Perpustakaan - Radikus Makankakus: Bukan Binatang Biasa (Raditya Dika)

This one's quite funny. Books by Raditya Dika are quite popular at the moment and stem from the popularity of his web blog.

I especially like his opening because it reminds me of the time I had to search for a dissertation topic and the title ended up being very long. His opening goes like this (edited for brevity)...

"Gue sirik sama temen-temen gue.
Alesannya sih simple aja; saat ini mereka udah kuliah tingkat akhir dan mereka lagi dalam tahap pembuatan skripsi.

I'm envious of my friends. The reason is quite simple. At the moment they're in the final stages of their university studies and in the process of producing dissertations.

Gue pengen aja kayak temen-temen gue itu, yang bolak-balik bikin daftar pertanyaan kepada ibu-ibu rumah tangga, atau pergi ke Bogor dalam rangka penelitian lapangan. Hmmm, penelitian. Kayaknya seru banget tuh.

I'd like to be like my friends, who are going about making surveys of housewives or going to Bogor for field work. It seems to be pretty exciting.

Daripada ketinggalan zaman, gue lalu berencana bikin penelitian sendiri. Gue nyari-nyari ide, kira-kira penelitian macam apa yang cocok buat gue...

Instead of being behind the times, I decided to search for my own research topic. I searched here and there, wondering what would be a suitable topic for me...

(chop)

...Setelah melalui process meditasi yang lumayan menyedot seluruh jiwa-raga, akhirnya gue nemu tema penelitian gue. Ya, sebuah karya ilmiah superkeren: meneliti kehidupan badut dengan menjadi badut.

After a process of meditation which really zapped my body and soul, I finally settled on a research topic. Yup, a really super-cool topic: investigating the life of a clown by becoming a clown.

Tema ini gue pilih karena hampir seluruh keluarga gue takut sama badut. Dari gue sampai adek bungsu gue, pas kecil sama-sama takut sama badut.

I chose this topic because almost all my family are scared of clowns. From me to my youngest brother, when we were young we were all scared of clowns.

Nah, berhubung kata temen gue, bikin karya ilmiah itu judulnya harus panjang, ribet, dan kalau bisa pake Bahasa Inggris, jadilah karya ilmiah pertama gue berjudul: Monitoring Altruism Banality On Clowns Doing Unprecedented Responsive Environment Nuisance (atau disingkat: MABOC DUREN).

Now, according to my friend, a thesis topic's title must be long, complicated and if possible, use English. So my first dissertation would be titled: Monitoring Altruism Banality On Clowns Doing Unprecedented Responsive Environment Nuisance (or in short, MABOC DUREN [DRUNK ON DURIAN])

Of course, as usual, the humour gets kind of lost in translation...