Very Thai: Everyday Popular Culture Hardcover – October 16, 2013

Gives you a great understanding of all things Thai.Love the culture, country and the people of Thailand…..

For people interested in Thai culture this book is great!It gives lots of helpful info for anyone going to Thailand to know how to interact and how some things work.For someone who has just been to Thailand you have a lot of "oh, that's why it was like that!" moments.This book is actually famous IN Thailand - while I was there, there was a big outdoor display at New Year's that had pictures and information from this book - it's Thai Approved!Great coffee table book!

I was born and raised in Bangkok. I enjoy reading this book. This book is beyond my expectation - charming and insightful. The book explains the things that you will see everywhere in Thailand with a root of culture and belief.BTW, please correct the artist's name on page 143 from "Saiyaat Sema-ngoen" to "Saiyart Semangern".

Over the last 35 years my wife and I have spent about 1-1/2 years in Thailand on numerous visits. We both thought that reading this book gave us insight into things that we have noticed either consciously or subconsciously while traveling in a culture that is so beautiful but can also be so confounding and seemingly contradictory.

Going to spend time in Thailand this spring. This book very helpful in orienting myself to a vastly different culture. Tons of pictures and very clear writing. Recommend.

Great product and fast shipping

This book will be an eye-opener not only for those unaccustomed to Thai culture but for those already familiar with Thailand as well. It presents the fascinating (and sometimes not-so) aspects of Thai popular culture well, with great photographs and the topics having been seriously researched by the authors. However, this is set back by the failings in detail present throughout the book. Minor (and sometimes obvious) factual inaccuracies and spelling mistakes are common, and here and there sentences are broken by bad punctuation. The book doesn't follow a set rule for romanising Thai terms, making it difficult to understand what the terms refer to, and is inconsistent in the way it spells them. Native Thais reading this will likely find themselves doubting the accuracy of some claims; the book often stereotypes and sometimes overemphasises certain phenomena, making the rarity appear to be the norm. All in all, though, despite its faults, this book is indeed a fascinating read.

Wonderful and colourful book on the Thai way of life. Explanations of idiocentricies you may not have understood before; 57 entries on Street life, Personal habits/dress, Ritual content on what is sacred as well as how to have Sanuk/ fun. Plenty of quality photographs. Well worth buying if planning a visit to the Land of Smiles.