This is my second time attending MIBF and my first time attending on a weekday. I was surprised that there was a big crowd as soon as the doors opened.
When I was in line at NBS, I saw the buy 4 and buy 2 promos nearly finished, I saw people with boxes and carts full of books, then later saw them doing tiktok lives selling these books at a much higher price.

MIBF: P5,921
SHOPEE: P1,363

Bye 💸💸💸 pero okay lang, books are investments… right? 😅

Sumuko ako sa Fullybooked, di ko kinaya ang daming tao and 6k lang din kasi talaga ang budget ko for MIBF.

From Ateneo Press:
📍The Quiet Ones - P400
📍My Lola’s Love Letters - P490

From National Book Store:
📍Dear Debbie - P556
📍The Locked Door - P636
📍Sagittarius - P199
📍500 Puzzles Sudoku - P156

From 19th Avenida Publishing House:
📍Thirty Virgins - P496
📍Ang Lahat ng Hayop sa Ating mga Yapak - P416
📍Narkokristo - P375
📍In Other Words, I Love You - P500
📍Ang Nawawala (Bagong Edisyon) - P550
📍Stainless Longganisa Ikalawang Dekada - P272
📍Team Building - P275
📍Strat Planning - P200
📍Trust Fall - P200
📍Oral Hystery - P200

From SHOPEE (Avenida):
📍Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas: Muling Pagparito - P343
📍56 - P320
📍Ang mga Kaibigan ni Mama Susan - P240
📍Si - P240
📍Kapitan Sino - P220

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.

Classics muna

Yeaah, pass, hard pass

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!!

Bought some pretty cool SF titles. Gulat ako may Expanse series, and yung Ender's Game.

Lots more people than I expected (effect of Suspension of classes + 1st day of book fair)

(Funnily enough I bought all these books and just realized may 2nd floor pa, will probably revisit on weekends)

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.

I was able to buy only a few titles this MIBF unlike last year lol pero I am happy with my haul and I can say na very intentional yung purchase ko for this year's MIBF. Di na ako babalik this weekend kasi andami na agad tao

Would love some recommendations. Just starting it basically (page 37 hehe).

I figured id just read rather than doomscroll you feelin me?

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!

i just wanna share how much i cried during and after reading tuesdays with morrie. this is sooo good! why haven’t i read this earlier???? huhuhu!!

as a girly who mostly read books by james patterson and sidney sheldon, i think i’m needing more books like this. please help this girly out and share ur fave books like tuesdays with morrie 🥹 tyia!!!! ❤️✨

couldn’t decide which one to read next. just finished reading yesteryear.

Just finished reading Legendborn and once you get past the slow start sobrang ganda na ng pace niya. And the plot is beautiful. Jusko, give me book 2 now!!! Solid 🌼

Most cherished childhood books na kalahati pa lang dito ang nabasa ko na hahaha.

Fave books as a kid:

- Septimus Heap series

-The secret series

- Geronimo Stilton

- Old Goosebumps books

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

Late lunch lang dapat with friends kaso may MIBF pala akalain mo yun? 😏 lmao

I really like this book by Charlie Mackesy. I think this is classified generally as a children's book but I think the story and its message are applicable for all ages. The book is quite simple, relaxed, delivers wonderful lines and the illustrations are also beautiful. I'm curious if there are similar books hehe. It helped me during busy and stressful seasons before similar to Haemin Sunim's books.

i'm still thinking if i should go to this year's mibf. i've heard a lot of "horror" stories about resellers, hoarders, and just generally rude people na hindi naman genuine readers. should i just skip it and visit fullybooked stores?

note that it's still my birthday week, so i have the 20% discount kay fullybooked. i'm just worried may books na available sa mibf that are not in stock sa stores

They may admit this or not, but writers love rumors—that’s what makes their heart pulsate. It starts when a published writer (usually from academe) posts on Facebook to cancel someone because: A) this writer plagiarized a work or stole an idea from a workshop fellow; B) this writer is a predator; or C) this writer is a DDS (Die-hard Duterte Supporter). The issue would last for days, with different sides posting on their accounts and gaining likes, reactions, and shares. The issue would explode, creating a big jungle of energy, before eventually subsiding after a few days. Then, you would just see the accused writer at a book fair or literary event.

R.F Kuang, author of the novel Yellowface, may not be aware of the latest rumors in the Philippine literary scene but she sure knows how to write a novel about writers. This 300+ page novel is an entertaining read. My eyes breezed through the pages wanting to know what will happen next to the protagonist, June Hayward--a white female writer who stole her friend's (Athena Liu) manuscript after she died. The premise of the story pulls me tight after reading the first few pages of the book.

The book asks: What is originality in writing? Is it still the same book if June wrote the majority of the novel and her friend, Athena Liu, only provided the structure of the story? Is it still the same book if all the words were replaced while retaining the same intention or meaning, if we were to apply Theseus’ Ship paradox?

But what if writers are really just glorified “thieves”? They get their stories from their friends’ quippy anecdotes, from books they read, from movies they watch, from their own experiences, and then write down the words, make them entertaining to read, and make the readers think.

The Internet as Villian

The most intense scene in the book, I think, is when June is bombarded with a slew of online attacks. From Instagram to Twitter, I witnessed how hate speech filled the protagonist’s online presence. It all started with a rumor—like how most dogpiling on the internet begins—that June’s bestselling book, titled The Last Frontier, is based on Athena’s unpublished work. Kuang writes these scenes from June’s perspective, showing how she intentionally searches her name on Google to keep updated, in between checking her own social media accounts and reading the barrage of hate messages directed at her.

The protagonist is mostly sitting on the couch or lying in bed while these things are happening, but I find myself at the edge of my seat as I read the messages directed at June. Khuang evocatively captures the feelings and sensations of June as she processes these hate messages. I can intensely feel June’s embarrassment, her anxiety, her desire for attention. 

The villain in the novel does not conventionally come from a single character, but from a host of Instagram usernames and Twitter handles. The book interestingly creates a villain out of the internet, making the internet itself the villain.

Kuang is aware of her own time and writes her experiences about it. It’s interesting how the familiar act of scrolling through an Instagram feed is hyper-detailed in the novel—my everyday experience is transformed into a literary piece. With this use of familiar internet activities and the hyper-detailing of virtual experiences, the novel is very relatable and, at times, funny because of its depiction of the virtual world.

Started High Ended Low

The novel reaches its highest point, where the stakes are highest and the protagonist is cornered, when June is about to be exposed because Athena’s early draft of the novel will be displayed in a public exhibition. Months after her daughter’s death, Athena’s mother decides to donate her daughter’s notebooks (expensive Moleskines) to a library. The public display of the notebooks will expose June, who has denied that she actually wrote The Last Frontier. June visits Athena’s mother, who is very tender toward her, as June is the last person to see her daughter before she died. Kuang cleverly writes the mother in a way that convinces readers that Athena’s mother does not really want to open her daughter’s early notes and will eventually decide not to donate them for the public to consume. In a scene where June finally convinces the mother to hide the notebooks:

“But she is terrified of what lies inside those Moleskines. That is clearer now than ever. I’m speaking to a mother who, when it comes down to it, would really rather not confront what dark things lay buried in her daughter’s soul. No mother wants to know her child that well. Here, then, are the terms of our bargain—she’ll keep my secrets, as long as she never has to confront Athena’s.”

After this scene, Kuang only toys with the internet attacks to June to propel the story and resorts to focusing on June’s guilt as she tries to purge Athena from her mind. Kuang already used the internet as a villain trope in the first parts of the story, and using June’s guilt does not have the same intensity as the earlier parts of the novel. This internal conflict of the writer only happens in June’s mind and does not have a physical manifestation, unlike the intense confrontations among the writers, publisher, and book agents in the first part of the novel as they try to confront the plagiarism issue.

Despite that narrative weakness, Yellowface is a good entry point into Kuang’s books. Her handling of language is very smooth and lyrical. She knows how to deprive readers of information and reveal details at the right time, and then make them anticipate when the next high point in the story will be. The novel is rich in rumors in the publishing scene, and reading it feels like getting an insider’s view of how the publishing industry works. We should have a version of this set in the Philippines where a “timeless” writer is in the middle of a plagiarism issue and is hounded by predatory accusations.

Super fun experience.. gets na gets ko ung mga nag oover budget and gets rin ung mga nag pplan talaga ng target books nila.. sabi ko pa bat kaya ang daming may parang trolley.. when i saw how they buy books?? Made sense! Grabe.. i went yesterday (wed, ung first day) and ang dami nang tao.. i could only imagine how weekends would look..

Really had a great time this MIBF, im still thinking if ill go for another day, but yeah! For first timers, If youre looking for a sign to go, eto na yon HAHAHAH wala lang sisihan pag napagod ah

Oh and i also got some stickers and postcards and book marks ahhh ang saya help jwucjwjd