The 34th Manila International Book Fair

Ohai. Bad “blogger” moment here. This event was held last September 11-15, 2013 but I am only writing about it now. I don’t want to miss chronicling it though, so I guess this is just the first of a series of forthcoming posts that will show bits and pieces of my 2013. To make things somewhat consistent, I’ll only be posting them on Thursdays so they’ll be like a “Throwback Thursday” of sorts. Sound good?

So. Since September is when the wet season in the Philippines peaks, it was hella rainy that day, which made it even harder to commute to and fro SMX Convention Center in Pasay. It wasn’t raining yet when I set out to go, but it rained from late afternoon until the rest of the night. Hannah, April, and I met up in MOA on Saturday and we had a very late lunch at Tokyo Tokyo before we trooped to SMX.

I managed to score free passes from Fully Booked days before, but the entrance to the book fair is only P50. It was my first time! Hate to use the cliche but I felt like a kid in a candy store. Stalls upon stalls of different publishers occupied the whole area and the place was packed. Like really. It was hard to move around without accidentally bumping into someone if you’re not looking. Gah pet peeve alert.

Since we started late, we had the chance to visit only a few stalls. In my case, just two — National Book Store and Fully Booked. I know, such brave choices. I should have taken the opportunity to discover rather obscure titles or other good but not overly hyped books from local publishing houses. But in my defense, I first wanted to purchase familiar titles/authors so at least I know that I’m getting something good and therefore not wasting money.

I’m quite happy with my loot. I gots my first Haruki Murakami! Well, I have other e-books by him (which I haven’t even read yet) but this is my first printed one. I’ve been promising myself to read this author since college, and this 2014 will be the year I fulfill that. Hopefully.

Picking up Norwegian Wood was rather serendipitous. I was already thirty minutes into scanning titles from isle to isle, not really looking for anything specific, when I chanced upon it in a messy pile of random books. I saw that it was Murakami so I decided to hold onto it. Then a month later, when Marianne and I met up to watch the 12th Spanish Film Fest, she squeeled when I told her about the book. Haha! She says that it’s also her first Murakami and she loved it. That made me more determined and excited to read it.

Serendipitous encounter no. 2 was picking up The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. It’s something I’ve also been wanting to read but never get around to doing so. There are probably thousands of happiness books out there but I’m settling on this one. I’m thinking, how can you go wrong with a feel-good book? So when I saw that it was 20% off at the book fair, I snatched it up. It was a battered copy but also the last one so I didn’t mind. Aaand what do you know, Marianne also lurves the book so when I told her about it she double-squeeled!

I’m adding these two books to my Project 12+ list, which is basically a list of (at least) twelve books that I plan to read this year. This might be too few for some, but I’m squeezing in my reading pile with lotsa other things I want to accomplish. So yeah, let’s begin with a manageable and realistic list.

My first MIBF experience went well even if it was too rainy out for my liking and even if I only got two books. I mainly wanted to experience it with good company. If there was a disappointing part, it was that the markdowns weren’t that big… just 10-20% off. Also, I’d rather hoard in Booksale; my soul and wallet would be happier.

Photo credit (3) April Villaluz