I guess I need to
take a pause from the busyness of acads and tell you what happened on a
Thursday night.
I went to the 33rd
Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) at SMX Convention Center last Thursday.
Last year's MIBF was the first book fair I ever attended, and I was with some
of my blockmates who are also bookworms. With a limited budget at that time, I promised
to myself that I will surely go to the next MIBF and will save a bigger amount
of money. These promises were granted
last Thursday. :)
I arrived at SMX at
around 5PM. Unlike last year, I went there alone. My senior days get busier as
the end of semester approaches, and we failed to have a certain time schedule
that we will be able to go there together. Going to a book fair alone is not lonely
at all, because I somehow enjoy walking alone (Random fact: Most of the time I
go to a mall unaccompanied.). I find joy in solitude, because during those
times my mind becomes filled with lots of thoughts.
But that was not the
actual case that happened in this book fair, because I was able to meet a new
person. I met her inside the stall of National Bookstore, and as she saw me
holding Pride and Prejudice, she told
me, "Bibilhin mo? Maganda ang librong yan." I responded to her, and I
said that it was indeed beautiful. I already read the novel and I simply wanted
to have a copy of my own. From then on this stranger became my friend.
Her name is Liezel.
She is a young professional, and a lover of classics like me. Surprisingly, she
is a Christian attending at Victory Pioneer (Another random fact: I am
attending at Victory U-Belt). At that time we talked about different classics,
including Pride and Prejudice and Little Women. (..aand she also sees Mr. Darcy
as an ideal man. :">) She also helped me in finding a more affordable
version of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina
(because it is worth more than Php600 in NB).
Truly grateful of
meeting a bookworm, a new friend that I would probably meet once in my whole
life . I do hope that it will not be our last.
In the end, I was
not alone at all. When she left, I also spotted some of my churchmates at the
book fair. Riding on my way home in a jeepney full of strangers, I felt that I
am not a lonely bookworm at all.
***
 |
| Bought eight books, two of which I have already read (Pride and Prejudice and What's So Amazing About Grace?). Both of them are highly recommended by yours truly... and it is worth having a copy of my own. On the left are the freebies I got from Penguin and OMF. |
