MANILA, Philippines - The Manila International Book Fair, delightfully acronymed MIBF, is now on its 32nd year. To serious bookworms and literature enthusiasts, this is a matter of inexplicable exhilaration. Book devotees have made the MIBF their yearly affair. The prospect of taking home new, even rare, books is just something that is too good to pass up for serious book lovers. As a literature major myself, I’ve been part of the habitual crowd, and have had the pleasure of seeing firsthand how my fellow lit majors lose their cool reserve and spaz out at the sight of shelves and shelves of fresh books waiting to be taken home. I can imagine that we, as a group, must have freaked people out slightly as we stared, hypnotized at the caxton towers we were about to devour, dissolved into the booths, each to our own literary preference, and later on found each other by way of high-pitched squeal, excitedly shoving our great finds in each other’s faces.
But don’t be afraid. Patrons of the fair aren’t limited to crazy bookworms like us. In fact, the book fair crowd is as varied as any: students in uniform hauling heavy bags of what I imagine are textbooks, kind-faced nuns browsing through theology titles, parents paying for coloring books as their toddlers suckle on pacifiers. The lucky ones might even catch a couple of local literary luminaries turning the corners. They make up the motley bunch of people who troll the shelves and congest the book fair pathways in search of hot new books to add to their personal collections.
The exhibitors number at over a hundred, each of their booths a mini-wonderland waiting to be explored. There is, of course, National Bookstore — undoubtedly the country’s most recognizable bookstore and an MIBF mainstay — with its usual selection of contemporary novels, classics, biographies, chick lit, and a gloriously hefty variety of comics and graphic novels. Also there, just around the corner, is the University of the Philippines Press, where you might chance upon an awesome title like Khavn Dela Cruz’s PoMo masterwork, Ultraviolins for a fraction of the original price. And then there are the other regulars, like Anvil Publishing which sells an impressive Ambeth Ocampo collection, and PSICOM Publishing, which offers their usual hilarious selection, headlined by Arnel Aquitania’s wittily titled books, To Kill and Angry Bird and Angels and Jejemons. There is something even for the romance novel fans in the Precious Pages booth, which sells the notorious Precious Hearts Romance books and puts them in giant paper bags that say “I Like” in bold letters underneath their deliciously cheesy logo as if inviting closet romance novel fans to finally come out and be proud of their slightly embarrassing preference.
It’s always been said that Filipinos are not the most enthusiastic readers, and perhaps that’s true. We have a severe lack of public libraries, and the common Pinoy would probably much rather belt out on the karaoke machine than sit down and read. But the sheer volume of people at the book fair on its opening day, not to mention the 85, 000 visitors it attracted last year, creates the illusion of a country that loves to read. It feeds the hope that maybe someday, millions more will join the crazy (and not-so-crazy) bookworms in their ever-continuing quest for that perfect new addition to their overflowing bookshelves.
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The Manila International Book Fair will continue today until tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Halls 1 to 4 at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City. Please prepare P20 for the entrance fee. For more information, visit www.manilabookfair.com.