Although the clock had hit 10 p.m. on Thursday, the atmosphere at the first Big Bad Wolf book sale in South Tangerang, Banten, was more like an afternoon as thousands of visitors still roamed around long tables covered in paperbacks.

Many women and their children were seen foraging in the children’s section, the biggest collection at the event held at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) in the BSD City housing complex in South Tangerang. Fathers seemed more interested in biographies or transportation.

“I chose to go at night to avoid traffic. I did not know the place would be this crowded,” said Fanni Hartanto, a 37-year-old mother of three, as she patiently pushed her trolley containing more than 20 books along the slow-moving queue.

Fanni, who learned about the sale through an advertisement in the newspaper, said she intentionally brought her whole family so they could each find their own books.

“We usually buy books in book stores. I could not let this kind of opportunity pass by,” the Cengkareng, West Jakarta, resident said.

While she was waiting to pay, her three children were still going back and forth from the tables to their mother to ask whether they could buy things.

Although the prices were not as low as she expected, Fanni was satisfied. “Most books are tagged at around Rp 70,000 [US$5.25]. That’s quite cheap,” she said.

Announcements from the organizers were heard across the hall every 10 minutes, informing visitors of lost children or family members who got separated while drowning in the collection of around 2 million books.

The snaking queue to the cash registers also never ended, but no one was rushing home that night as the vast collections were too tempting and organizers decided to open the doors for 68 hours non-stop from Thursday to Monday.

The Big Bad Wolf book sale, a regular event in its original home Malaysia, kicked off last Saturday and will end next Monday. The sale offers books from various genres, including children’s, general fiction, biographies, literature, activity books, arts and crafts and transportation. The books are all imported except for one local publisher’s products.

Anza Teuku Fadhlan, a 17-year-old shopper who came with his family, said that he kept himself updated about the book sale via his friends.

“They showed me pictures showing that it was super crowded at noon. So, we decided to come at night. But it’s the same,” said Anza whose family drove from Kramat Sentiong in Central Jakarta for the book sale.

Anza said he was overwhelmed when he saw the collection.

“It is hard to choose with this many books. However, I managed to get the book that I wanted at a cheap price,” he said, holding up a hardcover book about electric guitars.

Uli Silalahi, the president director of event organizer Jaya Ritel Indonesia, said that at least 750,000 copies of books had been sold and 75,000 visitors had come through as of Thursday night.

Uli said she had targeted 75,000 visitors for the whole seven-day sale but upon seeing the enthusiasm of visitors she increased her target to 100,000. “The queue was still crowded at 4 a.m. this morning,” she said.

Due to increasing numbers of visitors, Uli said organizers had made several adjustments. She said they had added one more exhibition hall, a space that had been intended for storage.

Uli said 30 percent of the collection was children’s books as she wanted to encourage children to love reading.

“We deal directly with publishers in England and the US as well as Indonesia so we can get cheap prices,” she said.

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