BookTalk.org

Hi, I'm Anna and i live in Jakarta, Indonesia. I have always enjoyed reading since i was in fourth grade! I used to live in Madrid and Mexico City, so until a few years back i've been reading in spanish. When i came back to Indonesia, i couldn't find any book in spanish so i started reading in english and indonesian.

I'm glad to have found this website because i have come to realize that there are very few people (and when i say few, i mean it! ) in Jakarta that will actually read books beyond Harry Poter, manga comics and daily newspaper, and discuss about them.

My english is not very good, and i might make some mistakes but i'm more than willing to post my opinions on the books being discussed. At the moment i'm reading a few books of Herman Hesse, and although he's not anywhere on the list, i was wondering if i could post some comments about them.

Hello Annaisabella, and welcome!

You are the first BT member from Indonesia, as far as I know.

I love hearing input from different personalities and different parts of the world. You said you switched from Spanish to English so that you could read-- this shows quite a commitment to reading! Were you brought up in Spanish then, and did you learn English as a second or foreign language?

You mention Hermann Hesse: I read Der Steppenwolf several times as a college student and I loved it. This is actually one of the very few novels in German that I finished, I had a hard time with the others I tried, and in those days I didn't want to read translations. Anyway this book was really special to me, and I guess I'd have to read it again to find out why. There are so many reasons why one could identify with the narrator.

I think people who have other people around them willing to discuss books must be very lucky. Even the people I know who read aren't really interested in discussing what they read in depth; I think one of the main reasons is that the usual conversation topics are considered to be much more important.

And yes, you can post about the books you read on Booktalk.
And of course do join us in discussing our current books.


I look forward to hearing from you on our forums.

Hi Annaisabella,

Welcome to BookTalk!

What a beautiful user name.

Please share with us a bit about where you live - I really don't know much about Indonesia.

Jan.

Welcome to BookTalk.org, Annaisabella. As Jales said that is a really pretty name. I do hope you stick around and explore the forums some. Ophelia is right about you being the first member from Indonesia. I'd love if you put a push pin in the map where you live. Look over to the left where you see a map of the world. Click on the map and then stick a pin in the map where you live.

Thanks for the welcome, everyone! Let me give you more details about me because my first message wasn't very clear. I am 29 years old and i work at an International School in Jakarta and I give Spanish classes in the evenings, mostly to foreigners. I also do translating and interpreting in Spanish-English-Indonesian. If I'm not working, I enjoy reading, singing and watching tv series. Since this seems to be an agnostic/atheist forum, allow me to share with you how I, as a "Christian" since born, became a "loss" soul.

As i have commented before, i used to live in Spain and Mexico City. I basically grew up in both countries. I came back to Indonesia when i was 19. The cultural shock was so impressive that it took me more than 2 years to adapt to my own country. During this time, i totally isolated myself and ran to reading books, which made me an even weirder person amongst my college friends-who were (and still are) not habituated to read- and therefore harder to adjust to my environment. During this time I also learned more about what I thought was my religion: Christianity.

I became involved in Bible reading, even though i wasn't a "true" believer yet. I still had doubts about the existence of heaven and hell, among other things. I had so many questions regarding the different teachings, and I remember asking my Christian friends, as well as pastors from different churches about all these things but, none of them were able to give me a plausible answer. So, in order to be accepted, I decided to do what they all told me to do: stop questioning and just believe. And that I did. I got baptized under water (another topic of disagreement between different sects) after an intensive bible teaching sessions and became a Pentecostal Christian and started going to church.

At that time, I was dating an American for a little more than a year, and we were both in love, or so I thought. Although my parents and my extended family were against this relationship from the very beginning, for the simple reason that he was black skinned, I went on with it until, one year later he was allowed to step into the house. My mother started talking to him and there was even one time when she asked him to take her for groceries. I was tremendously happy.

If you don't mind there's more...

Hello Annaisabella,

It's lovely to hear from you again.

The cultural shock was so impressive that it took me more than 2 years to adapt to my own country

I'd be very interested in hearing more about this. I know very little about Indonesia.

Cultural shock is of great interest to me, as my year in California was a defining moment in my life. I was always aware, though, that this is a minor version of cultural shock, as I spoke the language and was merely switching from one Western country to another. Therefore your experience would be of great interest to me, as it involves not two countries, but three
-- I'd also love to hear about your life in Mexico.

Perhaps I'm going to start a journal, and write about France from a social and cultural point of view.

Hi annaisabella,

Still waiting for the rest.

I am interested in hearing about how your family accepted your boyfriend. I am a white woman, married to a Native Indian. My family also had a very difficult time accepting my relationship.

annaisabella wrote:So, in order to be accepted, I decided to do what they all told me to do: stop questioning and just believe.

Does this ever bother you? That you are blindly believing something so important? Do you think your beliefs would change if you held them up to intense scrutiny?

Jan.