Talking Stage by Tintabudi

Talking Stage is a readers’ circle hosted at Tintabudi in Kuala Lumpur every fortnight. This time, Tintabudi is bringing this circle to Jakarta, co-hosted with Margin Library.

Bring the books that move you, leave with new book titles to read. Each session, we explore a theme. We pose a few questions around it, and you share whatever books come to mind — why they stay with you, what they mean to you, and what makes them worth passing on. Whether you read one book a month or ten, you belong here. There’s no right answer, no required reading list, and no pressure to perform. Just a room full of people who love books and want to discover more of them, together. No prep needed. Just show up and bring a book or two if you’d like.

Discussion topic + guiding questions:

The City That Made Me

1. Share a book set in a city — any city. What makes that place feel alive on the page?

2. ⁠Does your book romanticise, critique, or simply document city life? How does the author’s own relationship to the city colour the story?

3. How do the cities in your books shape their characters and how do the characters shape their cities?