Photo Talk: The 34th Manila International Book Fair (MIBF 2013)

In spite of the heavy downpour all day long that Sunday, the 34th MIBF is still jam packed with crowd during it’s last day until closing time.  I supposed due to its loyal crowd such as my family plus it coincides with a weekend payday sale at the nearby SM Mall of Asia plus the UAAP cheer dance competition which is happening also at the nearby MOA Arena.



Name a book store and publishing company – you’ll surely find them at the fair.



Book signing from local authors, writers and illustrators has always been a major part of the annual MIBF.  We spotted journalist, poet and musician Lourd de Veyra trying to be incognito from the crowd while DJ and writer “Papa Jack” is having a book signing on the same publication where he will be doing book signing too.

The queue to Bo Sanchez book signing is as usual among one of the longest.

Aside from signing my daughter’s book, illustrator Dom Agsaway made a quick drawing of my daughter’s face on the same page where he signed.


Almost everything was on sale! And they are not limited to books.  Pens, stationeries and a lot more is on discounted prices.


Unlimited fun was in every corner.  Story telling and book reading of course is among the most favorite activity plus lots of educational competitions. There’s no corner that you won’t find something to do apart from reading and shopping.
 

 



One of the most attended event is the “The Best of Anime 2013” cosplay event.  It has separate entrance fee though and is being done at the second floor of the SMX Convention Center.



My two book worms of course had the time of their lives enjoying the activities and buying their favorites and annual picks.



I restrained myself from buying anything for myself this year.  I kept reminding myself that they will just pile up on my reading queue. I still have a stack from last year’s fair that I haven’t read yet plus some from the "floating bookstore" and some gifts from friends.  But it was a tough battle when I needed to buy something from Anvil Publishing (one of my favorites).  I was not able to restrain myself from peeping on Jessica Zafra’s books especially the “Twisted” series.  I picked two books and supposed to queue at the cashier.  It was a real battle before I finally decided to return my picks back to the racks (sigh/LOL).



My annual favorite bet in the “Best in Booth Design” – Rex Bookstore came in second place this year. The 1st place goes to C&E Publishing with a very modern booth design.  My camera did not do justice to C&E’s entry.  It really looks great in person.


If there’s one disappointment that we had during the fair is that we only had four hours spent at the fair.  Jeez!  we almost missed it.  It was already crunched time when our messy family schedule finally blended.  It was already 3PM of the last day (Sunday) when we finally succeeded going to the fair.  Unlike the previous years that we almost spent a whole day.  There were even some years that we went for two days.

But as always we had fun! Can’t wait for next year’s event!