thanks.

[sceadugenga]

The eBook market has been on top of it's game for quite a while now, check out Amazon and Kobo etc for all the latest releases, all of which download in Thailand.

The genuine ebook readers use a screen format known as I-ink which has about as much glare as a sheet of paper.

[pastafarian]

Usually order from here as also free delivery and a massive range of books.

http://www.bookdepository.com/

[tom07]

Thanks Scea, I've taken your suggestion and checked Amazon, not Kobo yet, and there are a lot more Kindle offerings than I thought. Most, but not all of the books I've bought in the last year seem to be on Kindle, and that surprises me because some are pretty obscure. I tried an early version of Kindle, and that seemed fine. One of the tablets I had had Kobo as a pre-installed app, but I never got on with that too well, but that could have been just because of the books' formatting rather than the app. There's also a psychological thing I like about paper books, it's just like turning off from the online world; having spent a lot of my working life online I really enjoying going unplugged. A paper book with an ebook weight, size and price, now that would tick the boxes; and I'm sure the tech companies will get there eventually, or somewhere very close to it.

Thanks Pasta, does that site charge for delivery or just the book price?

Anyway, glad to know there are some avid readers here. I was going to call the thread What Are You Reading Right Now, maybe that would have been a better idea.

[MaeJoMTB]

I'm reading

Seveneyes by Neal Stephenson, published a few days ago and downloaded to a Kindle.

Before than Hunted by Paul Finch.

[villagefarang]

As with most subjects, I seem to end up on the opposite end of the spectrum from most farangs. Having lived in Thailand most of my life, I am not trying to escape from an old life in the West, I am actively exploring all things new and modern, because like many Thais, it is all new to me and I find it interesting. My body and spirit may be most at home in the natural setting I have chosen but my mind is always searching the world for something new.

Just the other day my wife made a comment about developments she might like to see in Chiang Rai in the coming years. Having spent too much time on TVF, I suggested not everyone wants to see those things come to pass. She offhandedly dismissed my remark by saying, it is only the farangs who think that way. Out of the mouths of babes, I thought. After all it is Thailand, not Farangland, and they have the right to want what they want.

Instead of books I prefer online magazines as I find them more timely and relevant. My present passion is to download bundles of magazines to get exposed to a variety of articles and subject matter, things I might not otherwise encounter. In fullscreen mode, spread across the landscape of a 5K retina display, the words and images lose nothing to print and can be enlarged for a more detailed examination.

So maybe it is my short attention span or my desire to interact with the world in a more active way, but I don’t feel drawn to spending long hours reading just one manuscript at a time. I guess that makes me odd man out when it come to books.

Edited May 20, 2015 by villagefarang

[rijb]

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” ― Joseph Brodsky

[sceadugenga]

As with most subjects, I seem to end up on the opposite end of the spectrum from most farangs. Having lived in Thailand most of my life, I am not trying to escape from an old life in the West, I am actively exploring all things new and modern, because like many Thais, it is all new to me and I find it interesting. My body and spirit may be most at home in the natural setting I have chosen but my mind is always searching the world for something new.

Just the other day my wife made a comment about developments she might like to see in Chiang Rai in the coming years. Having spent too much time on TVF, I suggested not everyone wants to see those things come to pass. She offhandedly dismissed my remark by saying, it is only the farangs who think that way. Out of the mouths of babes, I thought. After all it is Thailand, not Farangland, and they have the right to want what they want.

Instead of books I prefer online magazines as I find them more timely and relevant. My present passion is to download bundles of magazines to get exposed to a variety of articles and subject matter, things I might not otherwise encounter. In fullscreen mode, spread across the landscape of a 5K retina display, the words and images lose nothing to print and can be enlarged for a more detailed examination.

So maybe it is my short attention span or my desire to interact with the world in a more active way, but I don’t feel drawn to spending long hours reading just one manuscript at a time. I guess that makes me odd man out when it come to books.

I read most issues of Rolling Stone magazine, I find them a good source of music and film reviews and even books.

A genre growing in popularity is Graphic novels, once dismissed as "comics" the art work and story lines can be little short of amazing.

[Boo]

removed some "copy & paste" sections from books.

Please stay on topic.

thanks

[tom07]

Not sure what relevance downloading magazines has to a thread about books, but yes there is obviously an attention span difference between book readers and mag readers. Actually, it's progressed since then hasn't it. Some people base their worldview on twitter.

If there really are people with such short attention spans, they could try poems (though poems often have the disadvantage of stimulating thought, as opposed to consumerism) and if they can't handle traditional poetic forms they could try haiku.

[villagefarang]

Science, economics, history, news, current events, tech, travel, cycling, photography, health, fitness, design, fashion and a load of other topics hold my attention more than fiction. I suppose that makes me a lesser person in the eyes of some but I can live with that. I don’t put down people who like to read other things, I am just saying my interests lie elsewhere and I enjoy the magazine format over books and I prefer modern devices over paper and ink.

Edited May 20, 2015 by villagefarang

[tom07]

The thread is about books. Not magazines. And not fiction per se. It's certainly not about individuals on this forum, or their technological preferences. It's obviously not going to go very far. Sorry I brought it up.

[villagefarang]

You might enjoy this topic in that case. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/788744-what-book-are-you-reading-just-now/ or http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/54535-what-are-you-reading/

Edited May 21, 2015 by villagefarang

[wileycoyote]

Is Orn's book-shop still open ,I will be passing by next month ?

[sceadugenga]

I saw some of his posters around town recently that looked fairly new.

[wileycoyote]

Thanks Sceadugenga

[JAG]

Is Orn's book-shop still open ,I will be passing by next month ?

Yes he is still going strong.

I was in there a couple of weeks ago.

Bizarrely, I noticed he was renting out (!) copies of "Mein Kampf"!

[wileycoyote]

Thanks Jag for the update.

I will pass on Mr Hitler...

Best Wishes

Wiley

[rijb]

I had to look up that word... provocative.

A deliberately offensive or "provocative" online post. A troll.

Edited June 6, 2015 by rijb

[metisdead]

An inflammatory post has been removed, keep it civil please.

[tom07]

Actually there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding. The offending post was simply a pun or wordplay on the word literati in its meaning of lovers of literature. Hey ho.

[villagefarang]

Surely someone can recommend a book on how to pen inoffensive posts.

[tom07]

Well it's been mentioned before on the CR forum that some people have spent years trying to perfect the passive-aggressive style that strives to be offensive while flying below the radar; they are usually well-practiced at pressing the complaint button to suit their purposes too.

Offense is often in the eye of the beholder.

[villagefarang]

I thought we were talking about books, not revised ancient history.

[tom07]

Actually, ancient history is one of the 4 or 5 areas I am educated and experienced in. I haven't read any books on this topic in the last few years, and I think it's something that most readers here are probably not interested in anyway, although there have been some fairly recent finds in Issan which predate earlier findings by a very long way.

You've made it clear in your previous posts on this thread that you are not interested in books, so why not start a thread about magazines rather than post here.

[villagefarang]

Posted in this Chiang Rai sub-forum, a magazine thread would make as much sense as a book thread. Even starting a book club wouldn’t make much sense considering one already exists in Chiang Rai.

ThaiVisa has a tremendous cache of information spread over a vast number of sub-forums but people in very small communities like ours often want to replicate everything which already exists elsewhere without the numbers to support it.

There are some things a forum like this can do and some things it can’t. That doesn’t stop people from trying, however.