Yesterday, I went to one of the biggest bookstore in Surabaya. Bookstore is one of my favorite store, right along with DVD and shoes store. I think this love came from my parent who never gave me money to buy "garbage" snacks but when it comes to books, suddenly my mom's purse and my dad's wallet are opened wide. I guess since then I associated books with a great feeling of joy. And of course, my extended family such as my aunts and uncles also brought me books whenever they visited me. So every time I enter a bookstore, don't wait up....I might be a while. It's my little wonderland. I remembered the first time I went to Kinokuniya book store in Singapore, it was so big....OOO boy....I was so excited I didn't even know where to start......and when I read about the biggest bookstore in world in Toronto , every time I'm thinking about visiting Canada, I always make a mental note to put aside at least 1 day to visit this bookstore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Biggest_Bookstore
Anyway, going to the bookstore yesterday also gave a sad thought about my fellow Indonesian reading habit. It's so low that it's almost non-existence. For example only 2,8% of the population reads newspaper, I can't even imagine how much lower the percentage for books.
Yes..yes....I must admit there are several issues behind the low rates of reading among the Indonesian. The biggest reason is, as usual financial, it's kinda hard to even think about buying book when you are struggling just to put basic meal on the table. Unfortunately for more that 49%of the population that's just the reality of life. What about the other 50% of the population, you might ask. Well, it's hard to beat the culture of TV, just from my observation when I'm in public spaces such as doctor waiting room, you will find almost everybody will have their eyes glued on some inane TV program or the one with smart phones will have their eyes glued on their phones.
And the other reason is the access to a book, unless you live in a big city or at least decent size one, getting books is as hard as getting water in the Sahara desert. I know this from first hand experience. I was born and until 15 yrs old, lived in a small town. To give you an idea how hard it is to get good literature source when I was growing up the morning paper showed up late in the afternoon. You might say "well, time has change, it's the 21st century now." Yes, we are living in the 21st century but other than school textbooks and magazines, you're still not gonna find anything else. You still need to go to a big city such as Surabaya to find decent books. And if you think that's bad, just think that my hometown is still located in Java, the main island of Indonesia. I can't even begin to imagine places outside of Java, like Kalimantan or even worse Papua.
According to survey in 2009, for the whole Indonesian population only 0,0009% new books are publish yearly. That's really bad because according to UNESCO a developing country should have at least 10% published books for the whole population, and a developed country should have at least 30%.
And the attitude of the books providers are not exactly helping. For instance, if you go to Gramedia (one of the biggest publisher and book store in Indonesia) store, you will find it hard to find some kind of a chair to sit down and enjoy a book in the store. So if you want to read the book before deciding to buy it, you have to do it standing. Actually, the fact that they even let you read it first place is already a big step forward. When I was growing up, most of the bookstores, including Gramedia put big sign all over the store, "Di larang baca di tempat" (Don't read the book in the store), and if you did the clerks will give you dirty look or even out loud scolded you. That's so the opposite of Korea, Singapore, China and even Saudi.
In Singapore and Korea, they provide you chairs and if you don't like sitting on a chair just find a cozy spot on the carpeted floor. In Saudi, they provide you hard metal chairs. And in China, they don't provide you with chairs but you are welcome to sit on the floor, as long as you don't mind people walking around you.
The progress of literacy in Indonesia is also still pretty slow, for instance China translated the great classic works of Shakespeare, Dickens and other western classical writers back in the 40's n 50's. Indonesia is still haven't even come close to that stage. If you are an Indonesian interested in reading and learning more about Romeo and Juliet or Othello, then you better learn english first, because that's the only language the books still available in.
But the truth is, I haven't lost hope for this country. The evidence in the book store gives showed me that there are a lot of aspiring and talented writers in this country, also you can find more and more bookstores in big cities. Maybe in the next ten or twenty years all this will change for the better. One can always hope and pray!
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