Events: Experiencing the 36th Manila International Book Fair

I attended this year's Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) for two days, September 19-20, held at the SMX Convention Center. For a book lover, that time is really needed especially with all the book hunt and book signing that I want to accomplish.

September 19, Saturday

I arrived after attending the Asia Pop Comicon, held at the World Trade Center which was conducted at the same number of days with MIBF.

Books purchased for entry to MCF

It was the Mini Comics Festival (MCF) 2015 held by Black Ink Comics (BIC) that I was rushing to attend on this day. Tickets were needed in order to be allowed to get in or you could just buy two (2) BIC books at their MIBF booth and just present the receipt at the event area of MCF.

BIC 0012

The MCF 2015 was held around 3:00-6:00 p.m. at the Meeting Room 5 of the SMX Convention Center.

It was great to have some of the BIC books be finally signed. Most especially BIC's 12th book which is still in its original black & white cover.

It was great meeting the writer, Herbs Navasca, who wore a pair of blue contact lens on that day, and illustrators, Alvin Bragais, Jana Dhel and Rhea Padullo. A regular attendee of Komikons would easily recognize the multi-talented Jake Vicente.

 

 

The other books that I had purchased on MIBF 2015 on this day came from PSICOM Publishing Corp.

Goodies from Day 1

September 20, Sunday

More books and booths were needed to be found on my 2nd day at the MIBF 2015.

First from my list was Goodwill in which to my surprise was not a participant of this book fair. I just lost the chance to have my hands on a Pediatrics book by Del Mundo.

The next booth was C&E Publishing, Inc. to get my needed medical text books. However, unlike last year's MIBF, C&E Publishing seems to have fewer copies of the latest books on display.

Then, there's Adarna House, a new booth to my eyes that should be checked out. The decorations of their booth was really festive which led them to be awarded as the 1st runner up in the Best in Booth Design Contest.

 

Photo from Adarna House

The last purchase came from Anvil Publishing, who once again were selling their books under National Book Store (NBS). The last book that I purchased was Dean Francis Alfar's A Field Guide to the Roads of Manila. This new book has little promotion on various social media such that I had only come to know of it through word of mouth.

Fully Booked was crazily heavily jam packed this year. I guess they might have been stocking more choices on their shelves than NBS, thus, pulling the attention of book lovers towards them.

In comparision to MIBF 2014, MIBF 2015 seems a bit bland. The booths were still confusing and hard to find. What OMF Literature did was a nice idea that hopefully would be imitated by the other booths for MIBF 2016.

Goodies from Day 2

MIBF 2015 generally feels toned down in terms of excitement on my part. The desire for books is there but the craving was really less. The ambiance did not also go well for me which was probably due to booths that were hard to find, even in the midst of pre-planning my book hunt.

Here are the things that I got from the 36th Manila International Book Fair

• First Aid for the USMLE® Step 1 2015 
• McGraw-Hill Education 
• 101 Kagila-gilalas Na Nilaláng
• Edgar Calabia Samar
• Adarna House 
• National Medical Series for Independent Study: Obstetrics and Gynecology 6th Edition 
• Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 
• Attack on Titan ~ Volume 2 
• Viva Psicom Publishing Corp. 
• Attack on Titan ~ Volume 3 
• Viva Psicom Publishing Corp 
• Tonio Tikbalang ~ Volume 4 
• Jake Vicente
• Black Ink Comics 
• Dragon Breed ~ Volume 1 
• Black Ink Comics 
• A Field Guide to the Roads of Manila and Other Stories 
• Dean Francis Alfar
• Anvil Publishing 
• Si Janus Silang at ang Labanáng Manananggal - Mambabarang 
• Edgar Calabia Samar
• Adarna House 
• Life In Progress ~ Book 2: Geek Machine Telemetry 
• PSICOM Publishing