On the way home, on the bus, the shop owner's message kept ringing in my head; "This is an Islamic novel, sir. A soul-building novel." That sentence seemed to shatter my assumptions about the negative side of novels. Upon arriving home, I curiously tore open the plastic wrapping around the novel, titled Ayat-Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love).
My ritual when I open a new book is to inhale the scent of the paper. And it's a blissful moment for any book lover. aroma of will Quoting Dee Lestari's language. And this aroma is categorized as an intangible heritage by UNESCO. This aroma is called bibliosmia which is taken from Greek which means "book" "smell" or āaromaā.
There are several positive testimonials from people endorsements. I still remember that time the introduction prologue Written by Mr. Hadi Susanto; doctoral candidate at Twente University, Netherlands. From the first title The girl's name is Maria until the last title (33rd) Songs from Heaven I read without missing a single page.
The weather in Sidoarjo, Surabaya, is quite hot. Even after a shower, my body would be sweating again. And that didn't make me comfortable reading at home. After the midday prayer, I continued reading the novel on the mosque porch. My memory records me starting at 11:00 a.m. after returning from a pilgrimage to the tomb of Sunan Ampel around noon, until 3:00 a.m. in the early morning.
It was then that I truly felt the powerful magnetic pull of reading. I'd never read so intensely before. I even forgot to eat. I finished the 400-plus-page novel in 17 hours. Feelings of emotion, breathlessness, humor, and happiness all mixed together after finishing. It was truly an extraordinary achievement for me, a newcomer to the world of reading and books.
After finishing that phenomenal novel, I realized that a novel revolution had occurred. A major revolution over all the dark past stigmas surrounding novels. A revolution that wasn't instant. Revolutions have their own ways of killing their past enemies. The negative stigma surrounding the novel label is gradually disappearing. And... Paragraphs of love is the motor of the revolution, the prize of victory over the future of the world of novels.
After the publication of the soul-building novel; Paragraphs of love by Kang Abik (Ustadz. Habiburrahman El-Shirazy) then a mushrooming of new writers imitated the genre of soul-building novels with various themes. Themes about love, family, education, politics, faith, Islam and so on.
Thus, a memoir about the revolution in novels. A step imaginary who changed all the negative images, assumptions, and stigmas surrounding the world of novels. I would like to express my special gratitude to Kang Abik. Thanks to your service and genius, the current generation can enjoy novels without fear of falling prey to the ugliness of literary diction and negative phrases.
After rain comes sunshine.
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