In honor of Bangkok’s two biggest book fairs, here are our favorite independent bookstores from one of the most literary cities in the world: New York.

Ruangroj “Krating” Poonpol, 36, graduated from Stanford University before working as a consultant at McKinsey and a lead marketing manager at Google. Ahead of his guest speaker slot at TCDC’s Creativities Unfold this Aug 30-31, BK chats with him about his new adventure, founding Disrupt University to promote the startup community in Thailand.

Rarely seen without his hot pink step-through bicycle, Pramot Lertlamyong, 32, made a name for himself in the online world as part of the V-Team bike crew. In just one year, he’s gone from covering no more than 20km a day to over 300km, all on his “legendary housewife’s bike.” BK talks to him about biking and defying conventions in Bangkok and beyond.

A third-year student of Materials Science and Engineering at the National University of Singapore, Jirapat “Pun” Puapipat, 22, became internet-famous after he started traveling alone and posting photos of his backpack-strapped back in foreign destinations on Pantip. Pun has traveled throughout most of Southeast Asia and is currently exploring Europe for the first time. His Facebook page The Walking Backpack has over 54,000 followers and has recently been turned into a book of the same name. BK talks to him about his travel experiences.

Book to movie adaptations are kind of a big thing in 2014. But should you should you read now or wait?