Sndbox Summer Camp Writing - Task One: I Learned To Write By Reading Stolen Books

My interest in writing begins with my hobby in reading. I should tell you first about this hobby, which is why then I have another interest, that is writing.

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I GREW UP in a simple family who likes reading. Even though my parents are not highly educated, where my father was only an elementary school graduate who worked as a fisherman and my mother is just a housewife, our home has always never lacks any reading. Whether it's a children's book, a magazine, a history book and even a novel. I finished a thick novel entitled Drowning Van Der Wijck by Hamka in 1998, when I was in second grade junior high school. Then my readings became more varied when I was in high school, from 1999 to 2002. In high school, the monthly national literary magazine named Horizon was the magazine I borrowed or most often I stole from my school library.

I know very well that stealing is one of the worst and most disgusting things. But for the readings which prices are many times higher than the pocket money that my fathers give me everyday, stealing books or magazines from the school library is one thing I consider most praiseworthy among all the theft in the world. Of course this is just my justification, but what to say, my reading passion, especially literary readings, is getting worse.

And I have never regretted my justification for stealing that books or magazines from the school library, especially after getting a short story anthology book entitled Pelajaran Mengarang or Writing Lesson. This is a book published by Harian Kompas in 1993 which later, lucky me, the book was republished by Harian Kompas in 2016, which I can have back its latest edition, after the previous edition that I stole in the school library has swept away by the big flood in 2010.

The Pelajaran Mengarang book contains of 15 short stories selected by the national writers. All the stories have been published in the Kompas newspaper in the culture section every Sunday. The title of the book itself was taken from the title of a short story by Seno Gumira Ajidharma, it is the story from which I first tossed in my imagination to write.

Now you know that my passion in writing started after reading the stories from the stolen books. Since then, I started practicing writing. I decided to learn to write alone because there was no any writing course in my village. One school textbook I used as the diary where I learned to write anything. But what I can do at that time was not a story except for a few stray poems with only two or three stanzas. Later this notebook was damaged when hit by floods in 2010.

After graduating from high school in 2002, I moved to Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province. In Banda Aceh, I went to college at one of the state universities. During the lecture are the times I get more lessons in writing. Of course I do not get it from the lecture bench, but rather from other informal classes, or outside the campus program.

One of the writing classes that made my writing ability more focused was the writing class hosted by Kata Hati Institute, a social-cultural NGO, in 2007 in Banda Aceh. This writing class program is mentored by several national writers across genres, from literary, journalistic to scientific writers. Some of the many mentor that enlightenment me were Linda Christanti, Nani Afrida and Azhari Aiyub. The last name is a national writer from Aceh who in this month will publish a thick novel titled Kura-kura Berjanggut.

From that informal classes and up to now I'm still learning to write. Every day I try to write, write and write. And of course reading, especially reading all the stolen books. Thankfully, my attempt to steal the books of the library ends in 2009, the year that I finished my study. The year in which my librarian card was no longer active, and the opportunity to borrow books as a cover for my theft has end.

I was so lucky, I was never caught by the librarian. I have a trick, but I will not disclose it here, as this is not a tutorial writing on how to steal a book. Maybe next time I'll write it too.

In terms of stealing books, since in high school I already have a desire to do that; a desire to steal books from government libraries only. That of course includes school libraries, campus libraries, and regional libraries. I'm very anti stealing friends books or books in the bookstore because I have absolutely no any rights there. In contrast to the books in the government library which uses state money, of course I have a right in it as a citizen.

I learned to write from many famous writers, directly and indirectly. Some of the authors of the world whose books are very enriching my writing style are Latin American writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Eduardo Galleano, and Jorge Luis Borges. Also from the Middle Eastern writers Tariq Ali and Naguib Mahfouz. But the book entitled Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk is very inspiring.

Some of the books I mentioned above are expensive, and again I feel so lucky to have stolen them from the provincial library during my college between 2003 until 2009. Most of the stolen books where I learned to write from the world's writer had been borrowed by my friends and never returned. Maybe this is some kind of karma. But, there is one book I never lend to anyone, Orhan Pamuk's book entitled Istanbul.

My story about my experience of learning to write from many of those stolen books is not a recommendation to steal a book. Still, stealing is a disgusting. But yes, like I mentioned, the best thing about stealing is to steal a book. Stealing a book will not make you rich in wealth, but the the rich in mind after reading those books, is an infinite spiritual treasure.