What Kinds of Books Do You Read?

What kind of books do you read? Do you think reading is important for you?

For those of you who are at the same age as I am, do you read BOBO when you were a kid? I did.

Why do you think many Indonesians do not have a habit to read books? Is it to do with the fact that reading books require us to spend money? Is it to do with the fact that getting books, especially for us who live in rural areas is relatively difficult?

For example, if you want to buy high quality books for children and teenagers, you can easily do so at Gramedia. The thing is, usually, Gramedia Book Store is located at a province capital city, such as Medan, if you live in North Sumatra. If you in DKI or Daerah Khusus Ibukota, you might find Gramedia Book Stores easily around your neighborhoods.

My parents are farmers, both my mom and my dad. They don't really buy books for me and my siblings except books related to our schooling which are obligatory books, that students must have.

 

What Kinds of Books Do I read from Early on? 

I already started to read several kinds of books, at least when I was at my second year of my elementary school. My dad's siblings, especially his sisters, used to bring books to the village and gave those for me to read.

As I remember now, unfortunately, due to particular situations at that time, most of those books were gone. I was a small kid, and I didn't really have such a habit on how to take care of books.

My mom didn't read books, so, it does look to me now that she didn't really have a significant effort to keep those books safe.

I am told by one of my dad's sisters, how she found out that my mom could used my school-notes to light fire in the kitchen. As one day, when she visited us, in the village, she noticed that there were some pages of my school-note next to our fireplace. She took the pages and found out that those pages contained my handwriting.

Don't you think it is such an important collection if you still have your notes, as an elementary student, when you are already at high school like myself? Even more, when we are an adult, and still having our notes when we are at the first grade? Lucky are those who still have it!

I wish, I still have those books for children, that I had when I was a kid back home in the village. The weather in our village was and still cold, generally speaking. Without keeping books dry and put them at safe places in the house, books can easily be damaged, torn, wet and useless.

Plus, children in my village, as their parents, do not have reading habit. There is no library in the village, at all. None. As I reflect now, this situation makes people there do not have appreciation to keep books in good shapes so the books can last long. No, nothing.

As kid, I did let some of my friends taking my books and they didn't return the books. Did I care? Most likely, no. I can justify myself now that I was a kid, I didn't care to keep the book safe and in a good shape so those books could last long.

Reading and taking care of books was not my world, I only read and being interested on those books for a while. Also, I spent most of my time at the farm. There is a possibility that I could take any of those books to our farm and the book was damaged, torn or even left there, rotten and gone.

BOBO

I started reading BOBO at least since I was 9 years of age, may be even younger than that. My dad's oldest sister, who lives in Jakarta, regularly sent me BOBO to the village together with other books, and stuffs that I needed such as pen, notes, clothes, etc (et cetera).

Some of those BOBOs were also damaged, torn, wet, and gone. I managed to keep some editions up until now. 

I am pretty sure, reading BOBO does contribute to my habit on liking to read especially non-text-books that are used at school. By reading BOBOs, I come to know all kind of information available on every edition. It was always a joy for me to find a new edition being sent from Jakarta.

(Some of Enid Blyton's books) 

ENID BLYTON

At home here, I have some of Enid Blyton's books. Blyton is a teacher, an English children's writer. She is one of the most important children's writers in the world and her books have been translated into more than 90 languages.

I am told by one of my dad's sisters that an Indonesian who lived in England, a Batak woman, gave some of Enid Blyton's work for her to bring to Indonesia, when I was around 4 years of age. My dad's sister visited her in England, they were friends. I am glad that I could have and read the books.

I started to read Enid Blyton's when I was a junior high. At that time, I hardly could understand the texts, the very reason why the sister of my dad only gave the books for me during this time. I am told that she did so since she didn't want the books being damaged, torn and lost if these books were in the village.

At junior high, I was trained at home to practice reading Enid Blyton's. Beside reading the books, I was also trained to write the stories with handwriting.

These kinds of trainings, reading and writing, and also, sometimes, reciting, do have significant contributions to my ability to understand English and also at the same time, boosting my will to read.

I understand now, that learning English only at school, is not enough to make a person fluent, or at least have a good capability on using it such as in reading, writing and understanding. We get to train ourselves out side of school-classroom.*** 

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