The 32nd Manila International Book Fair

Wala lang. Magandang kuha.

This is my second time to attend the Manila Book Fair event and like the first experience, there wasn't that much, except only for the 20% sale on the National Bookstore booth. As an afterthought, I felt somewhat frustrated as it should have been labeled as "Manila International Academic Book Fair". Seriously. Most of the books were for students and academicians that I lost interest at the first 10 minutes of roaming around.




It would've been nice to see other bookstores and even publishers both local and foreign not just selling stuff, but also conducting pocket events for the reading and writing public. There was one reader-centric mini-event but that happened on a weekday. I felt like I spent more than an hour's time traveling to the end of the world and ended up being somewhat disappointed.

Ok, so I wasn't entirely disappointed. I got to buy A Clash of Kings on sale, and I got to have my book signed with Ambeth Ocampo. I didn't stick around for the author panel with Samantha Sotto (author of Before Ever After---one of the books I've been eyeing to buy), nor with another Lourd de Veyra book signing. I left the place after a complete sweep of the entire area with only one book purchase.

This saved my day.

Overall, the experience was somewhat uneventful. If I had my way of putting together an event like this, I'd get all book stores, publishing houses, artists and writers in one roof. I'd probably die happy with such a book/writing event. I suddenly remembered the Read or Die Con and that didn't turn out so bad. It was purely a reader convention with not so much books, but I had so much fun interacting with people. I wonder when we'll have that kind of event again.