A new favorite place and new books

How's your weekend?
It's Thursday ( I know...I know...a bit late to ask, hehehe) and weekend is coming but I want to share something from my last weekend :)

On Saturday evening after saw a movie "The Last Legion" (which is not recommeneded!), I found a nice place to hang out named "Kopitiam Oey". This small restaurant offers old coffee shop atmosphere, good food and of course good Indonesian coffee. Owned by one of Indonesian culinary expert, I recommend you to try this one if you are in Jakarta. I went there with my friend, Dyah and we both suddenly fall in love and making it our No. 1 cool hang out place in Jakarta.

The food price starts from Rp. 15.000 and coffee/tea price starts from Rp. 8000. Not so many choices are on the list but they are selected carefully by the owner. Because the price is not expensive at all, we decided to order one meal for each and one meal for sharing. Cane Bread with chicken curry was chosen to share while Crab noodle was for each.

In the end, we couldn't finish the cane bread and chicken curry because we both were full!

We spent few hours in this place, didnt really want to get out but the night was getting late. If you want to try, just drive to Haji Agus Salim Street No. 18, Central Jakarta. Feel the friendly ambience and good food+coffee. Don't expect you'll be in a big fancy restaurant because it's a small cute little place!

On Sunday, I went to one of my favorite 'candy shop' named Gudang Buku. This place provides 2nd hand books and if we are patient selecting one by one, we'll get new book! Isn't it good? The price is also reasonable :)
Oh, I forgot to tell you that I call book store as candy shop. It's simply because I feel like a kid in a candy store everytime I'm in book store. I bought one 2nd hand book "Tall Cool One" by Zoey Dean and one new book "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy from another store.

xoxo,
-Ita

Norwegian Wood

I'm reading this book now and I have to admit that I'm a bit slow (again) in reading it, been reading it since three weeks ago (hello??!!). The previous book I read was "Remember Me?" by Sophie Kinsella, I read it in just a week. I know Haruki Murakami from one of my friends, Tom. Mr. Murakami is his favorite writer and he recommended me to read his books. The first book I read from Murakami is "Kafka on the shore" and since that I interest to read more of his book. Thanks, Tom!

Here are the synopsis of "Norwegian Wood" from Publishers Weekly that I got from www. amazon.com:

"In a complete stylistic departure from his mysterious and surreal novels (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; A Wild Sheep Chase) that show the influences of Salinger, Fitzgerald and Tom Robbins, Murakami tells a bittersweet coming-of-age story, reminiscent of J.R. Salamanca's classic 1964 novel, LilithAthe tale of a young man's involvement with a schizophrenic girl. A successful, 37-year-old businessman, Toru Watanabe, hears a version of the Beatles' Norwegian Wood, and the music transports him back 18 years to his college days. His best friend, Kizuki, inexplicably commits suicide, after which Toru becomes first enamored, then involved with Kizuki's girlfriend, Naoko. But Naoko is a very troubled young woman; her brilliant older sister has also committed suicide, and though sweet and desperate for happiness, she often becomes untethered. She eventually enters a convalescent home for disturbed people, and when Toru visits her, he meets her roommate, an older musician named Reiko, who's had a long history of mental instability. The three become fast friends. Toru makes a commitment to Naoko, but back at college he encounters Midori, a vibrant, outgoing young woman. As he falls in love with her, Toru realizes he cannot continue his relationship with Naoko, whose sanity is fast deteriorating. Though the solution to his problem comes too easily, Murakami tells a subtle, charming, profound and very sexy story of young love bound for tragedy. Published in Japan in 1987, this novel proved a wild success there, selling four million copies. (Sept.) "
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Happy reading,
-Ita

The Time Traveler's Wife

I'm reading this book now :)

Well, actually I got this book from 2 of my good friends for my Birthday 2 years ago. Yeah... I know it takes too long for me to start reading it (Ali and Ening, I'm sorry...). It's because I have some unread books in my book shelve and I didn't spend too much time in reading in the last 2 years and maybe it's also because I watch TV too much since I subscribe cable TV with so many interesting channels!

This book has 560 pages and still about 200 pages to go for me to finish it. I like this book, the first chapter was a bit confusing and boring but then after.... I can't wait to know the end of the story! The story is unusual, the author takes us to another world of Henry Detamble.

For further and better review, please read the following review that I got from http://www.amazon.com/:

"On the surface, Henry and Clare Detamble are a normal couple living in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Henry works at the Newberry Library and Clare creates abstract paper art, but the cruel reality is that Henry is a prisoner of time. It sweeps him back and forth at its leisure, from the present to the past, with no regard for where he is or what he is doing. It drops him naked and vulnerable into another decade, wearing an age-appropriate face. In fact, it's not unusual for Henry to run into the other Henry and help him out of a jam. Sound unusual? Imagine Clare Detamble's astonishment at seeing Henry dropped stark naked into her parents' meadow when she was only six. Though, of course, until she came of age, Henry was always the perfect gentleman and gave young Clare nothing but his friendship as he dropped in and out of her life. It's no wonder that the film rights to this hip and urban love story have been acquired."

(Elsa Gaztambide, Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.)

Happy reading,

-Ita