Clubs bring lovers of the written word together

Clubs bring lovers of the written word together

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A muggy Tuesday night in the third week of August was time once
again for the book club bacabaca (from the Indonesian for
reading) to hold another meeting.

Nine people gathered in an apartment in Kuningan, South
Jakarta, each clutching a copy of Of Love and Other Demons by
Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor in the living room, circling
a wooden table and munching snacks, the group discussed the tale
of a love affair between a middle-aged priest and a teenage girl
believed to be possessed by demons.

Everyone shared a nugget of their literary observations.

A.S. Laksana from akubaca publishing company said Marquez was
always careful in selecting characters' names for his books.

Rizadini Haryanto, an employee of QB bookstore, commented on
how Marquez's journalism background influenced the plot, while
Hikmat Darmawan spoke about how the Colombian writer was skilled
in spinning a romance.

All the opinions showed the members shared one definitive
thing in common: a great love of the written word.

They are also bucking the established notion that Indonesians
are loath to pick up a good book.

"We'd heard enough about the low reading habit among
Indonesians. So, we thought we just start from ourselves as we
all love books," said Hikmat, an editor and translator in a
publishing company.

Along with fellow members Rani E. Ambyo and Rizadini, they
recruited several friends -- mostly in their late 20s and early
30s and working in the publishing field -- to form the club about
four months ago.

"We appointed one person to be the moderator in our monthly
meeting. All books are in English," said Rani, adding that the
readings were not limited to any one genre and that comic books
were already on the agenda.

A former resident of Bandung, West Java, Rani had started a
club there three years ago, as well as setting up a book shop
called Tobucil, a name taken from the Indonesian for "small book
shop".

"I often got annoyed, however, because many of the members
there hadn't read the book like they were supposed to. They came
to the meeting because they wanted to know what kind of book it
was. So, it would end up with only one person doing the talking,"
she said.

The books discussed were limited to Indonesian works or those
translated from other languages.

"It was almost impossible to discuss English books. They were
not very familiar with books in English, perhaps because the
access to English books in Bandung is very limited."

It is the reason she established the book club in her new home
of Jakarta, a place she said where people were more "literate"
and access to books was better.

For Ditta Amahorseya, the head of corporate affairs of
Citibank's Citigroup, the problem is getting Indonesians to join
her club.

Ditta is the lone Indonesian in the club, established 11 years
ago, among a group of expatriate women.

"I've given up asking my Indonesian friends because they are
not committed. They never showed up again. After several attempts
I gave up because I feel embarrassed," Ditta said.

She said many of the book clubs in the city were organized by
expatriates.

Ditta's club consists of women of various nationalities, whose
professions range from businesswomen, consultants to housewife.

"Our membership is ever-changing, because the expatriates move
a lot. We meet monthly, except for summer and December, because
at that time, the foreigners usually go back to their home
country," Ditta said.

Each member recommends a book, and then a vote is taken on
which will be read for the next meeting.

The books discussed are award-winning, critically acclaimed
works, or best-sellers, and must have been published within the
past three years. Most are fiction, but an occasional nonfiction
work, such as a biography, is put on the agenda.

"I wish there were more contemporary Indonesian books being
translated into English. It's a pity that I can't recommend
Indonesian books. We only have discussed two books by (noted
local authors) Pramoedya Ananta Toer and Mochtar Lubis. Even then
we had to break the rules because both books were published in
the 1960s."

Despite the problems of getting Indonesian members and books,
Ditta said being a book club member was rewarding.

Her knowledge and references have been broadened and enriched;
she is now familiar with many writers she never knew before, such
as from Germany and Morocco.

"We also learn the discipline to read regularly. There's even
homework for each member to read another work from the same
author whose book are being discussed. And then we're always
eager to look for a new book to recommend," she said.

Ditta remains optimistic that more Indonesians will join book
clubs and that a true reading habit will one day become the norm,
not the exception.