33rd Manila International Book Fair 2012

Last September 13, I proclaimed myself bankrupt. Because it's that time of the year again when I went on a marathon sprint on how to splurge money on books in less than 2 hours~! 



Happy 33rd Bithday MIBF~!



Look Ma, NO LINES~!



Guess who greets you Welcome~! Ramon, Stan, Carlos and Tado.

Manila International Bookfair is on its 33rd year. And I'm one of the many who looks forward to the event to make that one big haul of book acquisitions every year. Well, not really a BIG haul, but it is one of those rare moments that I get to buy more than 2 books on a visit to the bookstore. For your information, I do go to bookstores a lot. I lurk there and smell the pages of fresh and worn out books. One of my dream is to die in a library. Pretty morbid but I'd be one hell lucky ghost. :D


Anyhoo, I accepted the challenge from myself to only spend 2 hours buying books in the sea of pages. I geared myself up: rubber shoes for comfy walking, shirts, back pack for convenience, debit card for atm access use and my trustee phone for the list of books I need to acquire for this year.


It goes:
1. Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
2. Umbrella Academy (Graphic Novel) by Gerard Way
3. Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
4. A classic book.
5. A graphic novel.
6. A New York Times Best Seller Fantasy Book

So hunting down this book became my mission for the whole 2 hours. I readied myself up and when I enter the halls of SMX convention center - damn! It's vast and spacious. Lucky for me, they aren't a lot of people at this hour. And so the book hunting adventure begins.


I first lurk the corners of the event. Rows and rows of stalls from different publishing houses filled the venue. Students came in and out in different uniforms and books in every shape, sizes, thickness, tangibleness and rarity were stacked, shelved, spread out and boxed out decorated the place in every turn. I enjoyed the first 20 minutes booth hopping, checking out some rare finds, too expensive memorabilia photos and flyer collecting. By the time I bought my first book, I got loads of wasted paper in my hands, but I hoard it because I am a self-proclaimed pack rat.




I love the spacious hallway. That means no hassle.



Books of the Great.



Books of the Awesome.



NBS: The Usual Suspect.



Someday, their idea of how a book looks like will be an abstract thing to the next generation.



Tempting isn't it?



The Books of the Future. No more old dusty rickety shelves.






Memorabilias.






Who dares to put the 2 side by side? My favorite author and my not-so favorite fanfic writer. Jeez.






Sophie's World.  I got the very old version of this for just 85 Php. Now it is almost triple the  price range with a new embossed 3D looking cover. I'm glad they retained the butterfly. 

The usual stores dominated the place, National Bookstore takes up most of the place, but not as quite big as last year. This year, they seem to split it with Alamat or one of the known publishing houses. There is also Powerbooks rivaling NBS, then my favorite PSICOM Publishing and Summit Media.


I failed to find VISPRINT's booth on the event. I want to buy Siege's novel or Eros Atalia's but turns out when I asked the customer service, they weren't on the list this year. But I think some of its comic book writers were on the event for the free comic book signing even on the Sunday.


I first bought Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. I've been contemplating to buy this book for years, but it's quite pricey, but with the MIBF event, I make exceptions. I first found out about this book through a friend of mine in college. She lent it to me but I wasn't able to finish it. So I promised myself a copy.


Then I found Skyworld Series on an independent table somewhere in NBS. I first look at its first volume, I'm like, okay, blah blah blah, but then the second book caught me off guard it says Alexandra Trese and my hand immediately grab the first one and my feet head straight to the counter. Jeez. Talk about a nice collaboration. :D




Another proof that Filipino Comics is still alive.

Then I found this booth, I'm not sure if this is the real name, called Manila Typesetter but I found a bunch of really old sci-fi books and magazines tucked away in a small corner of the venue. And seriously, some of them are first editions. The ones with good titles are 100 and above, but there are books sold at around 50 or 10 pesos. I've never been a fan of sci-fi but considering that Douglas Adams is under that category I feel I must scour the place for any Douglas Adams. NONE~! Turns out that all these rare books are owned by one person only, and he set up this book to sell them. I was curious, so I asked the owner, which turns out to be a foreigner if he has some Douglas Adams earlier edition books. He said "Oh, I have them. But it's in my house." I asked him why isn't he selling does. He kindly  replied "You know, there is none other out there compared to Adams." and he just smiles at me and I think I know what that means. NO HITCHHIKER BOOKS. Turns out Adams is a collectible. Drat. I smiled at him and he said that I could always order online. I said sure, but I'm looking for early edition ones. And with that I walk away with a solo Neuromancer first edition at hand bought for 100 pesos. Still a score! :D





Cheap books. Guess what, so is the book on the right most side. Tsk. Tsk.

I am down to my last 10 minutes. Although I found a rare find, I'm not satisfied with my acquisitions yet. I browsed on the rows of books around me and found myself lurking the halls for a whole hour for that one other acquisition. I broke my own record. Jeez. But still I browsed and went for a really nice New York Times Best Seller book The Magician by Lev Grossman. It's being compared to Harry Potter as for the reviews.


And so the list goes: 
7. Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams (NO AVAILABLE STOCK)
8. Umbrella Academy (Graphic Novel) by Gerard Way (NO AVAILABLE STOCK)
9. Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (CHECK)
10. A classic book. (NEUROMANCER - CHECK)
11. A graphic novel. (SKYWORLD 1 and 2 - CHECK)
12. A New York Times Best Seller Fantasy Book. (THE MAGICIANS - CHECK)

Over-all I got 5 acquisitions and I'm really happy about it. Books in general make me happy but it's the point of acquiring them and the idea of living temporarily in someone else's shoes that makes me feel rather fond about it. For me reading a book is choosing one's own adventure. You can live suicidally like the Lisbon sisters, or be fearless like Alexandra Trese, or live in an ultimately impossible future in Neuromancer or live in a world full of magic. It's a choice. I've chosen my books wisely and from there I make my world more interesting.


And thus conclude my experience from this years MIBF~! Till Next September again~!