That magical moment
reading time approx 2 min

The search for books sometimes produces wonderful finds. Old books, rare books, titles that are no longer available anywhere, I look for them in every thrift store I come across. You would think that it would be almost impossible to find a book that I don't yet have, but I still find myself scanning the second-hand book spines every time in good spirits. Because I know: every once in a while there is that magical moment when I pull a book off the shelf and find myself holding a gem.
This also applies to the book in the image below. I once found it somewhere, I don't even remember where or when, and it ended up in my very own bookcase where I suddenly saw it again just before I went on a trip to the Moluccas. In the photo it looks very decent, but in reality the pages are horribly yellowed, they are speckled with brown weathered spots and the book even smells a bit. That's probably why it ended up in the back reaches of my sanctum. But it is still perfectly readable.
Setoewo The Tiger, a book by Johan Fabricius. If there is one author who has written a lot about the old Indies, it is him and this book also takes me back to those earlier spheres that made me love the country so much. To read that book, on a plank terrace with water splashing underneath, in today's Indonesia, what a delight. I would like to stand up for those old writers who wrote about the Indies with which we share our history (and therefore our culture!). There are more in my bookcase: Aya Zikken, Beb Vuyk, Maria Dermoût, Marie van Zeggelen to name just a few. I don't just read them, I devour them. They will be reviewed from time to time in this section.
But I will certainly also talk about the Indonesian writers. The authors who tell us about Indonesia, the country that fought so bitterly for independence, for which many here in our cold country have such warm feelings. To give just a few examples: Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Soewarsih Djojopoespito, Eka Kurniawan, Ayu Utami and many others.