For those growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, book rental stores were the perfect way to read comic books and novels at a fraction of their real price while also saving space at home. With the current rapid growth of the internet and smartphones, book rental businesses have been dwindling. However, there are some that have managed to beat the odds and survive up to this day.

One of the remaining rental stores is located on Jl. Pademangan Raya 1 in North Jakarta, where around 30,000 books for rent are stored in a small storehouse.

“We opened it in June 28, 1999, [the book collection] is my wife’s personal collection of comics and novels. Our books kept adding up and then we tried to open this rental store,” Suargani Abdi Muljo, the owner of Nana Book Rental, told The Jakarta Post recently.

“This place used to be very crowded. We even had to buy three copies of some comics and novels,” he said.

However, things started to slow down when smartphones became widely available and people started to read comics and electronic books on their phone and their computer screens.

Even though Nana Book Rental has managed to stay afloat, it has lost half of its regular visitors.

Despite dwindling visitors, Suargani said those that preferred printed books had not totally vanished, and he aimed to cater to the market with his book rental business.

“Other rental stores might have closed down, so we still want to serve [those that prefer printed books]. Although I don’t know how long we will stay around,” he said.

The book rental store still has 1,000 registered members that can rent books. For a two-week loan, comic books cost between Rp 3,000 (22 US cents) and Rp 5,000 depending on the publisher, novels are Rp 5,000, and Indonesian martial arts comic books cost Rp 5,000.

Another book rental store that still exists is the Elex Comic Center on Jl. Raya Kelapa Gading Permai, Tanjung Priok also in North Jakarta. The rental store opened in 2008 and is owned by Niniek Damayanti as a franchise of comic book publisher PT Elex Media Komputindo.

The one in Kelapa Gading is Niniek’s only rental store that survived after her three other rental stores in Bintaro, South Jakarta; Bekasi, West Java; and Serpong, Banten ceased operations.

She ascribed the decline of her stores to changing reading habits. However, her only store stands the test of time thanks to parents living in the area who bring their children there to introduce them to reading. The store also relies on adult customers looking for old comics that are hard to find anywhere else.

“This rental store is still open because I am holding on to it for the sake of my customers,” she said, noting that as a franchise of Elex, her store gets a regular supply of comics from Kompas Gramedia group, although the number of books and comics has significantly dropped since its heyday more than a decade ago.

The waning of book rental stores has also left a sense of nostalgia for comic book and novel enthusiasts who prefer to rent than buy. Ardian Garin Suarna was a frequent visitor to book rental stores situated near his school when he was in junior high school. The good times he spent there were a sweet memory for him, he said.

“Those [rental stores] are closed now, I don’t know why. It’s a pity because it’s one of the alternatives to relax after work,” Ardian said.

“So it feels like something is missing,” he said.

Ardian, who mostly reads Japanese manga, still prefers printed comics to online comics, so he frequents the Elex Comic Center in Kelapa Gading to read comics.

The death of book rental stores also meant a loss of communities, Rinawati, 29 said. She noted that in rental stores, she used to be able to find specific comic books that might not always be available at common book stores.

“In book rental stores they usually facilitate us as comic readers and buyers. We can also order comics from them or help us look for them,” she said.

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