The Big Book Worm: A Personal Account about the relationship between humans and books
by Syafiatudina, Junior researcher at KUNCI Cultural Studies Center

This article is a supplement which espouses Codex Code Book Exhibition, hold by Kedai Kebun Forum (KKF) Yogyakarta, on March 3 – 27, 2010, initiated by FX. Woto Wibowo a.k.a. Wok the Rock.

The book worm is a popular term for a little animal that makes holes (by drilling or boring out) in books. The genuine book worm is a small insect (smaller than 1mm), with a soft body without wings that belongs to the Psocoptera order (usually Trogium pulsatorium), that eats mold and other organic materials of dilapidated objects, including book binds or other parts. Another insect called the book worm is Lepisma saccharina (Thysanura order) and several smaller cockroaches (Blattodea order), that also eats mold and frayed paper and remains of organic adhesive in books (id.wikipedia.org)

When I was in infant school, my favourite animal was the bookworm. For me bookworms were cool and smart animals. My reason was simple, bookworms move from one book to another, so it must have read so many books. You can say bookworms were my idol.

As a devoted fan, to hurt my idol was something I wanted to avoid, so the ritual of reading a book was an activity I did with great care. But this homage to bookworms ended when I found a new obsession, when I became Aizawa, who went on an adventure with Ryu, his pet dog in the serial Rindu-Rindu Aizawa.

And like the bookworm homage, my ambition of being Aizawa faded because I found another cooler figure, the Red Ranger. Several weeks afterwards I got bored and then changed, and changed again. My idols list grew and grew, NKOTB (New Kids on The Block), Ryan Hidayat, the Spice Girls, and Abah (Keluarga Cemara) were only some of my idols.

But, whoever my idol was at the time, I kept one hobby, reading books. Perhaps not only books, but anything I can read, from newspapers, women’s magazines, recipe books, and nutrition labels on food wrapping. My mother supported my hobby except for reading women’s magazines because after reading a short story in the women’s magazine, I would always speak using dramatic words.

Mother: Dina, don’t keep messing your room. After you play with your toys, clean it up.
My reply: So don’t you love me anymore mother? Why is everything I do always wrong?

This conversation above came about because I like to practice the dialogues in the short stories I read in the women’s magazines.

But apart from how I like to practice dialogues, actually the main factor that has shaped my way of thinking now is the books I read when I was young. One of the books that has greatly influenced me is Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner. This book contains stories such as Rapunzel, Snow White, The Frog Prince with parts “politically corrected”.

For instance, in the story of Rapunzel, the prince has connections to the music industry. When he heard Rapunzel sing, the prince wanted to give Rapunzel a contract as a singer. The prince even asked the witch to be Rapunzel’s manager. But Rapunzel was disgusted with the idea of using her body for the interests of capitalism, left the prince and the witch. Finally, Rapunzel became a folk singer and sung in cafés and art galleries.

Rapunzel and other stories in the book Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, and more or less shaped my interest in satire comedies. Every comment or joke I make has been influenced by these kinds of books.

Perhaps the idea how a book can change a person seems like an exaggeration, but after seeing my own experience and asking people around me and searching on Google, this kind of creation of identity from narration is quite common. A friend said that Para Priyayi by Umar Kayam has made him realize how important to be open to modernity but still cling on to tradition. Music lovers must have one or two favourite songs that changed their lives. The same thing may prevail for other cultural products such as books, films, music, paintings, comics, in which its influence may have contributed to change one’s personality.

For me and also my friend, books are a part of the narration that shapes our personalities. And even after 16 years of homage to the bookworm, deep inside of me, there still remains a desire to be a bookworm I imagine to be, a bookworm that reads lots of books and lives from one book to another. And if I do become a bookworm, I would be a big one.

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”
— Groucho Marx (The Essential Groucho)

The book worm is a popular term for a little animal that makes holes (by drilling or boring out) in books. The genuine book worm is a small insect (smaller than 1mm), with a soft body without wings that belongs to the Psocoptera order (usually Trogium pulsatorium), that eats mold and other organic materials of dilapidated objects, including book binds or other parts. Another insect called the book worm is Lepisma saccharina (Thysanura order) and several smaller cockroaches (Blattodea order), that also eats mold and frayed paper and remains of organic adhesive in books (id.wikipedia.org)

When I was in infant school, my favourite animal was the bookworm. For me bookworms were cool and smart animals. My reason was simple, bookworms move from one book to another, so it must have read so many books. You can say bookworms were my idol.

As a devoted fan, to hurt my idol was something I wanted to avoid, so the ritual of reading a book was an activity I did with great care. But this homage to bookworms ended when I found a new obsession, when I became Aizawa, who went on an adventure with Ryu, his pet dog in the serial Rindu-Rindu Aizawa.

And like the bookworm homage, my ambition of being Aizawa faded because I found another cooler figure, the Red Ranger. Several weeks afterwards I got bored and then changed, and changed again. My idols list grew and grew, NKOTB (New Kids on The Block), Ryan Hidayat, the Spice Girls, and Abah (Keluarga Cemara) were only some of my idols.

But, whoever my idol was at the time, I kept one hobby, reading books. Perhaps not only books, but anything I can read, from newspapers, women’s magazines, recipe books, and nutrition labels on food wrapping. My mother supported my hobby except for reading women’s magazines because after reading a short story in the women’s magazine, I would always speak using dramatic words.

Mother: Dina, don’t keep messing your room. After you play with your toys, clean it up.
My reply: So don’t you love me anymore mother? Why is everything I do always wrong?

This conversation above came about because I like to practice the dialogues in the short stories I read in the women’s magazines.

But apart from how I like to practice dialogues, actually the main factor that has shaped my way of thinking now is the books I read when I was young. One of the books that has greatly influenced me is Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner. This book contains stories such as Rapunzel, Snow White, The Frog Prince with parts “politically corrected”.

For instance, in the story of Rapunzel, the prince has connections to the music industry. When he heard Rapunzel sing, the prince wanted to give Rapunzel a contract as a singer. The prince even asked the witch to be Rapunzel’s manager. But Rapunzel was disgusted with the idea of using her body for the interests of capitalism, left the prince and the witch. Finally, Rapunzel became a folk singer and sung in cafés and art galleries.

Rapunzel and other stories in the book Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, and more or less shaped my interest in satire comedies. Every comment or joke I make has been influenced by these kinds of books.

Perhaps the idea how a book can change a person seems like an exaggeration, but after seeing my own experience and asking people around me and searching on Google, this kind of creation of identity from narration is quite common. A friend said that Para Priyayi by Umar Kayam has made him realize how important to be open to modernity but still cling on to tradition. Music lovers must have one or two favourite songs that changed their lives. The same thing may prevail for other cultural products such as books, films, music, paintings, comics, in which its influence may have contributed to change one’s personality.

For me and also my friend, books are a part of the narration that shapes our personalities. And even after 16 years of homage to the bookworm, deep inside of me, there still remains a desire to be a bookworm I imagine to be, a bookworm that reads lots of books and lives from one book to another. And if I do become a bookworm, I would be a big one.

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”
— Groucho Marx (The Essential Groucho)