Just got home from the first day of the 31st Manila International Book Fair. The opening day always goes by in a flurry for me (most of the work is concentrated on this day), but I know a lot of you are waiting for updates so I’m doing a Day One post so you can get a feel of this year’s book fair.

I’m sorry I don’t have a lot of photos for day 1, I didn’t have much time to go around or browse — I only managed to pick up a bunch of books half an hour before closing, imagine! In general the rough guide I posted yesterday doesn’t miss the mark, but I’ll list down the promos (that I remember from today) in this post.

First off, a few photos:

The ribbon-cutting. From left, Irene Lloren, president of Primetrade Asia (organizer of the MIBF);
National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose; Socorro Ramos, general manager of National Book Store;
presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda; Maritess Suplico, president of Goodwill Bookstore;
and Lirio Sandoval, president of the Book Development Association of the Philippines.

For opening day, there were a lot of people out at the MIBF today, compared to previous years…

Storytelling at Adarna: the kids were so enthralled!

That’s me, with the apoplectic bee mascot

And that’s me, frantically browsing before closing time.

Today’s discoveries

1. Bookmark has copies of the hardbound Noli and Fili (both by Lacson-Locsin, in English) in stock. I mention this because a lot of my Flipper friends want copies. Tonight there were three copies of each book left on the shelves — I don’t know if they have any more in stock.

2. Anvil Publishing has great bundle promos: buy any three Ambeth Ocampo books and get a free Rizal shirt; buy any three Cory Aquino books and get a Cory shirt; buy 2 Pugad Baboy titles and get 1 free; and buy 2 Lola Basyang books and get 1 free. On top of that they have a bargain book area, plus 20% off on all their new releases!

3. The Scholastic Education booth has a reading challenge — visitors can find out how well they read by taking the Scholastic Reading Inventory test and finding out their reading level (I must remember to do that tomorrow)! The Scholastic book fairs booth has a green tag sale (P90 each) and a bag-all-you can promo at P995.

4. The Vibal booth showcases their new line of e-books (Vee Press) on a variety of e-reader devices that guests can try out for themselves. They have Kindles, Ipads, and Redfox readers.

5. Lampara (Precious Pages) has a bunch of bargain tables filled with P20 coloring and activity books. Couldn’t resist getting a whole bunch for my godson:

Three jumbo coloring books (9×12 in, each about an inch thick!) and two activity books

6. WS Pacific has children’s books for as low as P10, and cookbooks for as low as P25.

7. Tradewinds has a 4-for-100 promo on literary titles.

8. New Day also has a whole row of bargain bins, with Filipiniana titles as low as P20.

9. Adarna House has a bargain area of P35 peso books, while regular titles are P55 each. From experience, I know Adarna’s bargain stock doesn’t last very long, so I got four books from Adarna (three from the bargain pile and one regular) to add to my library today:

They give away pretty bookmarks with every purchase, too!!!

10. Lots of inspirational and religious books from different booths are going at P99 — stock up on Christmas presents!

11. The Lyric Piano booth has a bargain bin for sheet music.

12. Tahanan books has a basket of half-priced books, and the rest of their books are sold at special book fair prices.

13. National Book Store has a lot of new releases from major publishers, and most of the publishers have their own promo going for their books.

The NBS staff were all wearing Mini Shopaholic shirts today (I want one!!!); Mini Shopaholic is only P615 (plus 20% discount), a huge price difference over two bookstores (including the bookstore I bought my copy from, grrr.)

They also have special book fair selections: below P300 and below P100 stock that were swiftly replenished before closing time (eek! dibs tomorrow!)

Just before the doors closed I managed to get one of the books on my wishlist:

Marked down from P1049 to P200! Sweet!

Ten books in half an hour… and that’s what I call “pacing myself!” I can see my wallet’s gonna take a beating until Sunday!

That’s it for now, folks, and on to Day Two after a deep slumber! :) Check out the rough guide for more tips.

The Manila International Book Fair runs until Sept. 19 (Sunday) from 10 am to 8 pm.  See you there!