Book Shopping

My favorite shopping mall in Jakarta is Plaza Indonesia. First, because it's relatively less crowded than most, if not all, shopping mall in Jakarta. Plaza Indonesia was indeed designed only to the 'haves', a socio-group where money was rarely an issue. Despite the immediate evidence, there were in fact many rich folks here in Jakarta. Students and average salary man such as myself would feel a little bit out of place here. Just like a dirty little spot of dust, uncleanable yet utterly visible upon a beautiful girl's face, which otherwise as smooth as a baby's butt. Second, and probably the only reason, and has been so for as long as i remembered, Plaza Indonesia had three import book stores. And the fact that it only took me seven minutes to get there made it even better.

I followed a strict path, an never altered path, up to a point where i could reenacted the path effortlessly even if you draped a fold of cloth upon my eyes, when i visited Plaza Indonesia. It was straight to the basement level from the entrance, browse through Askara - the first book store -, then out, follows the smells of bread emanates from the BreadTalk's booth, took a left turn in front of it and enter Periplus - the second book store. Then, out, back upstairs a couple of level, making a moment's stop at one of the Apple authorized reseller store, passed the DairyQueens' booth then another level upward to arrive at the third book store, Kinokuniya, then went home or crossing the road to get to Blitz Megaplex for watching movies. If you asked me about how to get to a Louis Vuitton's or Gucci's booth, i wouldn't know shit about it. Because really, aside of the fact that i only went to Plaza Indonesia to buy books, spending millions on a woman hand-bag or a pair of pants has yet passed into something reasonable in my mind.

Having these book stores really comes in handy. As a mere consumer with a solid understanding that i don't have any money-tree grows in the backyard, i could easily compared prices and came out with the cheapest price most of the time. Just like yesterday when i had this urge to bought Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men which was a basis for what probably ended up being my #1 film of the year 2007. So i went to Askara, snatch a copy of it, look for the price tag, and astonished to see the price of a whopping 157 thousand rupiahs. The advantage of Askara was that none of the books were plastic sealed which allow me to browse through the content of the books before buying. I decided that the price was simply too much. So i bolt out of the store and went to Periplus. This is where the books' price usually cheaper than its competitors albeit with relatively limited choices. I had to climb a small ladder in order to get the Cormac McCarthy's book from the shelf. It was the only copy left. I look for the price tag, and pleased to see the price. A sixty-five thousand rupiahs cheaper than Askara's price tag. I hadn't bothered to check the price at Kinokuniya, because in exchange to its vast collections, the books' price at the store were generally higher than the others. The only times i went to Kinokuniya was when i want to bought the latest copy of Japanese One Piece manga, or if i was certain that i can't find the book i'm looking for at the previous two book stores.

Moral of the story, despite its small collections, Periplus is my favorite book store in terms of price. Further, there's a Periplus book store at Juanda International Airport, Surabaya which has become the main attraction for me when i had to wait for my flight all by myself.