I created Tea & Tales because, frankly, I was out of a job.
It wasn’t entirely by accident, though.
After almost two decades of corporate life (it was fun, I’m not gonna lie), having moved back to Vietnam so my child could have a slower childhood, I found myself wondering if I was going to work remotely and report to London for another two decades. Well, life has a funny way of giving you the answer you’re looking for. Mine was in the form of an unexpected pregnancy.
Nothing was quite as exhilarating as quitting your job whilst expecting another child. I knew what I wanted, and spending more time on Teams wasn’t it. I was increasingly aware of how I, same as everyone else, have become extremely good at living speedily and frictionlessly via the screen: with takeaway apps to feed us, taxi apps to take us, social apps to entertain us, AI apps to assist us, and photo apps to remind us. Although greatly convenient, it was all a little much. Too fast. Too brisk. Too distracting.
To top it all off, the thing that helps me relax and re-centre: books, good English books, turns out to be rather expensive and surprisingly hard to find in Vietnam, especially if you don’t live in a big city or near an expat hub.
So that’s how Tea & Tales was born: because good books shouldn’t be hard to get. This is my little attempt at democritising the joy of books, to make them less of a luxury and more of an everyday pleasure. Then naturally, they should be housed in a space where comfort, stillness, silliness, and questions are all welcomed. And then there’s tea. Who could resist tea?!
Tea & Tales is a lending library, because books should always be accessible wherever you are; a tea room, because reading deserves something nice to drink; and a community, because we are simply better together.
The shelves are thoughtfully chosen rather than endlessly filled. There are books for grown-ups, books for curious little people, and books that might make you pause, think, laugh, or see the world slightly differently.
And if you don't live nearby, that's perfectly alright. The library can come to you.
Is it going to change the world? Absolutely not.
But if it means a child chooses a book instead of another video, a reader finds their favourite read whilst living in a remote corner of Vietnam, or a family ends up talking about a story long after the book is closed, I'll consider that a pretty good use of my unexpected career change.