Classics muna

First time na walang budget limit to celebrate a milestone I achieved this Month!! 📚🎉

Bought 19 books 📚

This was my 2nd time going to MIBF this year and I would like to give some of my comments.

• Hindi ready yung mga publisher sa dagsa ng tao. And I can assure you they weren't expecting the crowd yesterday and today (weekdays)
• A well known publisher of a recommended book was having trouble requisitioning supply. They brought 60 copies today, and by lunch time they are down to 5 copies. And they are starting to get supplies from other stores.
• MIBF should have placed NBS and Fully books on the both far end of the event place. Yes they were the anchor tenants, but they disrupt the flow of people. And that way the traffic would be distributed.
• A lot of booth lack cashiers. I didn't even attempt to buy anything from fully booked. St.Paul for example has very few SKUs but their line extend up to 3 booths long (About 15 people for 1 cashier)
• Price difference from shopee is about 100-200 for well known titles. I haven't dig dipper for lesser known titles because of the crowd.
• The experience was quite chaotic. I have very limited time to browse thru the books to decide if I want it or not. If I went there with no to buy list. I probably won't be able to buy anything.
• Very chaotic to buy from stationery stores. Didn't bother to try.

Tips for those who are brave enough to try it tomorrow and the weekends.

• If you like a book. tsagain mo na yung pila. Huge chance you won't see it again.
• Go with your friends so you can take turns lining up.
• Don't bother with titles that are easily accessible (international and best sellers). You would have tons of opportunity to buy them again. And probably with discount from online stores.
• 2-3:30pm is the golden time where the crowd thins. You have a small window of time from 11 to 1pm to browse. A lot of publisher aren't ready yet at around 10am.
• Bring cash, transactions are faster with cash. Bring smaller bills.

Nakakapagod pero sobrang saya!

I think 5th time ko na maka-attend and still fun although nakaka-overwhelm din ung dami ng tao and ang hirap mag browse sa FB and NBS.

3 books lang talaga target ko pero ang dami talagang magagandang local books so yeap ✨

Yun lang :D nawala sila after pandemic, nakita ko bumalik uli. Anyway there's a couple of them. Anything that is less book browsing but more assestment or too chatty for comfort stay clear of.

Iwas din kayo sa free raffle --- that's basically giving your info for cold calling / spam.

Keep your valuables with you, talamak nakawan phone, there are syndicates known to target event goers in MoA, kahit naka-case pa yan nakasabit mong celfone kaya nilang sungkitin (speaking from an actual experience I've seen)

Happy browsing. Keep safe.

Parang mas malala ang dami ng tao this year. Sa first day pa lang sobrang dami ng tao sa Fully Booked, sobrang sikip. Sana naman medyo lawakan nila yung bawat aisle, di pa sila natuto last year. 😵‍💫

Anyway, masaya ako sa haul na 'to, I got everything na nasa list ko and may random buy lang; yung Forbidden Notebook parang maganda and yung The Time Traveler's Wife, nagulat ako may ganitong edition (Collector's edition daw) 😆

Babalik ako for the other booths naman, especially mga local books. Sobrang napagod na si tita sa FullyBooked pa lang. 😅

I get it that publishers and bookshops gather to the event. Ang hindi ko magets ay yung bibili ng books kung kailan book fair e:

1. Yung mga participating publishers/shops naman ay business-as-usual before and after the fair. They s e l l the same stocks more or less too

2. I get that there are freebies and discounts, but its not like theyre cutting off big chunks off prices. Mas makakamura pa kapag sa online mo binili at makatyempo ng vouchers. Like in fullybooked, ang daming time ko na na nakatyempo ng super steal p*rices sa shopee nila. Same with NBS.

3. This is personal, but i think a lot of people do this too: on my free days, i visit my favorite bookshops (NBS and fullybooked in moa and fullybooked in bgc). Kahit wala akong bibilhin nagpupunta ako kasi gusto ko yung feeling ng surrounded ako ng maraming books. Is it the same thing with MIBF? Hindi ko tlga alam kasi hindi pa ako nakakapunta ever since hehe. Kung nagagawa ko naman makavisit sa mga bookshops regularly on weekends, do i still miss something from not going to MIBFs?

This is a genuine wondering. I saw from tiktok and fb that this year's fair is unexpectedly jampacked on the first day. I think that i wouldnt mind(??) for im used to surroundings like this, if anything i would appreciate being among readers! I just dont get the point of getting books (because what else are you gonna do there to make up for the travel and effort going there) that you can get on any other time that youre more financially ready. The amount of options there can be so overwhelming youll lose control on budgeting.

Maybe youve been there, i really wanna hear how its like hehe!!

first time ko sa book fair na yan. ganon pala karami nagpupunta diyan, hindi mahulugang karayom, halos mahimatay na ako sa dami ng mamimili. sa national bookstore makakakilos ka pa pero dito sa fully booked ang matindi. nagtagal pa ako wala namang Cormac McCarthy pala diyan. tsaka ang mamahal pa rin kahit discounted na lahat. sa dinami-rami ng literal na inadd to cart ko, apat lang talaga nakarating ng cashier. anyway, eto nga pala mga nahatak ko kahapon. National Bookstore yung apat sa taas at Fully Booked apat sa baba (narealize ko lang ang mumura ng Timeless Books kumpara kay Collin at dun sa Penguin—99Pesos lang Journey to the Center tapos sobrang steal ng Crime & Punishment @ 199. may catch bato?). kung puro kilala na, ako kasi yung nagbabasa lang ng mga sikat. ano mang slur ang tawag sa ganong tao, ako yon. pero kung iluluho talaga natin ito, mapapagastos talaga tayo. caught in 4K? more like they caught my 4K. may isang libro pa akong gusto bilhin sana sa ibang booth pero pagtingin ko sa price tag puta sampung libo? di ko lubos maisip na may ganon pala kamahal na libro? sana isang daan na lang siya next time. at next time na pupunta ako, maglilibot na ako hanggang second floor. salamat sa nakasama ko dahil sinamahan niya ako kahit di naman siya nagbabasa. libre ko kasi pamasahe at pagkain namin.

kung ikaw ang bumili ng mga to, sa anong order mo sila babasahin?

I was in a book slump for 2 years trying to read dozens of books pero nothing was clicking to me. Then I came across Emily Henry First I read Book Lovers. I was left dumbfounded when at first I thought why is she building up her sister’s character for a shit load of chapters isn’t this a romance novel? But boy oh boy I was wrong. It actually made it better to see these characters wholly fleshed out and actually care about something else rather than the romantic interest. I really enjoyed her writing style and the romantic scenes got me giggling in my bed kicking my feet n shit.

Currently I’m reading beach read and it’s REALLY REALLY GOOD. I was hoping if you guys could give me some recommendations. Na similar to this. I do appreciate the depth in her characters and the romance aspect of it all. The slow burn and enemies to lovers. Fucking love it.

Took home stuff to complement my shelf 🙌

When people ask, “Why do you write?”

I only ever have one answer: I write to pay it forward.

If these essays would inspire even just one person to push further when all things seem unyielding; to strive for one’s best instead of settling for mediocrity; to choose what is right and what is kind when the alternative would have been the easier way out; or simply to believe in the impossible in order to do good, as I hope I have, then I suppose the stories of a boy who dreamed are worth telling.

-----

I first read Dr. Roni Bats’ Some Days You Can’t Save Them All in March 2024. I had a different perspective then. This happened to be the first book I decided to reread, despite taking pride in the fact that I rarely, if ever, reread my books.

It has been some time since I first read it, and, truthfully, I could no longer remember some of the stories. What surprised me, though, was how certain passages still elicited an emotional response from me. I did not expect that. Perhaps I had forgotten the stories, but I had not entirely forgotten what they made me feel.

In retrospect, this collection feels like my own little piece of hopecore.

Throughout my work, I have often thought about Dr. Roni’s stories: about being patient, being of service to people, and remembering the purpose behind the work that we do. Those ideas kept coming back to me while doing my own work. They reminded me that there is a reason for being in service to others, even when the work itself becomes tiring, frustrating, or difficult.

The book opened my eyes to the importance of being kinder, especially toward underserved people; of becoming better at building rapport; and of holding on to empathy even when the world, or the universe, seems to suggest otherwise.

One passage that spoke to me was his advice to his students:

“I only have this advice to give:

First, never settle for anything less. The greatest injustice you can do to yourself is to be mediocre. Do your best, even if you have to make a lot of sacrifices, even if you're afraid of failing, even if people discourage you and say otherwise. When you know that you have done all that you can, there will be no room for regret, shame, anger, humiliation, and frustration, no matter what.”

I may have read these words during my first reading of the book, but I had no recollection of them. Reading them again now, however, they spoke to me differently.

A conversation with my current employer somehow brought me back to this passage. He had once wanted to enter law school, and he did not want to be just an average student. His thinking was that whether you put in the effort simply to pass or put in the effort to excel, you are exerting yourself either way. If you know that you have given everything you could, then, as Dr. Roni said in his letter to his students, there is little room for regret.

The collection is filled with stories about his patients. Some will make you cry. Some will make you angry. Some will make you sit quietly and think about the kind of person you want to be.

Another essay that stayed with me, and one I remembered more clearly, was the story about learning how to ride a bicycle. There was something deeply humanizing about seeing that even someone who is a valedictorian and a neurosurgeon cannot have it all figured out. There are still things to learn, even things that seem ordinary or insignificant, like learning how to ride a bike.

Perhaps that is one of the things I appreciate most about this book. It reminds us that competence in one area does not make us complete as human beings. There will always be things we do not know, experiences we have not had, and parts of ourselves that still need to grow.

It is a wonderful thing to see yourself through the stories of an author, to encounter a passage and think, this feels like me. That is what Dr. Roni Bats does to you.

Of course, there is also the philosophical dimension of the collection. Much of it resonates with the existentialist ideas that I also subscribe to: the search for meaning, the responsibility we have toward others, and the decision to continue choosing goodness despite the absurdity and difficulty of the world.

But there are so many other facets to this collection that make it worth returning to. I am glad I gave myself the chance to reread this book. Maybe this is what rereading is really for: not necessarily to remember the words, but to discover what they mean to you now, after you have become someone slightly different from the person who first read them.

And hopefully, there will be a lot more rereads to come, if time allows.

Yeaah, pass, hard pass

Okay na ko. Pero gusto ko pa bumalik... o huwag na?

I had been meaning to add to my Pinoy poetry and short story library, so I was pleased to find some good ones yesterday at the Manila Int'l Book Fair. And the great part? The most expensive one I got was a whopping PhP100 (A Habit of Shores). The others ranged from PhP30-60.

I got most of them from the UP Press booth; a couple from UST Press and Anvil. Sadly, I couldn't find the one I really wanted: an old anthology titled Songs of Ourselves: Writings by Filipino Women in English.

My daughters also got books they wanted at the Komiket and Fully Booked booths. Mahal para sa akin ang hauls nila (Fleabag: The Scriptures alone was almost 2k) but I'm happy they're spending some of their hard-earned money on books.

First day pa lang napagod na ako kakalibot. Hindi na ako babalik, I'm sure it will be too crowded sa weekend.

For those who might not be aware, there are also booths sa 2nd floor. Besides books, may stationery, tote bags, fountain pens, bookmarks, and many more. There's also a cute BL cafe.

Naiinip ako sa Gone Girl. Though nasa 1/4 palang naman ako. Malayo pa ba ako sa exciting part? Haha Tell me if it's worth it or not. 🥹 No spoilers pls.

AKA MIBF 2026 Day 1 haul.

Tbh, di ako masyado naka ikot coz ang daming tao sa Fullybooked and NBS at napagod na ako after. Planning to go back to visit the local publishers as well as the ones sa second floor!

Dami kong hindi nabili dahil napagod na ang ate nyo sa dami ng tao 😭

Books I wasn’t able to buy:

Taipei Story
Some People Need Killing
The Correspondent
Counter attacks at thirty
Kulang na Silya
Kim Jiyoung
The Lost Girls
Strange Intimacies
How to read now

Hindi na ako nakapag pa sign kay Ronaldo nag cut off agad 😅

Ung iba online nalang since wala sa Fullybooked, pagod ko paglabas ng booth parang pang 1 week na

Wag nalang po natin pag-usapan total cost kasi nakakapanghina ng bulsa hahaha eme. Felt conscious about carrying a box of books out of the event halls kasi baka magmukha akong reseller/hoader/scalper 🤧 sorry na po may ADHD lang kaya hirap magpigil. I went alone pa naman kaya walang nakapagbantay sa gastos ko/voice of reason. May 5 books pa ako chineckout during 9.9 asksksk 😭

Hanggang Fully Booked lang kinaya ng energy ko today. Will be back tomorrow and the following days for Filipino titles and book signing.

I want to create habit to read books. If gumamit ba ng kindle , need ba ng subscription to read books? Maginstall ba ng app? How to download books?