A Failed Adventure At The 38th Manila International Book Fair



"There is no friend as loyal as a book."
                                             Ernest Hemingway

      A sense of gloom quickly pervaded inside our car while we were approaching the parking area in front of SMX Convention Center in MOA yesterday, 16th of September,2017—we could see a throng and seemingly endless queues (yup, that’s plural) of people in front of the convention center, all trying to get inside, eager to be part of Manila International Book Fair. We were there for the book fair, too.

      We walked towards the convention center, we already had some complimentary tickets with us, it was already a little past two in the afternoon, and trying to find the start of of a queue was already an arduous task. Still, we found it and we lined up. But after thirty minutes, two of my companions complained of getting dizzied by the crowd and the thought of encountering a larger mob inside (we didn’t expect it to be that huge; didn’t they say it’s the era of e-books now?), so we gave up (temporarily). (We sometimes suffer from enochlophobia.) We called my sister who was on her way (together with her two-year old son and seven-year old daughter (who was eager to buy books) and told them to just turn back and go home.  Then, we went inside the mall (which was quite crowded, too), entered a restaurant and ate.
  
      We tried to enter the book fair again at six PM, the seemingly endless queues were still there, and when the lady in front of us complained about the queue not moving for an hour and the guards admitting they couldn't do anything about it, we gave up again and decided to just go home.

      “Ano ba meron diyan (sa book fair), ba`t ang daming tao?”  we heard one of the guards commenting as we were walking away. 

      Wisdom, I thought. We went home empty-handed, but I was quite happy with the thought that a lot of people still wanted to read books. I hope they (the younger crowd) weren’t just there out of curiosity and were just looking for something to post on their Facebook accounts (“Look, I was at the MIBF, I’m a bookworm and I’m smart!’). I noticed that many people coming out of the fair held nothing in their hands as they walked out.

      Anyway, we got home, and I slept and dreamt of the books (and those Game of Thrones action figures I saw posted on Facebook) I could have had bought.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Things You Are Not Allowed To Do During Holy Week (Or So They Say)

Image
       Today is Holy Tuesday, three days away from Good Friday. For many, this is the week to be holy (pun intended). The week for an individual to repent or show how good a christian he is. Ask a priest or any religious person  and they will most likely tell you that the following things are not allowed this week(especially on Good Friday and Black Saturday):        Gorging        Meat        Sex        Porn        Cursing        Vices        Loud music        R-Rated films        Dirty thoughts        Singing (loud music)        Dancing (to loud music)        Bathing (just kidding, it is allowed, of course)        Some acquiesce to this and act all haloed the whole week—then break it when the week’s over. But many will ignore it and go to Boracay and dance naked at the beach while the dolphins watch.   (Okay, there are no dolphins in Boracay and people watch dolphins, not the other way around.)        Our family stays quiet   and shuns meat and
Read more

"Hey, This Song Has Built A House Inside My Head!"

Image
If you'd notice, I'd put a little musical thingamajig somewhere on this blog and I called it Last Song Syndrome. Last Song Syndrome, of course, happens when a song you just heard refuses to leave your mind for hours or even for days. You sing it or hum it while working or while taking a bath or changing your baby's or your granddad's diaper or taking your dog for a walk or just bumming around. I listen to a lot of Pink Floyd songs so most often than not, it is a Pink Floyd song that will always swirl inside my head. But I also listen to other musicians. I'll try to dissect and write a small background of every song that I will feature in this blog. The Final Cut is one of my fave Pink Floyd songs. Very emotional, very depressing and has great vocals by Roger Waters , it is one of the songs from the album The Final Cut (an anti-war CD that was released in 1983), the last album where Roger Waters (Pink Floyd's main songwriter) took part in. After that album, Water
Read more

Wait For Her (The Song And The Poem)

Image
       “Wait For Her,” a ballad from Roger Waters’ new album, Is This The Life We Really Want, was inspired from the following poem by Palestinian poet and writer Mahmoud Darwish.  Mr. Waters set melody to it, tweaked some words and the result, a hauntingly smart love song. Lesson From The Kama Sutra (Wait For Her) By Mahmoud Darwish (Translation by Dr. Fayeq Oweis) With a glass inlaid with gemstones, wait for her   on a pool around the evening and among the perfumed roses, wait for her… with the patience of a horse destined for the slopes of the mountains, wait for her… with a distinctive aesthetic taste of a prince, wait for her… with seven pillows stuffed with light clouds, wait for her… with the fire of women incense filling the place, wait for her… with the scent of a male sandals on horseback, wait for her… and do not rush it, if she arrives late then wait for her… and if she arrives early, wait for her… do
Read more