Recent Landscape of Reading Culture In Indonesia

While I thought Indonesia's reading culture was progressing and started to cultivate, I was apparently overestimating it.

A recent discussion from the periplus managing director and a famous thought-leaders podcast in Indonesia mentioned that in national public universities there’s only a small fraction of STEM books being borrowed.

While reading culture remains the center topic of the talk, I was made aware that there is a lack of reading culture compared to many countries. As a result of that, it is indirectly shown that Indonesian students overseas who are pursuing PhD and Masters are less than even countries such as Ghana in Japan university cases.

The periplus managing director mentioned that the challenge lies in education itself where educators should encourage their students to read more. However, not just any reading material but something quite serious such as STEM books which could help the country to progress intellectually.

He also made an interesting remark about books that are often popular on social media such as tiktok. This is something that I also agree on because after 3 years on hive book club, I notice that the younger members are often reviewing works from Wattpad or famous tik tok books.From that talk, a lot of what was being discussed was also a similar and typical problems in Hive Book Club which perhaps also universally happening in another country.

While reading is still all-time-low, the topic of the book that people choose is also something that was being discussed. A lot of people choose books that are for entertainment purposes rather than nurturing critical thinking.

This resonates with a recent conversation I had with a friend of mine who considers himself bookish and up-to-date with the recent trends on books. He mentioned that I could ask a few people on the street what their last book was and the book they are reading. He mentioned chances are people are either not reading a book or reading a very popular book that everyone reads so they understand the topic of the conversation.

The problem, according to my friend, is that there is no acquired personal taste. There’s only the following trends and what people are talking about. While personally, there is no problem with that, as a society when reading culture isn’t cultivated nor the masses don’t know how to pick a good book, can be quite a problem.

As discussed in the podcast, the problem is that as a nation with one of the biggest populations on earth placed just after the US, the education as well as thought-leaders are still lacking even when compared to smaller countries and around SEA. There are not many authors from the country that have made it worldwide even though many topics in the country are worth delving into as it is rich in history, culture and even intriguing social dynamics and phenomenon.

Why read? This is also something that was subtly discussed in the podcast that I think is important. Reading helps with writing, story-telling, information comprehension, and even with decision making. There are many benefits to it that often people don’t see it because they are not directly making them money or can be seen. Reflecting on my own personal experience, usually the books I am currently reading affect my writing style a lot, especially the tone. For example, one time I was really fascinated with Thompson and it had such an intriguing tone and writing style. It’s witty, engaging and sarcastic.

As someone who spends a lot of time with classic and academic reading , it partly has an influence on me where sometimes things I write might sound monotonous .While those who are used to reading novels, especially popular literature, their writing style is similar to that. The tone, the choice of words, idiom, that is usually fit with blogging style content. I honestly have a hard time even when I read popular literature, my writing would still sound like the classic book or academic writings that I read.

The talk intrigued me so much because it has something to do with what I am doing and align with my mission. While time has changed, the mission is still the same, to encourage people to read and appreciate written words. For the full reference of the podcast that prompted this writing, you can check it out here.