Stacking the Shelves (2)

Stacking The Shelves, hosted by Tynga’s Reviews, is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!
If you live in the Philippines, then you've most probably heard about the MIBF. Well-known for their huuuuge discounts, the MIBF poses as the perfect get-away for book nuts. That being said, I've almost (The key word being almost.) tried to starve myself—and, as expected, my gluttonous self won the fight between starvation and satiation. Nonetheless, I was able to buy half the books I planned to buy, thanks to you, voracity. UNSIGNED BOOKS:

1. Ties That Bind, Ties That Break by Lensey Namioka 

2. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (Paperback)

3. Impossible by Nancy Werlin

4. Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz

5. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (Hardback)

6. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

7. The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

8. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

2. Tilt by Ellen Hopkins (not seen)

4. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (not seen)

7. The Giver by Lois Lowry (Hardback) (not seen)

8. The 100 by Kass Morgan (not seen)

11. Extras by Scott Westerfeld (not seen)

SIGNED BOOKS:

1. Icons  by Margaret Stohl (not seen)

2. Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz (not seen)

3. Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston (not seen)

4. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (not seen)

5. Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (not seen)

6. Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (not seen)

7. Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (not seen)

Thanks to Fully Booked, National Bookstore, and my dad's fat wallet.

Manila International Book Fair—September 14, 2013

Photo credit: Manila Book Fair

As we all know, the biggest and longest-running book fair was held at the SMX Convention Center from September 11-15, 2013. In addition, you've probably heard us raving about it for the past month. The Manila International Book Fair—or more commonly known as the MIBF, is where bibliophiles, like us, experience sheer glee. We went on Saturday and Sunday (September 14-15, 2013) and it was our first time. With our wallets and stomachs full, we ventured farther into the unknown! 

This being our first time, we arrived at 8:30. Talk about early birds! With too much time to kill, we decided to go to Caffé Bene. (It was so homey! and the aroma emanating from their counters was heavenly.) The downer was the café doesn't have free wifi, or any wifi at all.

Our first stop was: FullyBooked (of course!)...


....and it was good! When we passed by the doors, our jaws fell to the floor upon seeing what seemed like endless shelves that went on forever. The sight that stood before us was breathtaking. After gathering our bearings, we immediately scanned shelf by shelf of books. And guess what? Most of the books are YA/NA! We slipped into a book coma not long after. (Who could resist such temptation?)
Our next and final stop was: National Bookstore.

There were plenty of books in the National Bookstore as well. One thing we hated was the floor plan of National's booth. There were so many books and lesser walking space! (We even lost a friend of ours here, haha!) The books on sale were okay, but not as great as Fullybooked's because we're YA readers more than anything else, and only 25% of the books in there were YA/NA, others were classics and self-help or biographies (cringe).

One word could easily sum up our first MIBF experience: Stressful. Many factors contributed to our being stressed, the money, or lack thereof, being the chief reason. We were practically reading premise after premise, comparing one premise to another because we couldn't buy everything we pick out, and that was really stressful because a lot, and we mean a lot, of people were book shopping as well. We couldn't just take up the whole aisle now, could we? Other than that, the other problems were expected, namely: a wide sea of people, a whole lot of elbow touching, and foot pain. Oh yeah, foot pain was such a pain in the butt. We were tired by 12nn and we rushed to go home because we couldn't take any more walking! We don't know why we got tired that easily (4 hours). Nonetheless, we enjoyed our first experience and we would gladly attend again next year (See you there!).  I believe I speak for the both of us when I say that I wouldn't miss the MIBF for the world!