Long awaited by thousands of readers in the country, the gigantic Big Bad Wolf (BBW) Book Sale returns to South Tangerang on Thursday at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) in BSD City after a two-year hiatus.

South Tangerang is the fifth stop this year for the BBW Book Sale after Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Bandung and Semarang.

The enthusiasm was apparent on Thursday, when the promotional event held a limited opening that saw the attendance of House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Rachmat Gobel. A long line had formed early in the morning that snaked along ICE’s four big halls that even surprised BBW Indonesia president director Uli Silalahi, who expressed her appreciation for customers during the opening ceremony of the weeklong event.

“[BBW] has garnered around one million customers every year and since we have been running for five years, it means that five to six million readers have been coming to [the book sale] to date,” she said, referring to the Indonesian branch of Big Bad Wolf Books, a global English literacy initiative that was launched in Kuala Lumpur in 2009.

But such numbers are still very small compared to Indonesia’s population of over 275 million people.

Uli underlined that the country’s literacy level and reading culture needed to be improved from an early age.

“Reading opens horizons of knowledge and that is our mission for the Indonesian generations,” she stated in a press release, adding that reading would “increase children’s knowledge and personality”, as well as provide other benefits.

She also called for more comprehensive regulations on increasing interest in reading among the public.

An event loved by many across the country, the BBW Book Sale returned to Indonesia with over 50,000 new titles from its collection of 5 million books. Known for offering quality international titles at affordable prices, the books span varying genres, including fiction, classics, graphic novels, children’s books, self-help, architecture and history.

Apart from the international titles, BBW also offers titles by Indonesian writers curated by Mizan Publishing, an established name in the country.

The event included the Red Readerhood corner, where visitors could donate books for distribution to the nation’s libraries through the Indonesian Women's Congress (Kowani).

According to its website, the BBW Book Sale has grown rapidly across the globe since it was first held, “touring 37 cities in 15 countries including Malaysia” and six other ASEAN states. The event is also available in Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Taiwan, and has recently reached Tanzania, its first destination on the African continent.

Big Bad Wolf is open to the public from 9 a.m. to midnight on Nov. 25 to Dec. 5 in halls 9-10 at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE), BSD City, South Tangerang. An online catalog is also available on e-commerce platform Tokopedia.

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