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Holiday Books
 Posted by: ndin | 07/06 2006, 13:45

It's been a while since I got a decent reading or even the time to do the reading. Well, considering the current situation, I bought not one, not two but three new books yesterday. And this time, I'm going local.

Bidik!
by Nugroho Nurarifin

I don't know the writer and never heard a review on this one. So basically I was trusting my instinct that this would be a genious book from the covers. The front side shows the tag line, "Tragedi selalu memiliki dua sisi" (Tragedy always has two sides) and "Sisi 1: Lomotions" (Side 1: Lomotions). So, there must be a second side of the cover when turned vertically, showing the exact same design and tag line, but instead of Side 1, it says "Sisi 2: Locomotive" (Side 2: Locomotive).
At first, I thought the story is about an occurance told from different sides. I was wrong. There are 2 persons, each with a very different storyline but connected at the end by a mutual character. The first person is a self-proclaimed loser artist trapped in a body of a low-grade accountant who took interest in the art of lomography. The accompanying pictures are quite interesting. The frustating atmosphere of working life in Jakarta could not be portrayed any better. The second main character is man with a broken heart. I salute the author, being a man but could really describes what it feels like to have your heart ripped off.
A depressing, yet genious book!



Boulevard de Clichy - agonia cinta monyet
by Remy Silado

This one is 671 pages long (large fonts, don't fret), reviewed by Kompas and set in France. A perfect holiday companion, wouldn't you think? The story is about a Javanese woman living as a singer and stripper in a particular district of the love nation.


Why Men Have Nipples?
--by Billy Goldberg, M.D & Mark Leyner
(translated edition)
Not exactly a local book, but it is too interesting to pass. Questions like, "Can cell phones cause cancer?", "Is ER serial accurate?" or "Is it smart to smear butter over burnt skin?" raises my curiousity for sure. Although loaded by foreign medical jargons, the sense of humor and bits of pieces of hillarious chatting archives by the two authors successfully make it bearable.
So, it is actually possible to lose your sight momentarily after a shock. How do you tell if someone is lying about their sight? The two authors actually suggest using a picture of J.Lo's rear end ^^;


There are 4 other books that I am interested in but could not get my hands on for now.

"The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup" consists 32 stories by different authors on each qualifying nations in this year's World Cup including the team's history, player's statistics, match schedules and all that. A bit late to buy now, but still interesting.


"The Three Lions Roar" is a fiction novel about a rising English soccer star. In this one, England would be a champion, I presume. A nice picture of how thing would've been different.

There is another local book by Akoer publisher that interested me, but I forgot the title. It tells about the other side of the world, that is ghostly, irreasonable, superstitous and, as the jacket says, hillarious. In a country where these things are still incorporated in everyday life, it would be a blast having it for fun. Maybe I am getting it next month.

"Don't Blink" is an Indonesian book comprising very short stories, some even less than 100 words. Femina gives it a thumbs-up for its light yet intriguing dialogues.

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    1 Responses to “Holiday Books”

    1
    Api 07/13 2006, 09:39 Say: [Reply]

    order it from:
    www.juraganbuku.com :)

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