Open a book…to open up the world. Whether it is a novel which transports you to another universe for a few hours, a story to challenge your intellect and preconceptions, a narrative which unlocks new knowledge, a textbook to teach you new skills, a picture storybook to share with your curious-minded loved ones or an homage to the life of someone special, books have been entertaining as well as teaching us for centuries.
Each year Chiang Mai is treated to the Big Bad Wolf Book fair, where a mind-boggling number of Thai and international books are on sale, with reductions of up to 80% off their cover prices, making this THE fair of the year for book lovers.
Starting on the 30th of August and running through to the 8th of September, Big Bad Wolf International Book Sale will be held at the Chiang Mai Hall at Central Chiang Mai Airport between 10am and 9pm daily.
This extraordinary book sale, which will feature over ONE MILLION books this year, in mainly Thai and English, with a smattering of other language options for you to hunt for, is the brainchild of Malaysian company, BookXcess, which launched their first Big Bad Wolf fair in 2009 with the express international of cultivating reading habits in Asia, “Primarily wishing to cultivate reading habits, increase English literacy worldwide and build a new generation of readers by making books more affordable and accessible to everyone.”
Since 2009, millions of books have trekked to over 34 cities in 13 Asian countries, selling deeply discounted books to the public, covering books from the classical to the cutting edge and text books to literature.
Here in Chiang Mai, book lover Trasvin Jittidecharak, owner of Silkworm Books said, “I have travelled to most of the major book fairs in the world and have seen how important these events are for the promotion of reading and love of books. This is the third year I and colleagues from Plan for Kids are now organising the Big Bad Wolf here in my hometown of Chiang Mai and I am overwhelmed by the interest from the public. It is heartening to see families come together to spend hours talking about books and choosing books to take home. We have a massive children’s books section which will please any parent or teacher, indeed even schools which need to build up their libraries. Chiang Mai has numerous universities and a great number of local as well as international schools. This city is a long-established seat of learning, so it has been very heartening for me to see so much interest in our fair and in the purchasing of books, with readers often coming back to the fair day after day as they hunt and peruse.”
“I work in a new international school here in Chiang Mai and we are very much looking forward to building up our library this year at the Big Bad Wolf, a fair I have been going to with my own family for many years. My kids absolutely love spending the day at the fair and we all go as a family and make a whole day’s event out of it. This year though I have a mission for our new school and I have great faith that we will find all the books and tools we need to help educate our young charges,” said a teacher at one of the new schools in town who wishes to remain anonymous.
“I always went with my children to get their books but they have all left for university now,” said Melissa Adams, a US online worker in Chiang Mai. “This year I am going to go for myself, which should be interesting! I get to wander around at my leisure and just dip into books all day. Can’t wait.”
This year will feature more English language books, said Trasvin, which should satisfy the growing demands of not just Chiang Mai’s burgeoning expatriate members, but also the growing number of Thai people – especially the youth – who are reading books in English.
“We have found that many of our Thai readers are interested in non-fiction books, so we have stepped up to provide more general knowledge of non-fiction books covering a wealth of topics. Whatever your field of expertise, your niche, your passion or your interest, we should have something for you this year, what with a million books to choose from and all!,” added Trasvin who promises not only to provide more books, but to also bring them in from more countries. “It is hard to access books from other countries in both English and Thai here in Chiang Mai, and that is why we believe the Big Bad Wolf to be essential, as it really opens up access to books which would never be sold locally.”
There will also be more books provided by Thailand’s growing number of publishing houses, featuring up and coming new authors, Thai translations of more and more international books, classical Thai books republished and, naturally, non-fiction and general knowledge books.
Arrive at the great hall, grab a shopping trolly and simply spend a few hours wandering between piles and piles of books. The best part…you can check out with a mini library for a tiny fraction of what you would ever normally spend!
Join us from August 30 to September 8, 2024, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Central Chiang Mai Airport.
