Books That I Read Lately

I am glad that this year I started to reduce dopamine intake through just doom-scrolling. If everyone's doom-scrolling means opening TikTok or Reels or Shorts then mine is always and has been Twitter (now X). Deactivating my instagram is an easy feat for me, besides I will gladly deactivated it because I just don't want to post too much. But deactivating Twitter? I think I'll have bad symptoms of withdrawal.

Thanks to the nature of my job that is quite busy lately, I kinda find a way to reduce my Twitter's screen-time. Also thanks for someone that I wrote in this post, I kinda reduce my habit to check on Korean idols. Because both my mind and feelings were focusing on the job, especially when I had to support him in full-throttle in a project. However, I have to admit that all that support (and money spent by the company) eventually went to drain because none of the deliverables are actually help us navigate this transformation.

Another thing is I try to find another side-quest, for example: starting to religiously read books, learning new languages, meeting lots of friends, focusing for my PhD application, and etc. This time, I'd like to share several books that I have read and probably will make you want to read them too.

1. The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in Arab World (Perempuan Arab dalam Sistem Patriarki) - Nawal El Shaddawi
   This is by far the hardest book I've ever read, not because the way it is written but the topic itself deconstruct how I think. Thus, I always mention this to all the people that were asking: please read this book with discernment. Not only it is written by Arab woman itself, Nawal, whose occupation is in medical field - the book mentioned a lot of religious verses (including Quran). Nawal tries to bring up to the surface the ugly truth behind verses from heavenly religion (Islam, Christian, and Jews) which later Indonesians are more familiar to call it agama samawi (which fall from heaven). Nawal presents how unfair it is living as an Arab women under the Arab culture, even mentioned the circumcision practice for woman that has been passed as generational tradition. Perhaps you'll get angry while reading this book but it's the truth, doesn't matter how progressive the world has become in these past centuries. At the same time, it will deconstruct on how you think about the truth you believe is the rightest. It will bring you to question whether our society has become like this just to down-play women's role? It will bring you uncomfortable realisation that women has and always been the face of a movement but men are too afraid to admit it so we're being limited in all way possible to achieve our full potential. Unfortunately, religion is one of the strongest tool to reduce women. And I hate to admit that men has been utilising the words of God only for their selfish goals. My personal note if you are interested reading this book is none other than: please do a lot of discussion with other people. This book might radicalise you.
2. Museum Teman Baik
   It's been a year since I bought this book and I finally finished it at the very next year. I remember I was strolling around in Pasar Baru area, went to Post Bloc and bought one on Patjar Merah. I was initially attracted to its cover, little did I know Indonesia's writer are always the best in the calibre. The Red String of this book is adulthood friendship, it's an omnibus where several writers wrote short story then compiled in one book. I cannot choose only one favourites because few stories caught my attention and I deemed it memorable. For example: Soak 33 which tells about the reality of adulthood friendship, you can always tell who are the people who genuinely cares about you and who only cling to absorb your life energy. I mean, in this Metropolitan city you'll find a lot of "fake" friendship like this. Makan Malam Perpisahan also one of my favourite story because the grass is always greener on the other side, we never knew what kind of struggle people are facing despite how successful they are. Somehow we are successful in our own way? There is also this story of older women's friendship where one of them is being diagnosed not having too much time to live so she had to write down her will. Eventually this lady asked the younger man to run errands, meeting her husband who abandoned her for years. Though the story is about will that is going to be written and passed down, it's somehow heart-warming because this lady still deeply care about his ignorant husband. The dynamics of the younger man who run the errands too is well-written. What a memorable story tho. Reading this book reminds me a lot of how I have been cultivating my relationship with my friends and how I eventually had friendship break-ups. A light but memorable book to read.
3. Robohnya Surau Kami - A.A Navis
   I only knew the story from the exam paper back in Junior High School, I never read the full piece of A.A Navis stories. Only this year that I have the book in hand and read it. Basically it's another anthology (omnibus) but the stories were all written by A.A Navis, our Padangnese writer. The first story is the titular one, Robohnya Surau Kami, and it was the creme de la creme of this anthology. Once upon a time, an old-man lived in Padang and found dead the next day after having a conversation with a random neighbour. This piece is a critic of how people should balance the good deeds for their after-life saving with their present times responsibility, we cannot be someone who is just pious and religious but ignoring one living family. Human needs to live his life mindfully, balancing the after-life, chasing ridha but still had to work to self-sustain. To be honest it's social critic is like a bullet went through straight our heart. Another stories that I liked from this anthology are: Topi Helm which topic are secluded in one's self-identity and revenge, Nasihat-Nasihat which is also a social critic of people being nosy in one's live, Datangnya dan Perginya which actually .... a mind-blowing one yet still criticising on adult responsibility, and Menanti Kelahiran. This anthology is clearly written before Indonesia's Independence, the way the writer pulled out historical settings really reflect the circumstances back then when Indonesia was still under colonisation. Not to mention the diction and vocabulary that only "old people" from old-Indonesia often used. Now that I got to read the full A.A Navis pieces, not just from exam paper, I think I can die in peace. So, this is how it's like to appreciate Indonesia's literature. As expected, we are a literary nation afterall.
4. Let Them Theory - Mel Robbins
   When I was being re-assigned, one of my office colleagues gave me this book knowing that I read more non-fiction rather than fiction. Perhaps she bought me this book because of book-clerk recommendation since this book is pretty popular in "Self-Development" shelf. I don't complain tho, this book indeed enhance my current standing points (since I am also well-known as do-as-you-please person). However, the more I read this book the more I was kinda receiving a lot of help. Basically Mel Robbins is a popular motivator from the US and she told this story a lot in her book that she was kind of self-made, her popularity achieved unintentionally. Yet, I can also tell that she's unlike Richard Thaler nor Daniel Kahnemann nor Rolf Dobelli, obviously not academics from the way she writes the book. Most of the stories rooted from her own life experience and how she rebound from her mistakes so people (like us) won't be as annoying amongst the society. Let Them Theory basically the second theory she came up with, the philosophy is to let people do their own thing and let's not overthink things. I immediately apply this principle when I have to face with people so difficult to deal with. We cannot control how people react, we cannot control them to act like we want them to, all we can do is to let them be. While letting people do what they're comfortable with, it is also imperative that we control ourself which later become self-restraints. That's what happens in real world, the outcomes may not necessarily align with what we have envisioned it to be. So be it, we can always find work-around without being an annoying person. This book lives to its popularity although "Self-Development" book isn't necessarily the crowd's favourite. At least, this book will help you not to be self-immersed or too entitled to one thing. Remember, let them and let me do my thing in my own way while considering boundaries.
5. 1984 - George Orwell
   Reading this book took me months. Not because it's difficult to read, in fact it's pretty straight-forward in terms of writing style but because I didn't really enjoy the book. It was dominantly by the reason that Orwell is not someone good, so I was ethically conflicted. Unfortunately, I am not a person who didn't finish what I started so I decided to just read this book until I finished.
   The scariest thing about this book is the fact that we might be living in it right now. It's not necessarily happening right this year, I just can see it can happen some time soon. The dystopian world full of surveillance that you cannot even think by yourself. And the scariest thing is what if the government have the full control of how you think or perceive the world? That you are so absorbed in propaganda you cannot differ which one is the truth and which one is the lie the authorities want you to believe. Even to have pleasure, we have to sacrifice. We live in a love-less world, a world without colour nor freedom. I think this book is a nightmare which can happen any time soon with all these advancement in technology and enveloping greed across the oceans. I won't recommend this book for a light-read because it works the opposite: it will make you overthink things. The bad news is probably you need to read this book before it is destroyed and vanish from this world because the nightmare is truly coming.
6. The Practice of Not Thinking - Ryunosuke Koike
   Last but not least, a book that once again put my mind at ease. Initially I borrowed this book considering how thin it is (and DAY6's Dowoon also had read this), never knew that this book emphasise on how to be less overthink and related to Let Them Theory. Written by a buddhist monk, this book basically a buddhist practice in written form. Different from the way Haemin Sunim's writing style, Koike writing style is more academics and hard to read if you don't enjoy sophisticated vocabulary. Though I enjoyed reading this book due to how Koike keeps emphasising klesha of arrogance is the source why we think we are superior than other people. This traits actually the fundamental cause of why we overthink things and why we cannot let go of unpleasant circumstances when in reality things happened. As a person whose ego leans on competence and easily irritated by incompetence, this book serves a guide for me to reduce my klesha of arrogance which eventually occupies my brain and takes up too much of clear space to think. It's hard to implement in real life because until I write this post down, I might still have lots of klesha of arrogance. It's not like I am going to be instantly free of it, free from my thirst for validation, thirst of my own thought that I am much more superior than everyone else. It's hard but I wish this post too can be a reminder for me that I need to slow down in life, letting go of things, and stop feeding my arrogance.

I actually have read 8 books this year and I am proud of it considering I usually only read 2-3 books in a year. This is my personal achievement this year that I successfully slowing down my dopamine rush, started writing again, and consuming less of contents that filling up my brain so I kind of feel nothing (empty). Anyway, if you want to connect with me on goodreads just visit this link. We can always discuss things (books) here or there.