SAYACINTAINDONESIA — Did you know? In terms of reading interest or literacy, Indonesia is ranked 2nd in the world, but from behind.
Surely you think that the reason is because books are boring and more fun watching Tiktok or playing Instagram, but apparently you’ve been wrong all this time. This is the real reason why Indonesians are lazy to read books;
Number of Books Problem
The real reason that drives the Indonesian people to be lazy to read is because of the number of our books. In fact, with a population of 270.27 million people, the total number of books currently available in Indonesia is only 22,318,083 copies, which the national ratio of books to population is only 0.09.
Of course this number is very small. Let’s try to imagine that one book that is being read is also being waited on by 11 people. This is different from food that can be shared, books cannot be cut into pieces, especially the distribution of books which are mostly concentrated on the island of Java, with a comparison that is on the island of Java by 90% while the rest is the total available outside of Java.
In fact, according to the UNESCO organization, every person must read at least 3 books every year. But try to remember, how many books have you read this year?
But the fact is, when there is a big discount there are so many book enthusiasts in Indonesia that it can even need 33 Stadiums of Gelora Bung Karno just to accommodate the visitors. Unfortunately, even that only happens in a big town.
Limited Distance to Public Libraries in Small Towns
If you look at examples such as in the city of Moyudan, Sleman Regency, D.I Yogyakarta, Indonesia, children in this city have to recover tens of Kilometers to go to the nearest public library while the books in their elementary school are assistance from the government whose books are published in the 90’s.
Yes, it means the books which was published from 30 years ago. It’s like a student who used to read a book here and graduated and then looked for a job, had a girl/boyfriend, had a reunion, then got married, had children, and the child still reads the exact same book. This is ironic.
When compared to other countries, which on average can read 15-30 books per year and there is even a term for people who “read books while standing” like for example is Japan, Indonesia is certainly very far below it.
Lazy to read a book at first glance sounds like a problem we all know. But in fact, as explained above, the cause is more than just lazy, especially if the number of books is not widely available.
In fact, it is through books that we can explore the hidden world of magic, uncover the greatest mysteries of the universe, secretly find out who the perpetrators of various events are, and try to trace the long journey of our ancestors.
So, that is the real reason why Indonesians are lazy to read books. However, even though the number of books in Indonesia is not sufficient, it would be better if we take advantage of technology that makes it easier for us to read in these times. Not only reading the hottest news about celebrity gossip, but also reading the latest news from around the world and digging up various knowledge that can add insight.
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