Never in my life had I thought I would enjoy reading books in romance genre. But today, my friend, the day has come.
I am drowning in this book.

I found this Imaginary City on the top ten best selling books shelf. Up, up, up against the ceiling this book was placed on the super top part of the shelf, emphasize on the word super, I did tiptoe to reach it.
At a glance the cover is quite attractive for a person who lives under the ‘less is more‘ dogma; simple and neat. A picture of two old rattan chairs paired with an old wooden table, and a big scoop of strawberry ice cream on the table — served in a stainless steel bowl. (Fun fact: that’s Ragusa ice cream shop!)

I flipped the book and read Aan Mansyur’s name under one super short review (his full review is hidden inside the book fyi).
Long story short, being impulsive and unreasonable, I finally bought the book simply because I really, reaally love the cover.
As I read the first page, I thought this would be somewhat like other basic romantic books. You know, lame, boring, full of lust and undeniably predictable. But boy oh boy I was too quick to judge. Haha. It leaves me speechless with a bunch of emotions I don’t understand where did they come from.
I feel like this book is 95% based on the writer’s true complicated yet romantic life story; between a city and a man she has known for years.
Imaginary city, indeed. I knew even have visited six out of eight places described in the book but it surprisingly gives me new perspective on how to see and to appreciate them. I swear I never thought Jakarta has any sense of romance in it like I sweaaaarrrrr if Jakarta was a guy, he would be the most boring and stiff and no fun at all. But dang it now I think Jakarta is quite romantic despite its chaotic and ruthless personality.
And after I spent two hours to reach the last page, I peculiarly wanted to hug Rain Chudori… Of course it is my first time reading her book (yes, I know right–where have I been all this time???) but do you know the feeling when you found a book that somehow represents what you have been thru all this time for the sake of living your life? Perhaps because the story line is actually simple (but written in a beautiful way I guarantee) so she was just expressing thoughts women usually get but mostly we left them unspoken.
So if one day I have chance to meet her, I’ll hug her and say,
“Thank you for writing such a lovely book!”.