Another Islamic Book Fair’s greatness was the visiting of foreign publishing houses` representatives. I remember in the opening day I saw a bunch of foreigners. They were sightseeing between a publishing house’s stand to another, speaking a strange language which I presumed Turkish and dragging some luggage. On the last day I visited the book fair, I saw a couple of men looked like Indians, one of them was very tall, still dragging big luggage, which later I found out that they were Malaysians.
I also remember when eleven Malay people from one of Malaysian book publishers came and visited our publishing house in the third or fourth day of the Islamic Book Fair. They came intentionally to our headquarter after their visit to our stand during the book fair. They seemed curious of what makes Indonesian world of books so lively and high-graded, especially after they had seen the Islamic books phenomenon here with their very own eyes.
Not only adults like me, small children and young students showed the same enthusiasm in searching and buying books through this wonderful exhibition. I still clearly remember how a pack of primary students crowded a publishing house’s stand and bought many Arabic books, of course with their giggles and cheerful chats. Can you imagine what did it like to be among them in a long queue? Nevertheless, I was happy to see their passion in books, but I wondered if they could even read them.
In my first visit during the opening ceremony, I bought "The Choice" witten by Ahmad Deedat (the original English version) at IDR 62,000. Very very very cheap for such a valuable book. It was truly a bargain.
This 12th Islamic Book Fair was definitely crowded with people. Especially in the last three days of exhibition. It was really a tiring journey through the ocean of book lovers, but it was indeed worth doing. However, I hope they hold the book fair better next year, especially in managing the praying and ablution areas.
