Claiming to be a first for Thailand, the Double A Book Tower (previously known as Thailand Book Tower) (122 Sathorn Soi 12, North Sathorn Rd., 02-236-7575, 02-267-7171. Open daily 10am-9pm. BTS Surasak. www.thailandbooktower.com) is a nine-story building filled with different genres of books and multimedia. Just a short walk from Surasak BTS, the TBT joins the Thailand Creative and Design Center (TCDC) and TK Park as another educational resource in Bangkok—this one not requiring any membership fee to browse and enjoy their books, and being almost entirely devoted to the Thai language. Supported by Double A, Thailand’s well-known paper manufacturer, the venue gathers books from more than 400 publishers for bibliophiles to browse and buy.

Though unfinished, it already attracts book lovers of all ages. Its eighth floor, the staff insists, is soon to contain foreign books, though it’s currently empty. The food zone on the seventh floor, meanwhile, is still short of restaurants. However, apart from those areas awaiting construction, every floor is packed with quality Thai books and translations. A five percent discount is offered to TBT members, and there’s no joining fee; you just need to buy one item in the building to qualify for membership. Staff can help you find what you want, though there are also computer search engines on each floor.

The first floor is dedicated to bestsellers and new arrivals. There, you can sip a cup of coffee while you read in The Corner—the Tawaravadee Hotel’s cozy coffee shop. A post office is located at the back. The second to top floors are all divided into two sections: a TBT zone and a publisher zone. On the publisher’s side, popular book merchants will represent their catalogues, including Nanmee Books, Kled Thai, Bear Publishing, Suan Ngern Mee Ma and Matichon. In the TBT zone, each floor has its own theme. On the second floor are modern novels, collections of poems, short stories and literature.

The third floor is a living zone, where you can find books on music, travel, home décor, health care and sports. There are also magazines from Sarakadee, cookbooks from Sangdad and many pocket books from Nation Books. Up one floor is the “Kids’ Zone,” where plenty of fairytales appear and toys for infants. The fifth floor is the “Brain Zone,” which contains textbooks on computers, management, IT and law, in addition to dictionaries and reference materials. The sixth floor is the “Lively Zone,” targeted at teenagers and comic lovers, offering Japanese manga and teen love stories. For those inclined to more serious reading, Work Point publishing, Watta, and the Technology Promotion Association (Thailand-Japan) are also located here. Half of the seventh floor contains that still incomplete food center, while the other side is occupied by multimedia companies, such as Tiga, Teaching Toys, May Seven, Jit Jaggawan, Minor Education and Scholar. On the top floor is an area devoted to conferences, workshops and events, with 600 square meters divided into meeting and seminar rooms.