Blog si Feminis

“Reading”
is always one thing I mention when people ask what hobbies I have,
besides swimming, and recently blogging. At home, if I am not
mistaken I have more than one thousand titles of books although my
paycheck is just so so. (Well, so I think. )
It means people can add another hobby of mine: collecting books.

Do
you then think that my days are full of reading activities?

Recently
I start to suspect myself that in fact I am not that fond of reading.

I just want to show off to people around me that I belong to the
intellectual type by saying that I love reading. 
Also by bringing book(s) anywhere I go while in fact I don’t always
have time (or force myself to spare time) to read. 

What
made me accuse myself that horrible (and pathetic) thing? LOL.

Recently,
I start paying attention to one workmate of mine who loves bringing
books to the workplace. She is lucky to get one stand by time (I have
never got one since five or six years ago) so that if all teachers on
duty are present, she doesn’t have lots of things to do but
pressing the bell as a sign the class starts and ends. I always see
her taking out a book. She is still interested in reading books about
raising children. FYI, her first child is around two years old while
the second one is around six months old. After one or two weeks she
will bring a new book to read. That made me conclude that she already
finished reading the previous book. Different from me that mostly
bringing my own book, she brings books she borrows from a public
library where she is one of the members. (I am even no longer a
member of one library, after finishing my study around two years
ago.) Because the books do not belong to her, she has to read the
books she borrows from the library at a certain period of time. This
quite amazed me of course because that is one thing I cannot do: have
to read books at a certain period of time. I don’t enjoy reading
books like that. 

I
remember one friend from my ex workplace that also loves reading. She
can finish reading one book—novels oftentimes—in a very short
time.

Is
it because I don’t really have much spare time I can use to read
books?

Around
a year ago, a workmate gave me a registration form to be a member of
one library located not far from my workplace. Not wanting to
disappoint him (or perhaps I wanted him to see me as a reading freak
),
I received that registration form, put it in one book I had with me
at that time, then … forgot it peacefully. When another workmate of
mine asked whether I had registered myself at the library, I
snobbishly (and annoyingly) said, “I have lotsa books at home and I
don’t finish reading all of them yet. I don’t need to borrow any
book yet from a library.” Huuuuuuuuuuuu…

I
know I always have difficulty to finish reading one book (especially
the non fiction ones) because I easily get bored. I will just jump to
read another book. But when I love one book, I will have it with me
until I produce some writings for blogs. Well, you can check them
under topic “Books” or “Book review”. Many writings of mine
are inspired by the books I (have) read, besides experiences of
people around me.

I
think this then became my Abang’s idea to “provoke” one new
member of the mailing list we possess
together (he made that milis but then always says that it belongs to
all the members LOL). And his “provocation” took its toll. LOL.
The new member who just had his first novel published sent one copy
to me, expecting I would make a review, or analysis, or whatever it
is called. I didn’t want to disappoint him so I agreed although I
was a bit worried because I was not a pro (yet). LOL. I have written
some reviews or interpretations of books I have read because I love
reading the books. What if in fact I don’t like the book? 

And
my worry came true. The book is not to my interest. 
Thus, it becomes a very heavy burden for me to finish reading it
until the last page, 482. (moreover to “peel it out”) So far, I
stopped reading it till page 5 because it gave me an illustration
like Indonesian sinetrons that are full of unnecessary violent acts
and insulting words that are inappropriate to be heard. Not to
mention his illustrating characters that are not suitable for
children.

This
made me question myself what makes me fall in love with a book? I
love SI PARASIT LAJANG very much. Oh no, perhaps I cannot compare a
non fiction book to a fiction one. I like SAMAN (from the same
author) although not as crazy as I am for SI PARASIT LAJANG. And as a
melancholic romantic feminist, I think I like female authors more
than male ones. (I am not a lesbian though. LOL.) I believe you can
understand why I love Ayu Utami’s books because we view this life
from similar point of view. Meanwhile I like Dewi Lestari because to
me we have undergone similar spiritual journeys, questioning deeply
about this life and religiosity; only she has made a (can be said
temporary, she once said) choice in being a Buddhist while I still
stay Muslim.

How
about the book one member of the mailing list gave me? So far, until
page 5, it didn’t give me any feministic point of view nor
spiritual journey. It tells about parents who quarrel in front of
their young children. Perhaps it is too quick of me to jump to a
conclusion. But the problem is, like what I stated in the beginning
of this writing, in fact I don’t think I really like reading, or I
don’t always succeed forcing myself to spare time to read.

As
for more information some books written by male writers I like:

• “Lelaki
  Terindah” by Andrei Aksana, full of romantic and beautiful poems.
  I directly fell in love with the book when I read the poem printed
  in the back cover.

• “Cantik
  Itu Luka” by Eka Kurniawan. This novel is not thinner than Harry
  Potter’s series. I like the book, first by it’s mysterious yet
  attractive title. The plot is mixture of forward and backward, and
  the story, similar to its mysterious title, is also somewhat horror
  (although I don’t like horror movies anymore, this was only during
  my teenage years). He is a real expert in narrating the story.

• “Ronggeng
  Dukuh Paruk” by Ahmad Tohari. This novel tells about a woman
  destined to be born a “ronggeng” or a sensual dancer and her
  complicate life: having many admirers and foes at the same time.

• “Selingkuh
  itu Indah” a collection of short stories by Agus Noor. Well,
  perhaps this name is already a guarantee of good writings. He is
  smart in choosing the title of one short story to be the title of
  the book. And he cheated the people who “judged the book by its
  cover/title”. Instead of narrating a beautiful love affair outside
  the wedlock, Agus in fact wanted to criticize such affairs. 

• “Petualangan
  Celana Dalam” a collection of short stories, the first book
  written by Nugroho Suksmanto. Some short stories written with
  Semarang as their settings really attracted my attention, somewhat
  forced me back to my childhood (and tried finding my “root”, as
  Budi Darma said when talking about MUDIK tradition on Lebaran ).
  I like some other stories too, including the story whose title was
  chosen to be the title of the book “Petualangan Celana Dalam”.
  One weakness, in my opinion, one (or more, I forget) short stories
  when Nugroho chose a girl as the main character. Nugroho didn’t do
  deep and thorough investigation of women’s emotional and
  psychological problems.

Btw,
at the moment I am still reading AKAR, the second novel (in Supernova
series) by Dewi Lestari. I have time to read it only some minutes in
the early morning while waiting for one student of mine at Bank
Jateng Demak to pick me up and we leave together, and on my way home
from teaching there, while sitting in the bus. Many philosophical
statements I found in this book that made me want to write, to “peel
out” my own spiritual, emotional, as well as psychological
problems. I must admit that as a blogger, I just look for a media to
expose my being narcissistic. However, this is really RELIEVING.

(Meanwhile
I still have that big burden: to finish reading the novel a member of
the mailing list has sent me and then write my interpretation on it.
Sigh deeply …)

PT56
12.55 281107

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