My Thought in Words and Images
Makin ke sini, selain belum banyak menyempatkan diri untuk membuat tulisan di sini, ternyata saya suka overthinking soal menulis di blog. Seringkali sudah mencatat di aplikasi Keep tentang topik yang mau ditulis, tetapi merasa perlu duduk di depan laptop, meluangkan waktu khusus, untuk kemudian serius menulis. Padahal seringkali juga, waktu saya untuk itu tidak banyak. Hehe.
Ada hal yang tidak diberitahukan orang kepadamu tentang menjadi orang tua: kau akan merasakan kegembiraan luar biasa, rasa cinta yang tidak dapat dibandingkan dengan apapun juga, tapi pada saat yang sama, dirimu menjadi rentan.
Seluruh eksistensimu bukan lagi milikmu sendiri. Ukuran kebahagiaanmu tiba-tiba berubah. Kau akan bahagia saat anakmu gembira, merana saat dia terluka, dan apa pun yang dia rasakan, kau akan merasakannya dua belas kali lipat. Kau mencoba melakukan segalanya dengan benar tapi kau bakal sering gagal.”
(Lebih Senyap dari Bisikan, halaman 58)
Ketidaksengajaan membawa saya pada sebuah cuitan @andinadwifatma di Twitter yang membahas tentang novel barunya. Setelah saya klik dan membaca utas tersebut, saya tak ragu untuk memesan bukunya melalui salah satu platform belanja daring.
Begitulah awal mula perjumpaan saya dengan novel ‘Lebih Senyap dari Bisikan’ yang baru terbit dan dicetak kali pertama bulan Juni lalu. Tanpa saya sadari, ternyata novel yang saya beli adalah edisi bertanda tangan penulisnya. Rupanya saya masuk barisan sejumlah pembaca pertama novel ini. Hehe..
A picture of Istanbul’s transformation through the life of a boza seller
I really need a while to reflect after reading this novel. The love story, family conflict, and overall transformation of a city. In addition to personal life of the characters, Orhan Pamuk has successfully brought various issues through ‘A Strangeness in My Mind’: history, politics, as well as social and development issues (urbanization to be more specific).
This is the first time I read Pamuk’s work (and I am eager to read more of his). The reason I was interested in the book was because the story revolves in Istanbul, one of my favorite cities (that I’ve visited so far). I have to admit that I used to see Istanbul as an outsider who came to the city for a few days and visited those popular touristy destinations. However, this book tells the other side — ups and downs — of the city. Pamuk lets the readers get to know Istanbul through the life of boza seller (boza is a kind of Turkish traditional drink) named Mevlut.
First of all, I am actually not a person who often reads self-help books. However, I must say that I really like this book by Marie Kondo. The word ‘life-changing’ on its title is not an exaggeration I guess. Our mindset, our confidence, our motivation to work, and so on, somehow starts from our house condition. I’ve read another book titled ‘Happiness Project’ and it considers decluttering as the first step to happiness as well. And yes.. I agree.
I know.. the reviews here are quite polarized, from those who really like it to those who have no idea or just simply can not relate to what the author has written on the book. I totally understand. 😀 But here I want to summarize what I think about the book.
Sesuai janji sebelumnya, ini adalah lanjutan dari review beberapa buku yang saya baca tahun 2017 lalu. Dimulai dari nomor 6 ya. Review lima buku sebelumnya bisa dibaca di SINI.
Hanya sembilan?
Mungkin angka ini terbilang sedikit ya dibandingkan teman-teman lain yang hobi baca buku. Hehe. Saya memang nggak bisa baca buku cepet-cepet dan butuh suasana yang kondusif untuk baca. Jadi ya bacanya pelan-pelan, menyempatkan di sela-sela aktivitas. Kalau lagi traveling, malah saya bakalan serius baca. Biasanya, saat perjalanan di kereta atau pesawat, malah menjadi waktu yang pas untuk baca tanpa disela pekerjaan. Berhubung tahun ini nggak banyak melakukan perjalanan jauh, jadi yaa begitulah. *alasan yang dibuat-buat* :p
Other than Economics-related textbook, not so many books I read last year. One of those few books I read was The Year of The Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota that I bought from Book Depository. Lucky me, last year I got US$ 80 (or 85, I forgot) voucher from Google for participating in their survey (to be exact, it was giving them feedback on bahasa Indonesia translation in their feature). I spent most of the value of the voucher for buying books online. 😀
Menghela napas dulu ah.
Jadi ceritanya buku ‘The Traveling Students’ diilhami oleh banyak teman di sekitar yang bertanya,
“Gimana sih caranya bisa ikutan pertukaran pelajar dan konferensi mahasiswa di luar negeri?”
“Susah nggak sih adaptasi di lingkungan baru?”
“Gimana kalau nggak bisa bahasanya?”
dan lain sebagainya.
The words of the writer Colette had haunted me for years: “What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” I didn’t want to look back, at the end of my life or after some some great catastrophe, and think, “How happy I used to be then, if only I’d realized it.” (“The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin)
Alhamdulillah. I am super happy today for visiting some more museums in Amsterdam (I’ll write about the museums later in another post). Among others, one thing that also made my day is finding this bookstore which sells used English books. And I really love the books I just bought today. Yeayy..
‘The Story of Indonesia‘ was written by Louis Fischer, author of ‘The Life of Mahatma Gandhi’ (which I haven’t read actually) and published in 1959. So this book is 55 years old now. The bookstore owner said that this kind of old book is hard to find but easy to sell (yeahh..). And this book has been on the shelf for only few days before a lucky person got it (and it is me..hehe..). I finally decided to buy it after I randomly picked some pages to read.
Maisya 