Independent Bookshop & Reading Room — Malang
A quiet corner for people who read one more chapter than they meant to.
Two creaky floors, a window seat that's always taken, and a staff that will absolutely tell you what they really thought of your last pick.
“Come for a book, stay for the light through the window seat.”
— Prapti, bookseller since 2019
Staff Picks
Handwritten shelf tags, digitizedThe Weight of Small Rooms
Ratri Ayundhita
A quiet novel about a family renovating a house nobody wants to leave.
— recommended by Salsa
Monsoon Static
Bagas Prawira
Short stories set during power cuts. Funnier than that sounds.
— recommended by Deni
A Catalogue of Quiet Things
Wening Larasati
Essays on objects people keep and never explain why.
— recommended by Salsa
Late Trains, Early Light
Yusuf Hardiman
A commuter's year, told one platform at a time.
— recommended by Ori
The Cartography of Ordinary Days
Nadira Kusuma
Maps of a childhood town that no longer exists as drawn.
— recommended by Deni
What's on the shelves
Fiction & Literature
1,900+ titles
New releases up front, backlist and translated fiction toward the back wall.
Poetry & Essays
420+ titles
A whole shelf just for chapbooks from Java-based small presses.
Local Press & Zines
180+ titles
Self-published and independently printed work from around Malang.
Children's Corner
600+ titles
Low shelves, a rug, and a box of picture books that don't leave the shop.
Notebooks & Stationery
60+ items
Refillable notebooks, fountain pen ink, and a few things we just liked.
The Staff's Backlist
Rotating
Whatever the booksellers are personally rereading this month.
The Reading Room
We stock what we'd actually recommend to a friend.
Foxglove opened in 2016 above a tailor's shop on a quiet street in Malang, and moved into its current two-floor space in 2019. Every book on the shelf was read and argued about by at least one of us first — we'd rather stock 12,000 titles we believe in than 30,000 we don't.
We share our back wall with a two-seat coffee counter run by a friend from next door — order a filter coffee, find a chair, and nobody will hurry you toward the register.
What's on
Slow Sunday Book Club
First Sunday of the month — this round is translated fiction. New readers always welcome.
Story Hour for Little Readers
Saturday mornings, ages 4–8, in the Children's Corner. Free, no need to book ahead.
Poetry Reading: Open Mic
Bring three poems, yours or someone else's. The reading room seats about twenty.
Zine-Making Workshop
A quarterly afternoon workshop with a local press — bring scraps, we bring the stapler.
Membership Card No. 0000
The Reader's Card
3 of 6 stamped — 3 more books to your free one
Free to join. Just ask at the counter.
- Every 6th book free, same price bracket as your first five
- 10% off storewide during your birthday month
- First look at new arrivals, sent over WhatsApp
- Free tea or filter coffee while you browse, every Thursday