BOOK REVIEW OF NORMAL IS BORING

WRITTEN BY IRA LATHIEF

A FINAL PROJECT

In Particular of the Requirement

Submitted by:
Rini Hardaniwati
A2B008136

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
DIPONEGORO UNIVERSITY
SEMARANG
2013
 PRONOUNCEMENT

The writer honestly confirms that she compiles this thesis by herself and

without taking any results from other researchers in S-1, S-2, S-3 degrees and in

diploma degree of any university. The writer ascertains also that she does not quote

any material from other publications or someone’s paper except those that have been

mentioned in the bibliography.

Semarang, March 2013

Rini Hardaniwati

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 APPROVAL

Approved by

Advisor,

Prihantoro, S.S. , M.A.

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 VALIDATION

Approved by:

Strata I Final Project Examination Committee

Faculty of Humanities Diponegoro University

on 2015

Advisor,

Prihantoro, S.S. , M.A.

First Reader, Second Reader,

Ayu Ida Savitri, S. S., M. Hum. Drs. Suharno, M. Ed.

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 MOTTO AND DEDICATION

Motto:

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.”

~ Albert Einstein ~

Dedication:

This thesis dedicates to

my beloved Papi and Mami, my beloved family,

and to everyone which helped me in accomplished this thesis.

“Thank you for everything, thank you for supporting me.”

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Praise be to God The Almighty, who always give me strength and spirit so this

project entitled “Book Review of Normal is Boring written by Ira Lathief“ came to a

completion. On this occasion, the writer would like to thank everybody who had

contributed to the completion of this research report.

The deepest appreciation and gratitude is extended to Prihantoro, S.S., M.A.,

the writer’s advisor, who had given his continuous guidance, helpful correction,

moral support, advice, suggestion, without which it is doubtful that this project came

into completion.

The writer’s deepest thank also goes to the following person

1. Dr. Agus Maladi Irianto, M.A., the Dean of Faculty of Humanities, Diponegoro

University.

2. Dra. Hj. Wiwiek Sundari M.Hum., the Head of English Department Regular II

Program of Faculty of Humanities, Diponegoro University.

3. Sukarni Suryaningsih, S.S., M.Hum., the Academic Advisor.

4. All beloved and respectful lecturers, academic staff, and officers in English

Department, Faculty of Humanities, Diponegoro University.

5. My beloved father, Harsoyo, my beloved Mother, Nugrahaningsih Retno Utari,

and my brother, Bayu Setyo Nugroho. Thank you for supporting, praying, loving

and smiling for the writer.

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6. My dearest friend, Hyouga Swarasantosa. Thank you for your faithfulness,

understanding, praying, patience, and support.

7. My best friends; Winda, Dana, Pratama, Otniel Lambe, Rantonika Suratman,

Mimi Wijayanti, Nita, and Ridha. Thank you for great inspiration, valuable

lesson life, wonderful memories, and continuous support.

8. All my friends from English Department 2008 Regular I and Regular II. I truly

believe that each one of you will become successful person in the future.

9. Everyone who had involved and became the part of the writer’s life. The writer

wants to express his deepest thankfulness and gratitude.

The writer realizes that this project is still far from perfect. She, therefore, will

be glad to receive any constructive criticism and recommendation to make this

project better.

Finally, the writer expects that this project will be useful to the reader in both

academic and social aspects.

Semarang, March 2013

The Writer

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE……………………………………………………………………….. i

PRONOUNCEMENT………………………………………………………. ii

APPROVAL………………………………………………………………… iii

VALIDATION……………………………………………………………… iv

MOTTO AND DEDICATION……………………………………………... v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………….……..... vi

TABLE OF CONTENT…………………………………………………….. viii

ABSTRAK……………………………………………………….…………. ix

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION…………………………...…………... 1

1.1 Background of Writing….…………...……….......... 1

1.2 Purpose of Writing………………………………… 2

1.3 About The Author and Her Works...………………. 2

CHAPTER II …………………………………………………………… 4

2.1 The Book…………………….…………………….. 4

2.2 Summary of The Book..…………………………… 4

CHAPTER III REVIEW OF THE BOOK..……………………………… 7

3.1 Strength of The Book…...…………………………. 7

3.2 Weakness of The Book…………………………….. 9

3.3 Personal Opinion…………………………………... 10

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CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION…………...…………………......………. 11

REFERENCES………………………...……......….……. 12

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 ABSTRAK

Normal is Boring adalah buku yang ditulis oleh Ira Lathief, yang merupakan
penulis buku yang sudah mengeluarkan buku dengan berbagai genre (biografi, buku
remaja, buku anak, buku humor, dan lain-lain. Buku ini berisi pandangan dan cara
bagaimana kita selalu berpikir kreatif dalam menjalankan aspek kehidupan. Buku ini
merupakan buku ke-13 yang diterangkan dengan ringan namun tidak menghilangkan
makna dan pesan yang ingin disampaikan, setelah sebelumnya menulis buku tentang
anak-anak dan remaja. Buku ini menunjukkan keahlian Ira Lathief dalam menuliskan
pandangan dan pemikirannya. Ira juga pintar memilih contoh atau kejadian yang
mempunyai nilai untuk memacu semangat pembaca agar selalu berpikir kreatif.
Normal is Boring bisa memberi inspirasi untuk berpikir kreatif pada pembaca karena
selain dari isi tulisan, bentuk dan tampilannya pun sudah mempunyai keunikan
tersendiri. Dengan konsep seperti buku anak-anak, dimana terdapat stiker yang bisa
dimainkan dan dikreasikan untuk ditempel disampul buku, Ira menggambarkan
filosofi dalam seluruh stiker itu. Buku ini dibaca mulai dari belakang, untuk
mengajak pembaca untuk berpikir secara terbalik, dengan kata lain, berpikir beda dan
kreatif.

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 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Writing

Creativity is the ability to make something new. It can be ideas or real work.

It can also be new work or the combination of things that already exist but deliver

something that never existed. It is defined as the skill to find ideas, alternatives, or

possibilities that may be useful in solving problems. In other words, creativity is an

idea that can solve problems in some sort of situation or in any condition.

The book “Normal is Boring” gives different way to think. The writer tries to

say that being normal as common human being is too boring. The writer wants to ask

the readers to think out of the box and find a breakthrough for the reader’s way of

living. The main point of this book is that being different is special and being

different is an asset. That is why the author chooses the title of the book “Normal is

Boring”.

The author like to review the book writen by Ira Lathief because it is amazing.

In the hands of a brilliant writer, this book is easy to read but full of creativity, ideas,

good value, positive messages and life lesson about thinking creatively. The spirit of

always think creatively in this book is simply explained simply but does not eliminate

the real meaning and the message. Ira is also smart to choose valuable examples or

events to drive readers the spirit to always think creatively.

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1.2 Purposes of Writing

The purpose of writing this project is to review the book “Normal is Boring”

by Ira Lathief. The review includes the strengths and weaknesses of the book. The

other purpose of this project is to provide more point of views about creativity and

how the ideas came. The main purpose of doing this project is to fulfill the graduation

requirements in achieving a degree S1 English Literature Department, Faculty of

Humanities, Diponegoro University.

1.3 About the Author and Her works

Ira Lathief was born on 5th June 1980, in Jakarta. She got her S1 degree

majoring in International Relations from Padjadjaran University in 2003. She got her

master degree of Communication Management from Indonesia University in 2006.

For a couple years, she becomes a journalist. A few years later, she decided to be an

author. Some of her books that had been published have different genre, such as

biography, teen-lit, children book, humor book and etc.

Ira’s dream since her childhood was just to travel around world. There was no

desire to become a great writer or a business woman. In her teenage years, she were

cheerfull and passionable. She was a girl who has a lot of youth activities, life tutorial

and extra-curricular activities at school. In other word, she was a person who has

more than a routine daily activity.

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 Ira started writing as her hobby since high school. At that time she joined

school magazine extracurricular. Then, she started to work as a journalists in a private

television. Starting four years as a journalist, Ira decided to resign and chose to be a

serious professional writer.

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 CHAPTER II

2.1 The Book

“Normal is boring” is written by Ira Lathief, a first bachelor of International

Relations from Padjajaran University in 2003. This book was designed by a designer

named Hariadhi, illustrated by an illustrator named Milla Andriana, and published by

PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama in 2012.

2.2 Summary of The Book

“Normal Is Boring” is a book of how we should always think creatively in

implementing aspects of life. The book begins with the story of a creative Malaysian

boy, named David Tan, who proposed her lovely girl in a creative and an unusual

way. He took his girlfriend to drive a car around the city on the evening after

celebrating Valentine's Day. At midnight, the car passed a giant billboard on the

street, attached on a freeway. The picture attached to the billboard was a picture of

David Tan, who holds the ring box with words containing a marriage proposal to his

girlfriend.

The second story tells us about a story of Tukul Arwana with his talk show

“Empat Mata” or “Four Eyes” that once banned to air by KPI (Komisi Penyiaran

Indonesia or Indonesian Broadcasting Commission) because there was an episode

that featured improper actions. Then, the show's creative team changed the name of

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the talk show to “Bukan Empat Mata” or “Not Four Eyes” so they can air it again on

television.

The third story tells us about Sheridan Simove, a British man who shows his

creativity in his work. When he ran out of ideas to write a book “What Every Man

Thinks About Apart From Sex”, he published a book with 200 blank pages. The book

achieved amazing success. As it managed to beat “Harry Potter” and “The Da Vinci

Code” on Amazon.com online sales.Pricing £ 4.69, the book was bought by many

people who use it as a notebook.

The fourth story tells us about an eccentric action by Sriyono, a dumpling

vendor in Jakarta known for its Pink Dumpling. Sriyono wear pink outfit and ride a

pink bycicle, which is his daughter’s favorite color, to sell his dumpling. He hoped to

see his daughter who had not seen him for so long. This action attracted much

attention from the buyers who has then spread the existence of his dumplings. From

the mobile merchant dumplings, now Sriyono opened a new store with pink

decoration.

The fifth story tells us about a famous director, Joko Anwar, who was a movie

journalist in a prestigious English language newspaper. As a journalist, Joko often

criticizes local movies that made him being despised by many local film producers

and directors. His meeting with Nia Dinata, a producer and a director, managed to

change the course of his life. Nia challenged Joko to make movie based on his

perspective, not only becoming a movie reviewer who critize Indonesian movies.

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Currently, the movies by Joko Anwar became much awaited movies at prestigious

international film festivals in various countries.

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 CHAPTER III

REVIEW OF THE BOOK

3.1 Strengths of the Book

According to the chapter, the strengths of the book are it has a unique title, an

unsual cover, different way of reading (backward), valuable messages of being

creative in an easy way and interesting examples around world that are easy to

understand. The author made the book for those who had interest in knowing more

about creative world, so that design the book creatively.

The first strength of the book is the book has a unique title. The title “Normal

is Boring”. This means that she wants to deliver the message about creativity through

the book in a unique way. She tells us that being abnormal or extra ordinary is not a

mistakes. So that we should not be afraid to be different because the different people

are assets, that makes them unique and special. Ira influences the readers to think

differently.By being creative, Ira also tells us how the creativity makes some people

like a stand up commedian Pandji Pragiwaksono, a movie director Joko Anwar, an

Indonesian model Kimmi Jayanti and many more become one of the best in its field

because of their creativity. Ira said that there are three ways for being creative person;

think the opposite, think creatively and globally, and the last is change perspective.

The second strength of the book is the book has an unusual cover, a blank

page with white color. When we buy the book, we get stickers of alphabet, number,

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and symbol. At the end of the book, there is a challenge for the reader, “Beri judul

buku Ini dengan versi anda sendiri dengan menempelkan stiker yang ada di buku

ini.” Which means “Give this book tittle in your own version, by sticking stickers

provided in this book.” The reader were also asked to decorate the cover creatively by

sticking colorful stickers on the cover.

The third strength of the book is the different way of reading as it is read

backward, like Japan’s comic or a Holy Quran. This strength can make the readers

realize or understand what creative is since reading backward is uncommon. Ira

makes a reading backward concept to attract the reader’s attention. It is proven on the

internet that it attracts many people to read the book.

The fourth strength of the book is the valuable message of being creative in an

easy way to deliver it. The language of the book is really simple because Ira explains

everything clearly in her book. Although the topic of book is serious, she explains it

in a simple language about how to thinking creative by using stories as examples.

When she mentions about “Rawon Setan” which means “Devil Rawon”, she explains

that the food is very hot in taste. In Indonesia, the very hot taste is commonly

symbolized by the word “setan” or “devil”. Since we are familiar with “lombok

setan” (devil chilli) or “keripik setan” (devil chips) which have a really hot taste.

Some examples in the book also have valuable messages. For example, people with

unique ideas and different way of thing become more powerful than a people who

owns everything but less creative. If we are not willing to be extra ordinary, we will

have to settle for the ordinary. For example, since the music program “I Like

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Monday” in “Hard Rock Café” is unique since most people think that Monday is a

very busy day people do not like. But the program has an opposite idea of loving

Monday. So that it becomes a very succesfull program.

The fifth strength of the book is the interesting example which is easy to

understand. The book is really easy to understand since the author shows many real-

life examples about being creative. The first example, a “labirin park” teaches us not

to give up easily because we must try hard to go out from there. The author also put

many motivates quotes from inspiring people, so that the readers can be highly

motivated to be creative. For example, a qoute from a famous person Albert Einstein,

which says, “The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing

positive knowledge. Imagination is more impotant than knowledge.” The second

example, a creative man David Tan from Malaysia who proposes his girlfriend in a

unique way by doing an extra ordinary action to show his love. The third example, a

talk show “Empat Mata” (Four Eyes) hosted by Tukul Arwana , which a once banned

to air by KPI (“Komisi Penyiaran Indonesia” or Indonesian Broadcasting

Commission) are regain its success after show's creative team changed the name of

the talk show into “Bukan Empat Mata” or (Not Four Eyes). Fourth example is

Sheridan Simove, a British man who write and launch a book “What Every Man

Thinks About Apart From Sex”, with 200 blank pages which can beat “Harry Potter”

and “The Da Vinci Code” on the Amazon.com online sales on LA was bought by

people who use it as a notebook. The fifth example is Sriyono, dumplings vendor in

Jakarta who wear pink outfit and pink bicycle to self dumpling. The sixth example is

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Joko Anwar, a movie journalist of Jakarta Post who often criticizes local movies that

made many local film producers and directors. Since his meeting Nia Dinata, a

producer and director had change him to prove himself as a good movie maker. Joko

Anwar moves were played on prestigious international film festivals in various

countries. Ira focused on how creative people think, how creative ideas are invented,

what creative perspective is, what the impacts for the environtment, and what creative

ethic is she offers the readers, the easy problem solved by giving some examples

about problems that are solved with creative solutions.

3.2 Weaknesses of The Book

There are three weaknesses of this book. The writer only show how often

people being creative. There is no extra explanation or definition of what creative is,

because she was only giving examples, opinions and tips. Too many blank pages in

the book and the rare some pages which are written by using big font.

For the first weaknesses, althought sharing examples, the writer does not

expalin how often someone must be creative give the whole example only show

people ask one example of creativity.

For the second weaknesses, althought give example, opinion, and story, the

writer does not explain in detail how people became creative. It seems like she just

want the readers to be triggered to be creative and find themselves the way to be

cretive.

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 For the last weaknesses, the blank pages can be useful for the readers to note

something but it is a waste of space since it can be useful for giving anothe example

oe explanation.

Yet, there are no perfect things in the world. Overall, “Normal is boring” is an

intersting book. It can motivate the readers for being more creative after read that

book and some motivating stories in there.

3.3 Personal Opinion

In my personal opinion, this book is really easy to understand, especially the

language that the author used. The examples of creative things were really inspiring

and fun to read. But the thing that I do not like is the way the author’s plots of

shinning how to be creative. The book is like disordered as the examples on randomly

presented from first to last topics. In addition, most of the examples are the same,

even when the situation and the condition is different. For example, the book only

tells about how to think differently, be unique, be extraordinary and others. In my

opinion creative is not only about being different, but also about how we solve

problems differently, not living differently.

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 CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

“Normal is Boring” novel written by Ira Lathief is an interesting book

because it teaches us not to be a commoner and push us to think differently, which

can make us create something new in our life. As a human creation, the book has

strengths and weaknesses.

The strengths of this book are a unique title, an unusual cover, a different way

of reading (backward), the valuable messages and the interesting real-life examples

from the people around the world about being creative. Everybody can learn how to

make an interesting book if they want to be a writer someday. For students, they are

able to observe how to communicate clearly using simple language. For common

people, they can study how to solve problems creatively, so they will not give up

easily.

The weaknesses on this book are the writer does not clearly explain in detail

how to be creative. There are many blank spaces in the book that actually can be used

to put some ideas or some experiences for being creative. Last but not least, the use of

big fonts and the examples that were shown randomly might confusing for the

readers.

As a conclusion, the writer considered that this book also teaches us how to be

a creative person that dares to be different as long as it does not break the rules or

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laws. Moreover, the quotations from great people are hopefully inspired the readers to

become more creative.

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 REFERENCES

Echols, John M. And Hassan Shadily. 2003. Kamus Indonesia Inggris. Jakarta:

Gramedia.

Echols, John M. And Hassan Shadily. 2003. Kamus Inggris Indonesia. Jakarta:

Gramedia.

Hariyanto, Sugeng. 2003. Abunawas and The King Aaroom. Jakarta: Gramedia.

Latief, Ira. 2012. Normal is Boring . Jakarta: Gramedia.

Simove, Sheridan Howard. 2011. What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex.

Summersdale: United Kingdom.

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 APPENDIX

The Cover of “Normal is boring” by Ira Lathief

Back side of the book with some stickers Front side of the book with some stickers

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