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MIBF 2010: The Loot

I’m tired but I’m grinning like a bandit, because I made off with a lot of loot on the last day of the Manila International Book Fair, making up for the odd book I was able to squeeze in during the first days of the event.

The five days of the book fair was quite crazy for me, because aside from my work at the book fair, I also had work for all of the co-located events happening in the function rooms on top of the exhibit hall, and with one event opening every day it took all of my energy just to keep up with the schedule. I didn’t even have as many photos of this year’s book fair as I did last year; I simply didn’t have the time!

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Day One at MIBF 2010

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.

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The Rough Guide to the 31st Manila International Book Fair

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, and before I knew it, voila — it’s now the eve of the opening of the much-awaited Manila International Book Fair, the biggest book event in the country!

Now I know a lot of you have been waiting for the rough guide to this year’s book fair like the one I posted last year. A bit of the background — the nature of my work requires me to attend the Manila International Book Fair year after year (contrary to popular belief I don’t actually get to shop until the last few days!), and this is the sixth year running now. While I generally make my rounds, I do have some top picks for the must-see booths.

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MIBF highlights

I can’t believe the 30th Manila International Book Fair is finally over, and that I have to count twelve whole months until the next one. I love this year’s book fair loot, and while a couple of specialty book stores sat this book fair out, I think it served well to highlight local publishers and smaller booksellers.

While I’ve been to the book fair almost every day of the event for five consecutive years, I must say that getting to share it with the readers of this blog has made this year’s book fair extra-special. I hope my posts were helpful to those attending the book fair, and to those away from Manila, I hope you got a peek into the book fair experience.

Here is one last post, with photos of other highlights of the five days of the MIBF.

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Some last minute book fair tips

One last day at the book fair, and if you havent gone to SMX for this paramount event yet, there‘s still time — it’s closing at 9pm for the last day.

Now, the last day of the book fair is a good time to go; for some it’s even the best day to catch it, as this is when the exhibitors bring out previously overlooked stock, or stock they’ve been reserving particularly for the last day, so you may see items that weren’t out on previous days.

Some exhibitors also prefer to let go of as much of their stock as they can rather than taking it all back to their warehouse, so watch out for price slashes. The last day is also when cutthroat competition sets in, especially for exhibitors carrying the same book — this year it appears to be Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol spotted in three different booths — so I am waiting to see if they’ll have a price war tomorrow (er later today).

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