Rare Finds Bookstore and Cafe

Rare Finds is an independent bookshop with a coffee counter on a quiet lane between Tha Phae Gate and Chang Moi Road. The two owners, both English-literature graduates who moved up from Bangkok, choose every book: classics, translated and serious Thai fiction, poetry and travel writing, with no self-help. Plants fill the front, records play, and there's a sofa by the window for reading before you buy. They're happy for people to sit and read for hours. It's my pick for a rainy afternoon.