Two Hours in Cheap book Heaven: Travel-Books

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IN THE Taman Pintar Complex, Yogyakarta (Indonesia), the science hunters are like finding heaven. Lines of small stalls displaying all kinds of books at surprisingly cheap prices. Another surprise lies in the classic book titles, which so far have only heard the title and author. If you want to look for the next surprise, there are sellers who know all kinds and titles of quality books.

I asked myself, did they read it or only knew the title and author because it sold the book. If it is the latter, it means they are like my wife who knows the form of the cover and the title, without ever reading it through.

Together with a friend, I went straight to a bookstore called "Shopping" in Yogyakarta. Darkness fell faster in Yogyakarta than in Aceh. As soon as the plane landed at Adi Sucipto airport, we headed straight for the Sahid Rich Hotel on Jalan Magelang. After resting for a while, my friend and I headed straight to Taman Pintar with a paddle rickshaw, which is very cheap, only Rp.10,000. In fact, my weight reaches 82 kg and my friend is around 75 kg. However, the old pedicab driver is able to row it. That's what makes us pay 100 percent more.

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Many bookstores were already closed when we arrived. We are grateful that there is an event at Kangen Park so that the atmosphere around is very crowded, and because of that, there are still bookstores open, especially those close to the event location. Usually, even though it gets dark faster, the nights seem to never sleep in the City of Tourism, and Yogya is nicknamed the City of Tourism, in addition to the City of Students and the City of History.

The book hunt began. I asked several titles of literary books that I didn't have, including works by Alice Munroe, Albert Camus, Nawal El Saadawi, and so on.

"Albert Camus, will you?" a seller bargained.

"Yes, but not Sampar because I have read it," I said about the work of the French writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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In less than half a minute, he showed me Albert Camus' book, which has been translated into Indonesian, entitled "The Crisis of Freedom" with a white cover and a Nazi symbol that looks faint because it is covered with a red landscape. I bought the book immediately. I also bought a book by the Egyptian author, Nawal El Saadawi, entitled "Zeina".

And this is the first Saadawi book I have. It is difficult to find a book like this in Aceh. Buying them online costs more to post than books. Other books I bought related to the world of writing, English, economics, history books, and creativity development books.

Only two bookstores that I stopped seriously. However, I spent over IDR 1,000,000 at both of these stalls. That's a lot of money for me, even though I've bought that number of books several times. At the end of the month, shopping for books for millions — in the midst of limited income — is not a normal choice.

With quite a lot of discounts, I've saved by buying books at Shopping Taman Pintar. The amount of the discount depends on the book title. Sometimes — if you're lucky — you can get a good, thick book for only Rp.20,000, such as Robert Whiting's “Tokyo Underworld”. The book is about the life of an American gangster in Japan, and it is a true story.

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I bought many other books to take advantage of my opportunity to be in Yogyakarta. I went to Kota Gudeg for office assignments, so I had to optimize the limited time — including at the expense of resting periods — to buy books.

In other areas, including networked bookstores, the price of books in Indonesia is very expensive. In contrast to other developed countries, book prices can be cheaper due to supportive government policies. In Indonesia, books have become expensive, partly because there are too many VAT and PPH taxes for the book industry. In fact, I was a writer felt it when the royalty from the sale of the book, which was meager, was also subject to 15 percent tax. Supposedly, taxes for intellectual products could be lower or eliminated altogether to build an intellectual culture in Indonesia.

About two more hours we spent hunting for books. We were not able to find everything we were looking for, because many shops were closed. However, what we bought was sufficient. Maybe on another occasion, we can hunt for books back in Yogyakarta.

When the night got older, we decided to go home on foot to the famous Malioboro. The atmosphere is getting quiet, but many foreign tourists are passing by enjoying Malioboro. Actually, we still want to sit on the floor in Malioboro while reading the synopsis of several books. However, the body was very tired, and carrying dozens of books — thick and thin — made our bodies even sorer. Finally, we decided to go back to the hotel to sleep. []

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