Skip to content

Comparing tips on saving money on book

I never really count how much money I spend for books per year.  Mostly I spend around Rp. 100.000 - Rp. 200.000 per month for books. That would make around Rp. 1,2 - Rp. 2,2 million every year. Quite a number for a average paid employee like me.  Mostly I find them at book fair which is a perfect place to find bargain books, and online bookstore for affordable imported book.  They are not necessarily new books as I really like to shop for used books online. Browsing and searching for used books online are kind of therapeutic for me. 

In fact, book fair and online used/new book store are my saviours for keeping me for spending fortune on books.  The last time I went to real book store and actually bought a book was around a month ago. The book was Honeymoon with my Brother (Franz Wisner) and I bought it because I was emotionally and impulsively need to read something I could connect to immediately.

I don’t think I can ever stop buying book as I think I will always be a reader that takes pride on my book collection and I fuss over my depleting not read books.  I barely have books I’ve not read, well, I have 3,5 half books I ‘ve not until now ( The Last Mrs Astor, Miami, Sea Glass, and a collection of short stories written by African American women authors)  But it it always intriguing to read ways on how to save money on books, especially for a average employee like me. That is paid peanut. I hope someone from my company read this thus thinking to raise my salary.

Anyway, here are what I found from www.getrichslowly.org and I try to relate them to current condition here in this country.

1. Avoid new release.  So true because sometimes I found them way too pricey. I was only once tempted to buy a new release (it was Ayu Utami’s book) but I had successfully restrain myself and got it at a book fair for 10 % less. Well, it’s not much but better than paying full price.

2.  Read reviews. Though sometimes I am sceptical about what people think about a book because I believe on my preference when it comes to choose and read book,  I love to read book reviews from people’s blogs, not from people who are paid to write a review. 

3.  Find the classic online.  As a former English literature student, sometimes I miss reading literary canon such as Jane Austen’s books, Moby Dick, Huckleberry Fin, D.H Lawrence, some of Rabindranath Tagore, and so far I’ve found Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org) is very helpful as I can download classics for free.  I can even found my childhood books written by Susan Coolidge and happily downloaded them for free!

4. Search for bargains. For me the only easily access able bargains are book fair and online bookstore. Pasar buku bekas at Senen is famous but truly I do not have time to travel such a distance and facing typical Jakarta traffic jam to rummage dust mites infested store to find books.  I am allergic to dust. And sitting and browsing for used books that had been classified based on title and author are way suitable for a lazy me.

5. Make Amazon your all-purpose book tool. I used Amazon only for reading about people’s recommendation and book review.  I don’t own credit card therefore it is hard to shop from Amazon.

6. Frequent your public library.  Ok, cannot do that. I don’t think Indonesia is a public library friendly. So sad I know and I refuse to talk about it. *sigh*

7. Explore used book store. I haven’t found one in my neighborhood but I definitely go there if I found one. So far I only discover taman bacaan and I don’t think they want to sell their children collection to me though I want to have some of them.

8. Harness the power of the internet.  This is what I have been doing to supply my own demand of book. Internet is the source of book review, online bookstore, used imported book store and others.

9. Buy only what you intend to read. This is hard.  Mostly I come to book fair with a note of books I want to read, but then I will come home with more books to read.  I know, bad for my pocket and budget.

10. Share.  This is not what I want to do. I hate this.  The last time I lend my book to a friend, he hasn’t returned it up to now and it’s been almost two years! I am going to kill him when I meet him. After slowly torturing him with my whip, why of course.    

Posted 02 July 2009 † miss O § Greener life § Journal of everyday rants and musing § Reading materials and review ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

The King of Pop, 1958 - 2009


I feel obliged to write something about the sudden death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson because he was and still is a source of fascination to me as well as most people in this earth. His career, voice, amazing video music, Neverland, being a prodigy, Peter Pan wanna be, controversial case of sexual abuse, family intrics, and never end cosmetic surgeries never fail to amaze me. I still remember the blasting song of him from my brother’s (or sister’s) tape player and the view of one of my sibling sitting near the tape and mouthing the song.

I first learnt about his death this morning while joining my parents who lounging in front of TV loudly discussed about debate of president candidates last night. I advertently read news ticker that said Michael Jackson has died but it was still a mix up. So I was thinking, maybe he was not dead and it was just a headline. He can’t be death, he is a king, right? Beside it was known that Michael Jackson is planning his come back.

But as I arrived at the office, my cubicle dweller neighbour told me about it and I immediately proceeded to Yahoo.com to confirm the news. He died at USLA Medical Center in Los Angeles County.

Wow, he really is dead. There is no longer Michael Jackson in this world. Then his video musics milled about in my head. Thriller, Heal the World, Black or White, Dangerous, Man in the Mirror, Remember the Time, They Don’t Care About Us and of course The Earth Song. All of his video musics were crafted so very well and really entertaining. I remember as a little girl, I was really really scared by the clips of Thriller. Zombie was an unknown creature for me at that time.

I assume couple of days ahead all TVs will be airing about him all the time.

So long Michael Jackson. The world will definetely miss a music icon.

Posted 26 June 2009 † miss O § Journal of everyday rants and musing ‡ Comments (1) °

The only thing I can think of right now.

I don’t know why I have been talking about food and only food lately. Maybe it’s the easiest subject to talk about. So, here’s a compilation of what I have been eating so far today.

Breakfast (around 6 AM)
Small portion of left over nasi goreng with a wedge of omelette
A mug of instant teh tarik with some drizzles of honey

Snack (around 10.30 AM)
Strawberry and cheese sandwich.

Lunch (1.30 PM)
White rice with two wedges of omelette (left over from breakfast)
a cup of vegetable soup

Snack (3 - 4 PM)
A cup of hot cocoa made from Delfi instant mix (I told you I am addicted to it)
A regular size of banana

Now since one of my collegues is fasting and he needs to buy some snack for breaking his ifthar, I have been thinking to buy some siomay too for myself since big chance there will be nothing to eat when I got home because my mother always takes my father to his therapy every Thursday.

I am not sure if I have been leading a healthy life so far. Mostly I always bring at least two cups of sliced fruits for snack like papaya, apple or orange or jackfruit but we ran out of fruit today. That’s why I only had banana, it’s the only available fruit at the food court of my office. I must stop by at Hero today to stock some fruits.

Posted 18 June 2009 † miss O § The challenge § Yummy ‡ Comments (3) °

Cellphone

For the first time in the history of my ownership of a communication mean named cellphone, my active period expired while I still have more than enough talk time.

Another perk of being single, you save a lot on phone expenses.

Posted 18 June 2009 † miss O § Journal of everyday rants and musing ‡ Comments (2) °

Dinner

Dinner this Saturday was easy.  I ate 2 whole wheat toasts with cheese and mushroom omelette, grilled tomatoes and I was content. I made my omelette with only one egg so it was kind of a small one but it was enough for me. 

Posted 13 June 2009 † miss O § Journal of everyday rants and musing § Yummy ‡ Comments (2) °

A vegetarian in me

About a week ago, while absend mindedly flipping channels, I  stumbled into a show at DAAI TV. It was a kind of speech delivered by the master about being vegetarian. Without actually realized it, I was listening until the end of it.  I was so interested by it because I was always eager to find more information about being vegan or vegetarian, mostly for the sake of body and soul health. Or maybe because I was reminded by the time when I was an ovo lacto vegetarian during my stay in USA. My reason at that time was I was not sure with halal food there and came out with vegetarian reason was easier than explained to people who asked me why I did not eat chicken wings at summer picnic or class snack time.

But that time I was not really committed to be a vegetarian. Sometimes at barbeque picnic I was asked to make sate ayam, and how could I not eat it? I whipped very delicious sate ayam.

In short, the program showed how being vegetarian affects our body and soul in different ways.  Seen from Buddhism perspective, killing other living creature equals with collecting bad karmas for our life.  Aside from exposing our body to more disease transmitted by animal such as swine flu and such, animal farming is also one industry that gave bad impacts to our planet because almost half of water resources in the world are used to maintain the industry. Imagine how much water is that! And we’ve been warned continuously by the threat of clean water scarcity in this planet.

However, after think about it again and again, I am always hindered by the same reasons why I am not a vegetarian in Indonesia.

  1. Lebaran is the hardest time. Although it’s once a year event but it is the time when the whole big family gathers and what should I eat when everybody cooks meat to celebrate the day?
  2. I love eating fish. I grew up at a small island where we can get fish easily and it’s always fresh! It’s same with other sea food like crab, shrimp, squid. I even ate turtle’s egg! Before you scream telling me that they are endangered species, they weren’t at that time.
  3. Yoghurt is another thing I can’t easily discard from my daily diet.  I love the sour taste and the fact that it contains live culture to make me healthy.
  4. I also like eggs. How cannot you like it?
  5. Once in awhile, I crave for something meaty. Mostly when I am approaching my period.

This is going nowhere. I can always find another reason to postpone being a vegetarian.   But I have a goal to be one someday.  I have been reading vegan’s cooking blogs for the last couple of days and I am amazed with their creativity to create such a variety of vegetarian dishes.

Posted 13 June 2009 † miss O § Greener life § Yummy ‡ Comments (3) °