23 Apr 2017

Big Bad Wolf: My Personal "Fuck You" To JASTIP

Big Bad Wolf is a book fair which began in Malaysia, held their second Indonesia event in BSD, Tangerang, Indonesia. It is filled with thousands of English books with half price. Obviously, it is a big event for book lovers. I followed excellent tips from other blogs who had been last year. So what went wrong?

Between my like of books and hatred of people which won?

BBW (not the porn term) kindly opened a VIP one day earlier for members, bloggers and vloggers, I guess for marketing purposes. So I submitted this blog and I got the invitation. The early viewing was on Thursday and would be open for public on Friday. I thought my blog was special for its few posts and zero quality writing, but,


Guess as other 1000 people.
Many tweeted they spent more than 4 hours queuing. I mean...


So no, I wasn't in the previewing day.


Where are the great books?

I finally came on Saturday early morning, 2 days after the book fair started. I had tens of books on my list, by the cashier I only got 1 from my list and other 5 were bought so I didn't go home empty handed.


Four graphic novels because outside they are expensive :p

There are the kind of people who love money so much that they would sell their souls. Those people were present in the book fair, who call themselves "JASTIP" or "JASA TITIP". It is where you send your book list to people and they would buy it for you for extra charge per item and send you the books. It's not illegal, it's just my personal annoyance that these people shoved hundreds of books to one luggage (yes, like in the airport) and left me, my friend and other chill shoppers with nothing. They even created special Instagram and Line accounts just for this event. I'm not sure they like the books or the money.


It just happened that I don't need to purchase 50 books at once and tend to avoid crowd, that I am a weak competitor against these people. I suspect most of these JASTIP were stay-at-home moms who have nothing to do and would like extra money for hanging out boasting about their children because they don't have qualities to boast about themselves and secretly frustrated of their college degree they don't use, then would spend the little rest of the money for neck ties for their cheating husbands and something for their children.

Cashier problème?  

Anyway, there were more or less 21 cashiers including for priority lines (for Mandiri card owners). Unlike people in the previewing sales, I didn't have to wait for lines, there were pretty empty. But I wonder some people said that members get special discount, I am a member, but the cashiers didn't say anything. I'm still pretty upset about this, I would've got better deals. 

Overall I got great deals with the books. I spent only about IDR 400,000-ish. I'm pretty happy with the books I got, especially the graphic novels with mostly less than IDR 100,000, which normally would cost 200,000+. But if I waited 2 more days, all the good books probably were all sold out and I would've gone home with nothing. 

Will you be back next year?

Yes, with different and more intense tactics.


Other tip for next year's buyers, if you have mainstream or best selling books on your list, GO TO THE PREVIEWING SALE EARLY (all Narnia books were all sold out). If you don't want to have to queue, go by the times when most people are asleep.

Thank you the crew of Big Bad Wolf.

16 Apr 2017

Sarah Andersen Got A New Fan From Indonesia!

Just last year, Adulthood is A Myth was published. A few months ago, I discovered Sarah Andersen's comic on Instagram. And a few weeks ago, I purchased her books. Bought them when the new book was only one month away from release date, so I thought why not pre-order the new one, I can wait and it only costs about IDR 100rb. 



First post-read thought, 

that was quick. It only took 30 minutes to complete both books, and i'm a slow reader! Plus, Adulthood is A Myth is funnier than Big Mushy Happy Lump (debatable). By their titles people can tell they are full of phylosophies, knowledge, controversies and all that. Seriously, they are  like black and white memes made into a series of sequence, consist of 4 to 6 grids per page, and completely different subject on the next page. The book tells stories about a girl character (maybe Ms. Andersen herself) and her every day life, which talks about PMS, boyfriend (it is her actual boyfriend on the book she said), creativity block, etc.

They seem childish, why read them? 

Perhaps the main attraction is that they are very simple, relatable, understandable, despite of some people may think the books are childish. I can't say for other girls, but for me many of the stories reflect my life. Maybe that's why I think the first book is funnier, maybe because I consider it more relatable, and we as humans have sense of humour to laugh at our flaws?  

There isn't much to discuss. Overall, it makes me laugh, then it's worth the IDR 200rb. I'm looking forward for her next work. Sarah Andersen got a new fan from Indonesia!


Wait, who?

This is her IG, go follow!


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