Thursday, September 12, 2013

34th Manila International Book Fair : Impressive First Day


Wazzup Pilipinas!

A crowd already gathered at the entrance of the SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia awaiting the opening of the 34th Manila International Book Fair (MIBF)...and all I can say was "Wow!"

It was an amazing sight as I really am surprised that book lovers are so intense in catching up with huge discounts and sales on great books, meeting up with their favorite authors for some photo ops and book signing, attending seminars led by top-notch speakers, eyeball opportunities with fellow bookworms and new acquaintances, plus a lot more fun and exciting things to do at the 34th year of the MIBF.

At the opening, I rubbed shoulders with the likes of Senator Sonny Angara, Congresswoman Lenny Robredo, DOH ASec Enrique Tayag, Wattpad CEO Allen Lau, author Francis Kong, plus a lot more high-profile personalities who were all supportive of the significance and importance of books.




The opening ceremonies composed of the morning mass, a ribbon cutting, a short program of inspirational speeches from the keynote speakers and guests of whom all play important roles in the moving forward of literacy and appreciation of books, plus a tour roaming around the exhibits and their huge display and offering of fascinating collection of books, officially started the 34th Manila International Book Fair.











You will also be amazed at the many choices of new, old, rare and/or often neglected and under-appreciated  (but treasured by hardcore collectors who know the works of national artists) books. There were a lot of impressive looking booths that are truly worthy of a visit. Both small and big brands or exhibitors offer a wide array of books : to name a few, National Bookstore, Goodwill Bookstore, Abiva Publishing House, Diwa Learning Systems, Philippine Bible Society, University of the Philippines Press, etc. So sorry if I couldn't mention all since there are so many.


There was even a booth where you can buy books all for just Php 100 each. I bought a book (Being the best You Can Ever Be)  written by Francis Kong from the CMS booth and was so lucky of me to have him there to personally sign it for me.  He even wrote "blessings!"  as his message in the book. That's the best deal one could have!


Maricar and Wilma, Wazzup Pilipinas correspondents, hanging out with DOH Asec Dr. Enrique Tayag

 

With Francis Kong, one of my favorite authors and speakers, signing one of his books " Being the Best You Can Ever Be"


With Congresswoman Lenny Robredo, housewife of former DILG Secretary Jessie Robredo, during the ribbon cutting ceremonies.



Maricar and Wilma with Senator Sonny Angara, at the VIP Function Room of SMX


With Allen Lau, CEO and Co-Founder of Wattpad and Kristel Tan of Community Engagement of Wattpad


Wazzup Pilipinas is sharing the limelight with Inquirer.net and Rappler as Online Media Partner of events at SMX


Wilma and Maricar, pointing to the logo of Wazzup Pilipinas, the proud online media partner of all the week-long events at the SMX Convention Center.


Wazzup Pilipinas is truly blessed since it is the proud online media partner of the 34th Manila International Book Fair as well as the other co-located events namely the National Conference on Language and Literature, EduCare : A Young Child Conference and the Best of Anime 2013. I will be very glad to be its online media partner again and again.



Coincidence to have our logo at aisle R - R for Ross ..... and sharing it with the online equivalent of one of my favorite newspaper since birth, Inquirer.net. :)




Plus many more jackpot finds and discoveries if you really know what you are looking for and where to look for it ..... and is lucky enough to be at the right place and at the right time....so check out the MIBF calendar of events to know the special time and dates when your favorite author or speaker will be there.


























There are just so many to share but that will fill up this blog post with too many photos so I wll be doing several blog posts about the event. Watch out for it....Keep coming back to Wazup Pilipinas for more. Thanks.

1 comment:

  1. I still cannot believe that I missed this year's Manila International Book Fair!!! I just bought books before the event so I had no money left for the book fair. I would have enjoyed the fair since I am a die-hard bookworm and I could have been able to blog about it on my own book blog. It looks like the writer of this article had a lot of fun during the book fair. I hope he found very good deals on books because I learned that there were lots of books on sale during the fair. Well, there's always next time. I hope I'll be able to go to the 35th Manila International Book Fair next year.

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