Me and My Books

I remember visiting my school library every day and I would spend the whole break time there. I finished reading the complete series of “Little House on a Prairie” when I was in 5th grade. Nerd, you say? Maybe… But I just fell in love with books ever since I was able to read. I dream to have a big library one day where everyone can come and enjoy reading books for free. But it would be a read-in only library. No books allowed to be taken out of the library.

For me books are the best decoration element in a house. Designing shelves for my books collection was the first thing I did when I was planning the renovation of my new apartment. In fact, the reason why I chose that particular apartment unit was because it had a perfect spot for my library.

I understand that we are in digital era where eBooks are maybe more convenient for some as they are easy to get, cheaper, and less space-consuming. But I love old-time paper books more. You won’t get the smell of the papers when you open your kindle. Nor will you get the excitement of going to bookstore and meeting other books lovers when you buy an eBook from amazone on your iPad. And as I said before, books make the best decoration in a house. I never see any interior designer featuring hundreds of iPad or Kindles as their room decoration element.

I have four types of books in my small library. First are those that I recently bought and read. Second are books still wrap in plastic. Enid Blyton’s Famous Five, Herge’s Tintin, RA Kosasih’s Mahabharata, Sydney Seldon’s, Marga T’s are some of them. I borrowed those books in the past and I liked them so I decided to buy my own copies.

The third kind is books that I may or may not like. I really was judging the book by its cover when I bought them because I picked them for the intriguing synopsis on the back cover or the good review people say about them. I may not have time to read all of them now but I will have plenty during my retirement time. (This will be long before it comes. Wink)

Non-fiction books such as books on IT, philosophy, history, home decoration, traveling, financial, etc. are the last kind of books I have in my collection. They are not necessarily the least favorite, but I don’t really read them cover to cover. Instead, I browse them to get certain information or reference.

I mostly read easy-to-read, easy to absorb, easy to digest books. For me, reading is a way to relax. That’s why I select fictional and preferably in Bahasa Indonesia. I found reading books in English would acquire me double effort to translate and the process the story and the information. Though I’d say that my English is not bad at all, I don’t want to ruin my recreational time with such tiring activities.

I am still working of adding my collection. You can help me by donating your old books or donating money for me to buy new books ;). My wish-list, in case you are interested to know, is: Complete series of Kho Ping Hoo, complete series of Lucky Luke, complete series of Little House on the Prairie, complete series of Alfred Hitchcock’s Trio Detektif, complete series of Kungfu Boy.

Oh, one more things. One day I will have my own books in my collection. The book that has my name as the author. But for that, I think I have to wait for a while 🙂

PS: thanks to my editor and English coach, Lief Anthony 🙂