Some thoughts and a little plea...

Everything about books excites me. I love characters and the beautiful stories in it, fictional or not. I love words. Strong words that built in a perfect order, creating one strong quotation that I would recite on and on. One single book can haunt me for days and a really inspiring one I would keep dear in my heart for years.

Bookstores or a really good library is my haven. Standing around stacks of books somehow feels comforting, and sexy at the same time. I feel at ease. At home. I would take my time. Take a long slow deep breath, filling up my lungs with the sweet scent of bundled papers. And I like the silence. I like how the presence of books in massive numbers can always force people to talk in whispers, leaving only soft sounds of fingers flipping pages or pens scratching from hands taking notes.

Above all, I believe that a book is a classroom. An education tool that would feed minds, an open window that would light a generation. My mother and father taught me that. They constantly encouraged me and my sister to read. Easily gave us money, as long as it was used to buy books, novels, even comic books and magazines. Yes, I was very lucky.

10 years ago, I developed a habit. I started collecting children books. To me, there’s something magical about children books. They’re always so simple yet so optimistic (sometimes annoyingly too optimistic). But I love it. Reading them feels like I'm studying on how to be a good human being all over again. I’d go to street markets, flea markets and little bookshops to hunt for secondhand children books. It’s weird how I prefer old books compared to new ones. Sometimes I think maybe it’s not so much about the books anymore. Maybe it’s also about the hunt.

One of my dreams is to have a small bookshop. Or a really charming home library. Either way, I see myself sitting calmly, in contentment, surrounded by my books. And I see my future children sitting next to me, giggling with eyes wide open, eagerly reading stacks of books that once were my favorites. Admiring the same pages, absorbing the same magic. And then we’ll chat, gossiping about our favorite characters or our favorite lines for hours.

So, when I found out that Ika & Kelik are opening a mini library at Taman Belajar Rumahsenyumpagi, I was super excited. You can read all about it here and check out the photos here. Their library will open this February but I'm sure they will gladly accept more books donations. I'm donating some of mine, and if you have awesome children books lying around, old or new, in English or in Bahasa Indonesia, please please pretty please donate them too. You can give them to me and I'll send them to Ika & Kelik. Thanks!