Imported books widely available in town

T. Sima Gunawan, Contributor, Jakarta

Every day new shops open in Jakarta selling all kinds of goods, from shoes and clothes to televisions and cell phones. And also books.

Well, there are not many bookstores compared to, say, clothes stores or jewelry stores, but at least there are a few offering a great variety of good books.

It is easy to find New York Times best-sellers like Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code (which has spent 118 weeks on the list) and Angels and Demons, John Grisham's The Last Juror and My Life by Bill Clinton; books for children and teenagers like Superman and Lizzy McGuire, or chick-lit like Sophie Kinsella's Undomestic Goddess and Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada.

"It's really great. You can browse through the books and read them comfortably while having a cup of coffee," Feiny Sentosa, a resident of Kemang, South Jakarta, said during a recent visit to the nearby Aksara bookstore, which also has a cafe.

The mother of one is new to town, moving back after spending more than 10 years in New Zealand and Laos.

Ten years ago, it was hard to find imported books here. The two national bookstore chains, Gramedia and Gunung Agung, have existed for decades and have lots of books on offer, but they are mainly locally published. People used to have to go to Singapore to buy English books or order them at Amazon.com.

Now Jakarta has three huge bookstores with a wide selection of imported books and magazines: QB World Books, Aksara Prodak and Kinokuniya. English-language books are also available at Periplus, Times, Paperbag and Limma Bookshop. If you cannot find a certain title, you can place an order with most bookstores and expect your book to be delivered within between two to five weeks.

You can also order books that have not yet been published, like J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (book number six in the series), which will be available around the world on July 16.

QB opened its first bookstore at Plaza Senayan, South Jakarta, in June 1999 and a few months later the second store opened on Jl. Sunda, near Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta. The third opened in 2001 on Jl. Iskandar Muda, Pondok Indah, South Jakarta, and within the past four years three more bookstores opened in Kemang (2002), Plaza Semanggi (2004) and Bandung (2005).

There are three Aksara bookstores: in Kemang, Cilandak Town Square and Plaza Indonesia, which opened in 2000, 2002 and 2004, respectively.

"We opened the bookstore to meet the huge demand (for imported books)," said Vivian Idris, the marketing manager of Aksara, adding that 90 percent of its collection was English titles.

Aksara serves both Indonesians and expatriates of all ages. The best sellers in Kemang are mostly books on architecture and children's books. At the Plaza Indonesia store there is a strong demand for fiction, restaurant books and books on health and business, while the top sellers at Cilandak Town Square are fiction and children's books.

Both Aksara and QB offer membership programs for customers. Members receive invitations for special events at the bookstores such as book launches, book discussions and exhibitions, as well as information on new arrivals. To attract more visitors, they also offer special discounts for both members and non-members.

Another great bookstore in Jakarta is Kinokuniya. It opened its first store in the early 1990s in a small corner of Sogo in Plaza Indonesia. Just last year the international chain took over almost the entire fifth floor of Sogo at Plaza Senayan. This year it plans to open a third store at Pondok Indah Mall II, which is still under construction. Besides English books, Kinokuniya also has many Japanese books and some rare books, including The Cartier Collection: Jewelry, which costs Rp 4,785,000. Most of the books at Kinokuniya are neatly wrapped in plastic, so you might need to ask for assistance if you want to have a read.

The Limma Bookshop & Library on Jl. Bangka in South Jakarta has an online service that allows you to buy or rent books without leaving home. Times Bookstore is located in Pondok Indah Mall. It used to have a branch in Plaza Indonesia, but that site is now occupied by Periplus. Periplus Bookshops can also be found in Kemang as well as in the Grand Hyatt Hotel, the Aryaduta Hotel and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Outside Jakarta, there are Periplus branches in Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Bali.

There is also a small bookstore called Paperbag on Jl. Aditiawarman, which offers limited stocks of children's books and fiction, both new and used books. It also buys used books. For example, a used book titled The Best Laid Plans by Sidney Sheldon costs Rp 56,000, while the buy-back price is Rp 14,000. Anne Rice's Taltos is Rp 54,000 and the buy-back price is Rp 2,000. Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code is Rp 75,000 with a buy-back price of Rp 33,000.

A new copy of Da Vinci Code is available for Rp 85,000 or Rp 92,000, depending on the bookstore, while in the U.S. the book costs US$7.99 (about Rp 77,500). It is more expensive here because the supplier has to pay shipping, import tax and other expenses.