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Book Worm: Ni Made Purnama Sari: Growing up with books
JP/Bagas RahadianWriter Ni Made Purnama Sari has always been surrounded by books
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JP/Bagas Rahadian
Writer Ni Made Purnama Sari has always been surrounded by books. The 27-year-old said she was first introduced to books in elementary school.
“I like to read folk tales,” she told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.
Besides in school, Purnama also could not escape from books when she was at home as her family ran a small private library in her house in Bali.
From fairy tales, Purnama started reading novels in junior high school.
“I also liked to read short stories as I joined a theater group in school,” she said.
Her reading list got richer as she became older. The anthropology graduate from Udayana University, Bali, said she had also been into cultural manuscripts since she was in college.
All her time spent reading has not been wasted as Purnama has become one of the country’s young emerging writers.
Her first poetry book, Bali-Borneo (2014), was named Best Poetry Book in the Indonesian Poetry Day Awards and her second poetry book, Kawitan (2015), won second place in the Poetry Manuscript Contest held by the Jakarta Arts Council in 2015. She just released a new novel this year titled Kalamata.
Here are three books that have inspired Purnama’s work.
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Rumah Perawan
(The House of Sleeping Beauties)
by Yasunari Kawabata
It is really good. The language is sublime and very smooth. It focuses on the psychological side of a man. The details are also very rich. I read it when I was in college.
Anak Semua Bangsa
(Child of All Nations)
by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
It is the most interesting book from his tetralogy because it is very political. It focuses on relationships between Indonesians. It also tells about our struggle [as Indonesians] to become an independent nation.
The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway
I read it when I was in high school. I love the absurdity of how it tells a story of a man.
