Image credit: Big Bad Wolf Books Official Site
March 29th until April 9th, 2018 perhaps were the most anticipated days for Indonesian book lover. For the third times, the largest book sale in Asia (Big Bad Wolf Books) came again in Indonesia. Following the successes of the previous two years, Big Bad Wolf Books came even bigger this year. It was open for 24-hrs for 12 days. In 2018, Big Bad Wolf Books Sale Indonesia was held at Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE), Jakarta.
The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale
Image credit: kompasiana.com
Big Bad Wolf Books (BBW Books) is the largest book fair in Asia, where they offer book sale with an extreme discount from 60% up to 80%. Their purpose is to spread out the reading habit and support the book lover to purchase a high-quality import book at an affordable price. It was held for the first time in Malaysia and continue to other countries including Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. They have a huge range of books from fiction (Children, Young Adult, Adult) to non-fiction (Hobbies, Autobiography, Travel Literature, Handbooks).
Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Indonesia
Image credit: Big Bad Wolf Books Official Site
This event came to Indonesia for the first time in 2016 in Surabaya and continue as an annual event. This year Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is the biggest and longest one that ever held in Indonesia. It took four halls (Hall 7 until 10) in ICE, Jakarta and running for 280-hrs nonstop.
Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Jakarta - 2018
Video credit:haraka via bitLanders
Honestly, I never heard about Big Bad Wolf Book Sale before. I heard about this book fair from my friend on the first day the event was started. Although I fond to grab books at the cheaper price, I’m not that excited knowing about this book fair. This is due to the unpleasant experience in the book fair. I've been to before. Usually, book fair aims to empty the inventory of publisher or bookstore from old books that don't have good sales. Due to that, I rarely find books that I'm interested to read whenever I visited a book fair.
My First Experience at the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Jakarta
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On 3rd of April, I decided to give it a try. Especially to prove my prediction that Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is like a book fair in general. The first time I entered the hall, it stunned me. First of all, it’s the biggest book fair that I’ve ever attended. Secondly, their collections are far from lame. They have a massive collection from fiction to non-fiction. In addition, they also have books in Bahasa and Mandarin besides the English books.
Because this is my first experience coming to Big Bad Wolf Book Sale, I'm a bit confused where to start. I did small research when I was on the way to the venue. On their website, I saw a couple of books that I'm interested to purchase. There are Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Divergent Series Boxed Set, and The Mortal Instruments Boxed Set. Since all those three are Young Adult Book, I decided to check the Young Adult Section first.
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Once I got to Young Adult Section, I was a bit disappointed. There are only two parts in Young Adult Section and I didn’t find those three books that I planned to buy. When I tried to ask the crew, they said that Harry Potter and the Curse Child already sold-out on the pre-sales day. Well, what do I expect from a book fair when I came on the 6th day? That’s when I was aware that Big Bad Wolf Book Sale also has a pre-sales event which was held one day before it was open to the public.
Due to the location of this event is quite far from where I live, I don’t want to go home empty-handed. So, I decided to check entire books in Young Adult Section. Then I found two books that part of the series that I own. The first one is Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs, the final books of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Series. And the other one is Firefight by Brandon Sanderson. Each book only cost around $5, while the normal price will cost me at least $13.
Image credits: haraka via bitLanders
This huge price difference is quite surprising to me. Although I know that this book fair offers a book at a price 60-80% cheaper than the normal price, it still makes me startled. In addition, finding Firefight at Young Adult Section is beyond my prediction because this book should be added in the General Fiction Section instead of Young Adult Section. This messy categorization isn’t the fault of the organizer. I found the visitors tend to put the books in random place instead of their original place when they don’t want to purchase the books that they have taken. Then, I decided to check all the section from the entrance point in hall 7 to exit point in hall 10.
Image credits: haraka via bitLanders
First, I went to General Fiction Section. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any book that appeals to me except one book from John Grisham. Comic Section is next to General Fiction Section, but I skipped this section because I wasn’t interested in buying comic books. Then I continue to the Children Section. Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is famous for their collection of children’s books. This year, 70% of the books are children's literature. I didn’t take any books from this section either because of two main reasons:
- Most of them are children preference and board books
- They are too many and I was overwhelmed by it.
The last part of the Fiction Book Section is the Young Adult Section. I checked this section for second times and I found more books that attract my attention. When I finished looking at the entire section, I realized that my shopping cart was exploded with almost 40 books. Realizing I just shopped impulsively, I short out the books that I really want to buy and I managed to narrow it down into 12 books.
Confident with the 12 books I've selected, I headed to the cashier in Hall 10. On my way to there, I passed Hall 9 which contains the non-fiction books. From the beginning, I didn’t intend to look at this section. However, my plan failed miserably when I spotted the Adult Coloring Book Section. Just intend to take a peek, but I end up with extra books in my shopping cart.
Image credits: haraka via bitLanders
Their collection was fascinating. They have many popular titled from Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book by Johanna Basford until Romantic Country: A Fantasy Coloring Book by Eriy. Over 70% of my wish-list is there and I can get it for $5-6 each instead of $15-$17. How can I say no? Then after struggled for over one hour, I decided to take 14 Adult Coloring Books.
Seeing my uncontrolled cart, I speed up toward the counter. However, my step stopped because I saw the book I was looking for; The Mortal Instruments Boxed Set and The Divergent Series Boxed Set. Then with an extreme guilty to my pocket, I picked up those two boxed sets and my cart ended up with total 35 books (14 coloring books and 21 books).
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Two days later, I went back to this event. My initial intention was to accompany my friend. However, it was a complete failure because I found some books that are the sequel to the books that I bought couple days ago. Plus that day, they added new books and re-stocking the books that have sold out. In result, I bought another 10 books.
Image credits: haraka via bitLanders
Overall, my first experience at Big Bad Wolf Book Sale was exceptional. I got a total of 45 books with average $5-$6 for each book. The only note and perhaps the suggestion for this event is the proportions of the books for each age range. Although this event is targeted to accommodate the reading material for children, the children’s books were still dominated by children reference. I wish next year they will increase the amount of non-children books especially the General Fiction and Young Adult Fiction.
See You Again Next Year Big Bad Wolf Books
Video credit: haraka via bitLanders
=Written by haraka for bitLanders=
