Warta Kota/Nur Ichsan

Filmmaker and actress Lola Amaria lists novels and non-fiction books about philosophy and literature as her main reading material, saying she always gets insights when reading.

'€œI mostly read novels and short story collections. There are so many things I can learn from them, because they usually discuss things happening in our daily life,'€ Lola said, adding that among her favorite writers were Seno Gumira Ajidarma, Ayu Utami and Hamsad Rangkuti.

The 37-year-old also reads newspapers every day, mostly on her computer tablet. '€œMy dad reads a lot of newspapers. I used to wonder why he read newspapers, but now I do it myself,'€ she said.

Lola launched her acting career in 1998, playing the lead role as a stripper in Nan Achnas'€™ TV movie Penari (Dancer).
To date she has starred in seven films.

Lola then turned to producing, directing her first feature film Betina (Female), which won her a Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Award at the 2006 Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival.

Betina was followed by an Indonesian migrant worker drama Minggu Pagi di Victoria Park (Sunday Morning at Victoria Park) in 2010 and political scandal satire Negeri Tanpa Telinga (The Country Without Ears) in August.

Lola said that her reading habits had begun with magazines during elementary and high school, before moving onto novels and non-fiction books as she entered college.

'€œI now keep quite a lot of books at home. They'€™re just for me; I don'€™t lend books to people anymore because more often than not they never return,'€ she said.

All books
by Paulo Coelho

I collect his works. Every one of his novels has a psychological element. I feel very close to his stories. They seem so very familiar; I always find a real life situation of his story in my surroundings in Indonesia.

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