I went to Indonesia from Australia and Malaysia for many times since the mid-1980s and have acquired the love for otak-otak or Malay/Indonesian-style fish paste as well as keroncong, the slow-moving Indonesian country music that always helps to relax over-used brains. I also enjoy the very vibrant intellectual debate in Jakarta and Surabaya even when it had to be conducted deep underground during the Suharto era. Of course, I still love Wan Tan Mee in Hong Kong and the Cantonese-style Dim Sim, especially Har Kau in Guangzhou.

Karen Armstrong' s best-sellers in Indonesian

A mammoth, crowded hypermarket of books

Social liberation from ignorance, superstition