The shop began with one book, found at midnight.
Not a business plan — an obsession. The name says it. OBS stands for Obsessed with Books.
A few years ago I was scrolling through Instagram late at night, looking at an artist's page. In one of her photos I noticed a book open behind her sketchpad. I scrolled through her entire profile until I found the title.
How it started.
The book was The Alpine Flowers of Britain and Europe. I ordered it that week. Both my degrees — bachelor's and master's — were in plant science, but nothing in my studies looked like the illustrations in that book. The scientific papers had diagrams. The textbooks had photographs. Nobody painted them like this — with the precision of science but the warmth of someone who clearly loved what they were looking at.
I started searching for more books like it. Field guides, wildflower illustration, botanical painting — anything with that same careful, hand-labelled style. I could not find a single one in any bookshop in Thailand. Not one. So I started looking further.
The second book.
It was David Sutton's The Complete Guide to Wild Flowers. When it arrived, I sat with it for the whole afternoon. Page after page of wildflowers I had never seen growing in real life but recognised from my studies — annotated, painted, named. I remember thinking: this is what I had been looking for my whole life. And then I thought — maybe someone else in Thailand is looking for this too.
That is how OBS Books started. Not with a business plan. With an obsession.
What we keep on the shelves.
It began with wildflowers and grew into nature, fairy tales, art, sketchbooks, cookbooks. But wildflowers were first. Wildflowers are always first.
We do not stock everything. We stock the kinds of books that started this shop — the ones with careful illustrations, slow reading, and pages worth keeping. Most are imported. A few are secondhand. Some are the only copy in Thailand. When a copy sells, the next one takes a week or two to arrive.
Three small rules, kept on purpose.
Read it first.
Nothing goes on a shelf that Sasi hasn't opened. The note that comes with each book is written from the counter, not from a press release.
Pack it slowly.
Tissue, linen string, and a small slip with the book, illustrator and year. We'd rather take a day longer than send a book that arrives badly wrapped.
Stock what's loved, not what sells.
We say no a lot — to genres, to trends, to titles that don't belong with the rest. It keeps the room quiet.
Two projects, one counter.
Hello — I'm Sasi.
I'm the founder, buyer, packer, and occasional painter.
If you're looking for a particular book — or a kind of book — write to me. I keep a small list of titles I'm searching for, and yours can go on it.
Write to Sasi →