The 28th Manila Book Fair!

Can you imagine the book fair going on for the past 28 years??

Received an invite from a friend and decided to go early. I missed last year's show. 

It was good to see that most of the big publishers had joined the annual event.  Rex, Anvil, National AND PowerBooks and even good ol Bookmark was represented. Spent a long time browsing and ended up buying a few cook books for birthday gifts. Book Wagon had some interesting music score sheets that I thought never existed. e.g.  Diana Krall, Sting & The Police, They even had a great  Frank Sinatra anthology! aside from their regular catalogue of children's books. I did buy a few back issues from Summit Media. It was disappointing that Emerald Headway were NOT selling their back issues as they used to in the past.  I was hoping to pick up a few back issues of Cycling or Bike magazine. At the regular price of 485 p, I usually just wait for my LBS to get their copy!   What was nice, was that the Coffee Experience booth was right next to the "lounge" so we could relax with our espresso's and browse the latest finds, in real sofa's. Don't bother with their hot chocolate - its not the batirol at all. More like Swissmiss. Definitely, not like the one we had in Baguio… 

Despite the 20% discount, I still found the management and computer titles quite expensive. All in, this year's annual fair was designed for primary and kindergarden schools. Or is it like this every year?  Everywhere I went, the first question the booth vendor's asked of me was; " Hi Sir, what school are you from?"  Not that I looked so scholarly in my "smart missionary" shorts and sandals outfit. I had to say right away that they weren't going to get any multiple orders from moi. Then they left me alone really quick. There were some new outfits too. Like the F & J de Jesus outlet. At least it was the first time I saw them. And they had some interesting books on architecture & home decor that one would only find in Jaime Daez's  Fully Booked store. (Have you visited his latest outlet on Bonifacio High Street? ) Now - THATS a bookstore! Reminds me of the old HMV store in Hong Kong. 

So, if you're looking for some good bargain books, do visit the annual Manila Book Fair. @ the World Trade Center on Roxas Blvd cor. Buendia. They're open only till 8pm and just till this Sunday, Sep. 2nd.  Both  Anvil and BookMark booths had good items in their "Sale" bins. But you have to rummage. Check out the reviews online before you go, so you don't waste too much time browsing. Another good thing this year was that most, if not all the stores, actually accepted credit cards. So no excuse not to get anything,

Now, when will Fully Booked schedule their sale?