Coffee, comfort and choice for booklovers at Limma bookshop
By Stevie Emilia
JAKARTA (JP): Book lovers, good news. There is a different kind of bookshop in the city where you can browse, buy or rent new books while sipping a cup of hot coffee for free.
From the outside, Limma bookshop, located on Jl. Bangka in Kemang, South Jakarta, looks no different from houses in the area -- big, surrounded by high fences and adjacent to trendy cafes.
Once inside, however, and the differences become apparent. This bookshop bears little resemblance to most of its kind found in the city.
No searing gaze of the bookshop attendants, or frowns for daring to open a book for a quick read.
Here you can select a book, take a seat on a comfortable couch and read your choice to your heart's content before deciding whether to buy the work.
In the meantime, help yourself to a nice cup of hot coffee, a cold soft drink or cookies. They are for free. No spills allowed, however, because you will have to pay for the damage -- and excuses are not accepted.
The collection of books is great. Neatly arranged on wooden shelves, tables and even the floor, one can pick from a diverse range. Pick up William Peter Hamilton's The Stock Market Barometer, Kirsten M. Lagatree's Feng Shui at Work, William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying or Paul Kropp's Raising a Reader: Make Your Child a Reader for Life. There is a complete selection of comics for children, from Charlie Brown to Superman. All the books are in English.
Prices of the books, notorious in this country for their expense, are relatively reasonable. For instance, Thom W. King and Debora Peterson's Sex, Intimacy & Lying about Love (5,000 Men Go to Bed and Tell the Truth) is available for Rp 180,000, Robert Frost's Selected Poems (Rp 120,000) or The Art of Fine Cigars by John-Manuel Andriote, Andrew E. Falk and B. Henry Perez (Rp 225,000).
Feliza Kamayata, one of Limma's two owners, said she came up with the idea for the bookshop soon after she returned from studying in Portland, Oregon.
"When I went to bookshops here, I felt disappointed ... the book collections were not complete and they were expensive. Then I thought why not set up my own bookshop?" she told The Jakarta Post in her office.
She was a little apprehensive about running the business on her own. But she became sure of her decision after listening to people's complaints about the lack of good books here, or stories about those who went abroad in search of books and returned home with their luggage weighed down with them.
She set up Limma in October 1996 with a friend. Each of them contributed Rp 100 million at a time when the exchange rate of the rupiah to the U.S. dollar was Rp 2,300.
Books are ordered directly from publishers in the United States and Britain. An avid reader herself, Feliza also regularly visits Frankfurt's book fair to keep up with the latest developments in the industry.
Initially, the company only offered books by catalog. Requested books were delivered to customers, free of charge for Jakarta residents.
She said the company set no specific target market, such as expatriates or upper income consumers. Anyone can be on the mailing list simply by returning the registration form by fax.
"Seventy percent of our mailing list members are Indonesians. For me, that's very good news. It means that many people here like to read despite the assumption that many Indonesians don't like to read." She added that most of Limma's loyal customers are working women.
Months after it was set up, the country was hit by the economic crisis. Feliza admitted that she feared the enterprise would go bankrupt in the crisis.
Last year, the situation slowly started to get better even though the company has yet to recover its investment.
And last December, Limma bookshop opened for all. Feliza said the concept was embraced from the largest independent bookshop in the U.S. -- a homey setting which provides a special coffee room -- which she experienced in Portland.
"Actually, I want my bookshop to be like that. But it's impossible. First, I don't have the space and I want to focus on books. It would be odd if we had a big cafe but little space for the bookshop."
She said she set out to create a warm atmosphere for customers.
"Basically, we know our customers by their first names, they also know us by our first names. We become friends and that's fine with me. And the customers are forthright in giving suggestions. They don't think of us as a faceless shop. Customers can actually talk to us. It means that they care."
After the opening of the bookshop, she said many customers preferred to come to browse through the more than 2,000 titles on display instead of only buying through orders.
Due to the impact of the crisis, Limma no longer orders large quantities of books per title, but now emphasizes variety.
"We don't dare (order large quantities). If something bad happens, God forbid, it will be easier to settle if we have less stock," said the holder of a master's degree in business administration and bachelor's in psychology.
But the crisis also has prevented her from ordering many good quality books.
"Personally, I see there's plenty of good quality books, like self-help and children's books. I'm sure if our purchasing power were still strong, they would sell. But we can't do it now because the prices are getting really expensive."
If pinched pocketbooks mean a purchase is out of the question, Jakartans can still rent the work they want.
First, one has to become member through providing copies of IDs and paying a joining fee of Rp 150,000 for a single membership and Rp 225,000 for couples.
The rental fee is Rp 20,000 for paperbacks and children's books, Rp 35,000 for hardcovers and Rp 60,000 for design books and miscellaneous titles.
Holders of a single membership are entitled to rent three books per rental period and couples can borrow six.
Rental periods for paperback titles and children books are 21 days, while hardcover and design titles are 30 days. Limma also gives a two-day grace period at the end of the rental periods before charging another full rental fee for tardy borrowers.
The bookshop is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Feliza acknowledged that some customers urged her to open the bookshop on Sunday as well. Although national security matters remain a concern for her, she said: "We've been discussing it. We'll see how the election results are..."