The World's Largest Floating Bookstore

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I read online that the world's largest bookstore was in Bangkok and knew it was something I had to see for myself. I'm not sure if I was more intrigued by the novelty of it (pun not intended) or just the idea of a large bookstore with lots of English books.

I did some research online to find out where the boat was docked. It's only here for a month before heading to the next port. If you're curious about where it's headed next, check out their website.

My friend and I headed down and got off at the MRT station and took a taxi to the Khlong Thoei port. Our taxi driver had to divert to the far right (where I later saw the sign with an arrow) and not go through security. He drove us as far as he could before we walked the rest of the way. (Later, we'd have to walk all the way back to the port entrance to get a taxi back to the MRT.)

After paying our 20 B entrance fee we boarded the large ship. Inside were displays about the history of the ship and bookstore, as well as a video (in Thai). We then proceeded to the bookstore.

The bookstore was lovely. Smaller than I'd imagined, but I guess when you're comparing floating bookstores, you don't need to be huge to be the largest in the world. Books are priced in units, and there are charts hanging up to give the conversation rate to the local currency. Brilliant idea. For Thailand, it was 100 units to 80 Baht. Most books were fairly reasonably priced.

We left without buying anything. I did find an entire section of Nancy Drew books, the exact same as the ones I had as a child. Same covers, pictures, fonts, everything. It really took me back. Otherwise, a lot of the books only had a limited number (thus allowing for them to carry more titles in such a limited space) and there was a large Christian section. And only one book on the world's religions. We thought this was odd until we realized that the whole ship is run by a religious organization; I'd somehow missed than when I looked at the website for the location information. But that did explain why I hadn't heard of any of the authors in their "best sellers" section.

All in all, it was a lovely visit and we had fun. Not quite what I was expecting, but sometimes that's half the adventure.

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Photos

Whew, look at that line!
We got lucky.

Good to know
I do like that it's staffed by volunteers from around the world.

Pricing
Seriously, this is a great idea.

Oooh, ahh
Yes, I'm drooling over all the print dictionaries in different languages. I haven't seen that in years.

A childhood favorite
Same cover and everything. I saw this and immediately remembered it was #4 in the series. Yeah, I am that nerdy.

I saw this before I fully realized the ship was run by a religious group.
And my initial reaction was, "Look how he's telling them to stay away from the PatPong area."

Where's Waldo?
Or in this case, the worker.

Comments

[Home and Away]

I'm a Hardy Boys fan, myself...
so could understand your nostalgia. I got up to #41 before I was too old to read anymore...somewhere about middle school. I transitioned to historical fiction...James Michener and Leon Uris...indeed, am reading Uris's "The Haj" right now. As for the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew, I did go back recently to read one to see what enthralled me, just their simplicity and innocence . I also went back and read me favorite book from middle school "Lorne Doone"...written in 1850's English which I was amazed I could comfortable understand. One of our cats is named Lorne Doone...and not the cookies!