A Small, Street-Corner Bookstore

A small book store on the corner of Jalan Jend. Purn Amir Machmud, which is the main street, and Jalan Alun-alun Cimahi. I think it's one of the oldest book stores in the town of Cimahi in the west of Bandung. Pustaka Nasution I believe is the name.

In an era of big chain bookstores, it's nice to see a small and privately owned bookstore like this.

The store doesn't carry many books though. When I checked it out the last time, it only had school text books, some religious books, and a limited collection of how-to books.

The tents in front of it are street vendors selling various things: shoes, bags, clothes ...

Presidential Book Signing

I went to Gramedia - a four-story and the biggest book store in the city - on Merdeka street this afternoon. I was just browsing through the books I was interested in when suddenly there was this bit of commotion. Frankly, I was a bit disturbed. But then there was the smooth and pleasant music of angklung. I began to get curious and asked a nearby shop attendant what was going on.



Apparently, there was a book signing, and the author doing the signing was BJ Habibie, Indonesia's third president, who had just recently launched his second book after he retired from presidency. The book, entiled "Habibie & Ainun", is about his true-love story with his wife, Ainun.

He wrote the book after Ainun, his wife for 48 years, passed away in May last year, and out of deep bereavement he was diagnosed with severe pyschosomatic malignant. His doctor suggested three options to treat his illness and one of them was to write what later became this book.