Daniel Dian from Review Buku Daniel

If you asked me who is my favorite reviewer/book blogger, I will find hard time to answer that question because I have so many.

 

 

But if you asked me who is my favorite male reviewer, Daniel Dian from Review Buku Daniel will be top of my mind.

Daniel Dian

I really like his review.
I love his analogy, sarcasm, and argument. Reading his review often made me laugh. I knew about him after reading his Sabtu Bersama Bapak‘reviews on Goodreads and his comment

kalau saya menilai buku hanya dari berapa banyak kalimat dan amanat quotable yang bisa saya temukan dalam sebuah buku, saya sudah menjadikan buku Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan kelas 4 SD sebagai buku favorit saya karena taburan amanat yang ada di dalamnya.

if I judge a book just on how many of the quotable sentence and advice I could find in a book, I’ve made the Civic Education on 4th grade as my favorite book as so many of quotable sentence and advice is in it

made me laugh and reflect at the same time. I follow him immediately and became one of his fans.

Image courtesy of Lauren Mancke at unsplash.com, edited by me

Last Sunday, I gather the courage to ask him some questions to be featured on Hana Book Review ( some questions were borrowed from Blogger Spotlight’s Cait apagewithaview.com , Thank you Cait for let me use some of your question) and Thanks God, Daniel Dian gladly answer.

Anyone here is also fans of Daniel Dian? 
Let’s welcome him on Hana Book Review. 

Daniel Dian: It’s such an honor for me because siapalah-hamba-ini just a speck in the galaxy 😦 But here we go ya since you have spared your valuable time to write the questions for me, I will be more than happy to answer them. Since you write in English, I’ll reply in English as well. Pardon for expletive words.

1.Tell me 3 random facts about you.

• I can mention at least 180 capital cities of the countries in the world. My specialty is absolutely Asia, Europe, and my weakness is definitely Oceania and Caribbean Islands since there’s just a lot of tiny island countries there. It’s a knowledge that I gained since I was 11, and I can still remember. I believe this knowledge will be helpful if they decide to reboot Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. .
• When I was a child, I played with the bell’s school at where my mom worked. The whole class was dismissed thirty minutes earlier; everybody rejoiced, but my mom was furious. I’ve never done this anymore.
• People are shocked when I tell them that I weigh more than a 200 lbs since I’m around 6′, and it’s hard to buy clothes in local department store. It’s also the reason why I hate being pushed back to the rear of the angkot since it will be bloody difficult to get out of the car since angkot is a cramped vehicle that’s used to punish human beings.

 

2. What made you get involved in the book blogging community and how did you start?

I joined BBI in 2015, but I didn’t remember well who influenced me to join this. I just remembered that during that year, I decided to start fulfilling self-actualization as part of Maslow’s pyramid of needs, and I just loved reading books and thought that it would be good to join something positive that’s correlated with books. You may not believe this, but I’m an introvert at heart, and joining real-world community would be out of question–even until now, I’m still shy to come to the BBI’s gathering. So, back then I saw my friends, Raafi and Aulia, whose reviews were often posted in Goodreads with a link to their book blogs and BBI, and that’s when I was intrigued by this community. Long story short, I joined BBI and the rest is history.

 

3. What’s the best book you’ve read so far this year?

Hands down, it’s the conclusion of Red Rising trilogy, Morning Star by Pierce Brown. The death count in this trilogy makes Martin’s ASOIAF looks like a fairytale in comparison, but Red Rising trilogy, and especially Morning Star, is just enthralling, mindblowing, and wonderful. I’ve never held my breath that long ever since I read the ending of the book. A top notch sci-fi book.

 

4. If you could live in one book world, what would it be?

If you ask this question, like six-seven years ago, I will answer Harry Potter’s world, but now I’m a changed man since I read the masterfully-crafted and impeccable world-building that is called OASIS from Ernest Cline’s debut, Ready Player One.I’m playing games, because like books, playing games also gives you sense of escapism, some kind of therapy when you are sick of real world. In OASIS, Cline proffers the wonderful and boundless possibilities of world that you can visit, starting from Star Wars’ Death Star until 8-bit world of Nintendo. OASIS is just alive and breathtaking.

 

5. Which character would you want to be best friends with?

I guess the holy trinity of Harry, Ron, and Hermione will be my default answer. The child-version of myself definitely wants to know Scipio from Cornelia Funke’s Herr Der Diebe (The Thief’s Lord) a little more, since he looks cool and mysterious. Mark Watney from The Martian also looks fun. He’s like this funny friends that will always be the live of party, someone that you can go to bar with as a wingman, someone that always tells a joke. And what else do I need in this world, except for a nicely-told joke?

 

6. If you could hang out with any author for a day, who would you choose?

I think Pierce Brown will be the obvious answer, since he’s not only handsome but smart as well. It’ll be wonderful if we can discuss Red Rising over a beer together. But, my top choice is Ted Chiang. His works are mostly novella, but in just small amount of words, he can deliver mind-twisting stories, such as Hell is the Absence of God and Story of Your Life. If that’s not the definition of genius, I don’t know what is. I could learn tons of stuffs from just hanging out with him.

 

7.  What’s been the coolest part of book blogging so far?

Aside from getting free books, I think the best part about book-blogging, or book reviewing in general, is letting out everything that you think about a book and finding out that there are other people share the same opinion with you out there. It’s just mesmerizing when you can discuss together what makes a book good or bad, and you’ll realize that you’re actually never alone in this cold old world.

 

 

8. Who is your favorite book reviewer?

I really admire the Arief Bakthiar’s review style. It just looks really professional and witty. I always love reading trivias, and reading his reviews always fascinates me with his boundless sea of knowledge and references. His review is always thorough and comprehensive. Another reviewer that I adore is Luz Balthasaar. She used to run a regular post in fikfanindo and I always enjoy her pieces. They are always funny, but straight to the point and I can say that her review style also influences me.

 

9. What is your favorite blog post from your blog?

The review of Ika Natassa’s Critical Eleven is the post that probably catapults me to spotlight as it’s the post that has the highest traffic. It’s no secret that I tend to bash books with unrealistically perfect main characters, and Critical Eleven is definitely part of it. But, I just never thought that there are other people who have the same opinion with me, since her books are usually high-rated and loved. Her next book, The Architecture of Love, is definitely exponentially better, but her Underground is just plainly horrible.

 

10. Any advice to someone looking to start their own book blog and write book review?

Don’t be afraid to write what you actually feel. Don’t be afraid to say the book is bad, even if the whole world love it. Don’t be afraid to say the book is good, even if the whole world hate it. There’s nothing wrong with your opinion and once you’re brave enough to utter your opinion, you will feel that writing gives you therapeutic sensation. I once said to my best friend, that writing is cathartic, one way to release your emotion that binds you, and even writing a book review is no exception.

 

Thank you so much Daniel Dian for answering all of this, Your answer really made my day. (｡’▽’｡)

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