Not A Picture Book

Awhile ago, I was trying to think of ways to improve my Indonesian vocabulary. I earned a relatively high score on the verbal portion of the SAT my senior year in high school, so I started thinking about how I achieved that and if the same methods could help me with my Indonesian skills. One thing I came up with is that for most of my childhood, I was a voracious reader, so I was constantly being exposed to new words.
I got the great idea to start reading in Indonesian. I started with the Bible. Whatever I was reading on any given day, I would read first in English, and then in Indonesian. Eventually, I stopped reading the Bible in English altogether, and these days, I mostly read it in Indonesian.

Then I realized how cheap Indonesian books are! I mean, I was used to paying $10-15 for imported books in English when I could find them. But Indonesian books are like $3 or less!

I started out by buying some upper elementary books in Indonesian. Short chapter books with a picture every few pages. Then I bought a couple of books translated from English - Mandie, which I read in middle school, and Hunger Games - because knowing the context of the story before you dive into it really helps you understand a lot more than you would otherwise.

I eventually started perusing the best sellers racks at Indonesian bookstores. I bought and read a couple with interesting looking covers. Because I ALWAYS judge a book by its cover. But the problem with Indonesian books is that they are all love stories. Really cheesy love stories that are pretty hard for me to get into. Indonesians are obsessed with love.

So I asked a few friends if they knew of any Indonesian books that were NOT love stories. Nobody did. Until I went to Jakarta in January. I asked my friend Pierre, and he recommended an Indonesian author, S Mara Gd. Weird name, but he said she's the Indonesian Agatha Christie. Being someone who likes a good mystery, I decided to check her out, and after a couple months of searching, I found 4 of her novels in a bookstore in Solo. I picked the one with the most normal looking cover.

I just finished the first page, and I understood all of it! Feeling pretty happy about that. So I decided to blog about it.

Because it's spring break and I do what I want.

PS - I took the picture and wrote this post on my tablet. And now that I look at it on my computer, I see that the picture is sideways, but I can't figure out how to rotate it, and I don't feel like re-doing the whole post, so I'm leaving it. You're welcome.