Thailand Books - Recommendations

Filed under: Thailand, Travel Books, Travel Writing Written by:Chris Mitchell.

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There's a plethora of books about Thailand - but which ones to read? Here's some of my favourite books about Thailand that will provide fascinating reading and also provide you with invaluable information if you visit Thailand

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Very Thai - Philip Cornwel-Smith and John Goss
A brilliant photo compendium of modern day urban life in Thailand, with easy to read text that explains the weird and wonderful sights and sounds. A great introduction to Thailand.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

Sightseeing - Rattawut Lapcharoensap
A collection of short stories written in English by rising Thai author Rattawut Lapcharoensap. These stories brilliantly evoke what it's like growing up in Thailand and how Western culture and people are seen from the other side.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

Thailand Confidential - Jerry Hopkins
Jerry Hopkins co-wrote the huge selling Doors biography No One Here Gets Out Alive. He's been living in Thailand for over a decade and Thailand Confidential is a collection of pithy essays about how expats get to grips with Thai culture - or, indeed, completely lose their grip on it and everything else. Hopkins covers a wide gamut of topics with a concise and frank style.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

Bangkok Babylon - Jerry Hopkins
A sort of sequel to Thailand Confidential, Bangkok Babylon applies the same pithy essay style to various Bangkok "personalities", virtually all from the West and many escaping previous lives to start again in Bangkok. It is a fascinating mix of individuals with stories that shows otherwise hidden aspects of Bangkok and Asia in general.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

The Unsolved Mystery Of Jim Thompson - William Warren
Former CIA agent Jim Thompson is the American who singlehanded revived the Thai silk industry, bringing it to front cover of Vogue and eventually The King And I. Living in Bangkok for over 3 decades, this biography provides a fascinating insight into Thompson's life and also his mysterious disappearance in Malaysia, which has never been solved. Read more about Jim Thompson's House on Travelhappy.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

Jim Thompson's House - William Warren
Jim Thompson's most famous legacy is his house, built from several traditional Thai teak houses and housing some of the most beautiful antique Buddha statues in all of Asia. Thompson was a past master at interior decoration and this book captures some of his house's magic. It's open to visitors in Bangkok to see for themselves too.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

Bangkok - William Warren
William Warren has lived in Bangkok for nearly 50 years and has seen the city undergo some seismic changes. This short biography is a love letter to his adopted city, beginning with a potted history of the city's beginnings 200 years ago and becoming more personal as Warren describes the massive changes he has personally witnessed. It's a warm, personal book that gives a real insight into the city.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

A History Of Thailand - Christopher Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit
A concise history of Thailand's evolvement into one of Asia's biggest economic powers and its involvement and influence by the West.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

Phra Farang - Phra Peter Pannapadipo
The memoir of a London business man who gave it all up and became a monk in Thailand, where he still remains today. Irrespective of whether you are religious or not, Phra Farang is a very interesting story of one man's journey towards his own sense of inner peace. I previously wrote a longer review of Phra Farang.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

The Damage Done - Warren Fellows
One of the bestselling books about Bangkok, The Damage Done is a memoir of Warren Fellows' 12 years in Bang Kwang jail - known as the "Bangkok Hilton" - for heroin trafficking. Unremittingly bleak, Fellows' book is at once a testament to his own spirit of survival, a warning to others to avoid anything illegal in Thailand and a damning indictment of how inhuman the Thai penal system can be.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

Forget You Had A Daughter - Sandra Gregory
Actually a better written book that Warren Fellows' The Damage Done, Forget You Had A Daughter is a more complex exploration of Gregory's own time in both Bangkok and UK prisons, also for drug trafficking convictions. The UK's Holloway prison turns out to be psychologically worse than the physical horrors of Bangkok's overcrowded jails. Gregory's tale is as grim as Fellows', and she provides more insight into the state of her own mind and the system around her too.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

Hello My Big Big Honey! - Richard Ehrlich and Dave Walker
A minor classic, Hello My Big Big Honey is a collection of letters from Thailand bar girls and their foreign boyfriends which charts the rise and often fall of these relationships. More educational than prurient, this book provides a candid view of Thai-Western relationships and why they so often go wrong.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

Bangkok Inside Out
Banned in Thailand due to its decidedly non-racy section about the Patpong red light area, Bangkok Inside Out is a big, photo-led guidebook that provides an alphabetical rundown of things to see in the Big Mango. It's a good antidote to the eyestraining tiny text of most guidebooks and catches your imagination a bit more with the pix.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]

Thailand Lonely Planet
The indispensable guide to travelling in Thailand, this new edition just came out a couple of months ago.
[Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com ]