The sad state of English-language books for sale in Bangkok
Have you been to a Bangkok bookstore recently to buy an English-language book? If you haven’t then let me tell you that unless you want a children’s book, you are going to be severely disappointed.
The other day I was in Mega Bangna, killing time waiting for the wife, so as you do I popped in to the Asia Books store. It was not that many years ago when a visit to an Asia Books store would invariably result in me heading home with the proud purchase of a book or two, but now the section of books for adults is (a) only as wide as my arm span and (b) as tall as me, and has next to nothing of interest. Where’s the big section they used to have on novels, on Thai culture, history, and language, etc? Yep, almost nothing. As the selection of children’s books looks decent, should we to deduce from that that while children continue to read English-language books in this age of mobile phones glued to faces, adults do not, meaning that it’s not worth a book store bothering to stock adult English-language books? Recent visits to Asia Books stores in Central Bangna and Paradise Park were the same.
I don’t venture in to the Big Mango often, but I have been to the very large and decently stocked Kinokuniya in CentralWorld (and branches in other shopping malls). There’s Asia Books, there’s Dasa Book Café selling 2nd-hand books (opposite Sukhumvit soi 41 ), and there may even be one or two other decent book shops around Bangkok, but it’s nothing like ‘back in the day’, is it.
Bangkok bookstores ‘back in the day’
‘Back in the day’, which loosely translates as sometime in the past that can’t easily be defined, but in my case it’s sometime between the end of the 1980s and a few years ago, there were plenty of decent bookstores around Bangkok selling English-language books, magazines and imported newspapers.
Bookazine stores and Asia Books stores seemed to be everywhere and had plenty to offer. Living on Sathorn Road in the early 1990s, I used to visit the Bookazine in Patpong Road – during the day time, of course – but almost every one of those two company’s stores were well stocked for passing farlangs.
According to the know-all ‘internet’:
- Bookazine opened in Thailand in September 1969.
- Asia Books is the largest English language bookseller in Thailand. It also sells books and magazines in Thai. It opened in September 1969. The chain has 70 shops throughout Thailand under the Asia Books or Bookazine brand. It also distributes English books and magazines to over 300 outlets.
- Bookazine’s branches now seem to have disappeared. Personally, I haven’t seen a Bookazine branch in recent times – do they still exist anywhere around Thailand?
- Bookazine and Asia Books merged in 2007 when Asia Books was acquired by Actis Capital and Thailand Equity Fund, which then merged with Distri-Thai, the largest distributor of foreign language magazines in Thailand. This merger created the largest foreign-language book and magazine business in Thailand, with a significant presence in the English language retail market.
A favourite bookstore I used to love to visit was the massive DK (Duang Kamol) Book store located on B1 basement floor of Seacon Square. While it was mainly Thai-language books, there were plenty of English-language books in this huge store. I believe it closed in the early 2000s; however, I noted that in a Srinakarin soi 40 directly opposite Seacon there is ‘Book Warehouse & Cafe @ Srinakarin 40’, “with three floors selling both new and used books (but there are a lot more used ones) and a cafe in front where you can sit and eat/snack/drink” according a Google Maps review.
Back in the 1990s, pre-internet days, when we relied on books, magazines and newspapers to inform and entertain us, a typical weekend outing from my Sathorn Road apartment might be to cross Bangkok to Sukhumvit Soi 22 to watch a movie at Washington Square cinema, then pop across Sukhumvit road to Sukhumvit 33/1, where there were two gems:
- a Villa Market (was it their 2nd store to open in Thailand?), which back then was the only supermarket that sold ‘farlang goods’ (for example, gravy, Colman’s mustard, lemons for your G&T, etc.), and,
- across from Villa Market’s side entrance and in the soi there was an open-fronted shop which had one of the best selection of foreign newspapers in Bangkok, where I would treat myself to the most recent UK Sunday newspaper (as the Sunday paper was the thickest paper of the week), read every damn page of it, before passing it on to a mate who would read every page of it and pass it on to someone else, in the same way that anyone arriving by plane from the UK would take all of the free UK newspapers off the plane to give to mates in Thailand.
Once in a while I would trek over to Khao Sarn Road – it was not the polished place of today but the haunt of backpackers / world travellers staying in cheap guesthouses while they transited Bangkok – to see what I could buy in the many 2nd-hand bookstores. You could always tell what books the young UK backpackers had been studying in the previous year’s A-Level English Literature class by the abundance of those books for sale.
Is the reading of books dying out?
Prior to the introduction of mobile phones in the late 1990s / 2000s people read books. People read books on their commute to work by bus and train, in coffee shops, while killing time.
People went to libraries. I am of the age when pre-teen years I used to go to the library every week to read books on whatever subject caught my eye. I would spend all Saturday afternoon there and go home with an armful of books. I remember once taking a book home on how to build a canoe, in the expectation my dad would help me build one; it was read but no canoe built.
Apparently, libraries are still visited but not to the extent of yore.
Researchers from Portland State University found that “not everyone who visits a library is a reader. Nearly one-quarter of people who visited a library during the 12-month window don’t consider themselves readers and, more broadly, 43% of Gen Z and millennials don’t identify as readers. Still, nearly 54% of those non-readers were going to libraries. These findings suggest a broader role that libraries continue to play in communities, offering a gathering place not only for book lovers, but also for those with other interests… Many members of Gen Z and millennials, who are now between the ages of 28 and 43, still like to read, and when it comes to their reading format, they prefer print over e-books and audiobooks, the study found. And when they do choose print books, 59% of Gen Z and millennials would opt for a graphic/manga version of a story as opposed to a book without images”. Is the future a world of Picture books for adults? Let’s hope not!
According to Books.org “we hear claims that books are dying out. These beliefs stem from the rise of digital media. Yet, reports have shown an increase in book sales and independent bookstores over the past decade…Books are not dying; they’re changing. Traditional books still hold a high value and e-books provide new ways to read. E-books have grown big, but physical books aren’t getting replaced. Both offer unique experiences and can exist together. Technology is reshaping publishing”.
What am I doing to find books to read?
As it’s no longer easy to pop in to any Bangkok bookstore to purchase English-language books, I thought the solution might have to be making trips to the 2nd-hand bookshops like Dasa or in Khao San road or Chatuchak market, but then I found a readymade solution at home.
I have several bookcases full of books. For the most part I do not recall which books I have read and haven’t read over the almost four decades I purchased them here. So, the simple solution is to work my way through all of my books, reading them one by one. After reading I put a little round orange sticker at the top of the spine meaning ‘keep’ while two stickers mean ‘not good, get rid’ (probably requires a future visit to donate them at a charity shop).
I’m also looking at the free online libraries, and already have ‘Wolf Hall’ ready to read on my mobile phone, but I’m not sure if I’m going to like that format but I’ll trial it – and no I don’t fancy getting a Kindle-type e-reader.
Where do you purchase English-language books to read in Bangkok and Thailand? Any memories to share of book-buying ‘back in the day’? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
