Real Books!

Yesterday we were doing some errands in the Reedley area and afterwards we decided to take a coffee break in town. We stopped at Brick and Stone Coffee on G Street.

Brick and Stone Coffee is run by Christians and it is apparent from the decor and the background music. It used to be in Dinuba, but then they moved to Reedley. Bad for Dinuba but more convenient for us. As I was sipping my coffee, I was looking around at the decor.

Brick and Stone Coffee

Something seemed a little off, but I couldn't figure it out at first. And then it struck me. They had real books!

Real Books

When we lived in Thailand, we liked to visit independent coffee shops. They tended to be better than the big chains because their prices were generally lower and we could usually get our custom drinks the way we liked them. Because competition was pretty fierce in the coffee shop business, the different shops would have to do something to draw customers. Typically, they would have an environment conducive to taking selfies. And so there would be props and decor geared toward that end.

Order Here Coffee Shop even had a Fake Washing Machine as a Prop.

One of the props we would see is fake books. Usually they stood out because the titles were in English.

Order Here was the name of a coffee shop in a small village in Kamalasai district of Kalasin. People would actually come with changes of clothes just for selfies. Some of the outfits were definitely not the type you would see on the streets! They had fake books scattered about, such as the one below. These books were basically empty cardboard boxes with book-like images on the outside.

Fake Book at Order Here Coffee Shop

But Order Here was far from the only coffee shop that did this. Black Coffee in Khon Kaen went all out with them.

Empty Boxes Disguised as Books at Black Coffee

Finding real books as "props" to actually read while sipping coffee was not that common. And even if there were such books, they might not be accessible. In one coffee shop in Chiang Khong, we sat down near a bookcase hoping to browse some of the books, only to find they were on the other side of the glass with their bindings facing inside, giving you false hope you might be able to look inside them.

Books on the Other Side of the Glass at Rider Coffee

So if you want to actually look at books while you're sipping your coffee istead of taking selfies or browsing social media, check out Brick and Stone Coffee in Reedley. (Cornerstone Coffee in Fresno also has books.)