Ruang Rak Khong Ma Thai (Thai Dogs' Love Stories)

Published on December 3, 2007

With more and more Thais opting for pure-bred fluffy lapdogs or large Western pedigrees as their four-legged companions, it's a rare treat reading about the floppy-eared tearaways that are the stars of this new book by Loongthong Baanrai.

The author has been living with Thai pooches all his life - strays for the most part - and is full of praise for these dogs that have cost him nothing but have paid for their board and lodging with love and loyalty.

Loongthong has transformed his memorable experiences with strays who went on to become pets at his Uthai Thani farm into entertaining stories. He explains that while he initially intended to buy a Western working breed, fellow farmers suggested he'd do better making friends with the strays in the area and training them to work. Their words proved prophetic and Loongthong has been passionate about Thai pooches ever since.

The book brings together Longthong's series on dogs published in the best-selling Khoo-sang Khoo-som magazine. He notes that some people have been offended by an earlier observation that "raising a Thai dog is better than raising a human being".

 Loongthong insists that humans are no better than the dogs he's been living with all his life, particularly after his experiences in cyberspace.

But the book's not just about pooches. Readers will also learn about the local people and the slow pace of life in the area. Other stories about dogs he has met and his neighbours are scheduled for publication in the near future.

Mind & Creativity: Jit Pikon Khon Piluek (Mind & Creativity: Weird Mind, Weird People)

By Dr Buncha Thanaboon-Sombat

Published by Sarakadee Press

Available at leading bookstores, Bt150

If you worry at your inability to understand what's going on in your mind, then this is the book for you. Dr Buncha Thanaboon-Sombat offers a range of easy-to-digest scientific explanations in this latest title, which he says is inspired by Luang Vijitvathakarn's "Mahasajan Thang Jit" ("The Wonder of the Mind"), a book he read as a young boy.

Everything can be explained by science, says Buncha. While the superstitious may head to a fortune-teller for an interpretation of their dreams, Bancha says it's better to first consider the type of dream. Some are unconscious, but others are lucid, meaning that the person is actually partly awake and is a part of his or her own dream. Science has shown that we can learn how to control and even prolong these lucid dreams.

He also goes back to the beginning of the 19th century when German circus animal trainer Wilhelm von Osten boasted to the world that his horse, Clever Hans, was able to do maths, recognise people's names and tell the time. The writer again explains scientifically how the horse was capable of learning from "visual cues", meaning he could find the right answer from the crowd's eyes.

Other topics include a theory about privacy and personal space; IQ and how it is measured; the collective hysteria that made a group of people believe they were cats; the hidden meaning of colours; as well as phobias and how they develop.

Whether you are in school or finished with schooling a long time back, this is a book guaranteed to please. A physics graduate, Buncha works as a scientist at MTEC and writes regularly for UpDate and Sarakadee magazines, as well as for the Krungthep Turakij newspaper.