Stacks on stacks
This year’s Book Binge Bazaar proves that book lovers can also be bargain hunters.
There are few things more fun than talking about your favorite pieces of art and media with friends. I personally am at my happiest when I’m conversing with friends about a movie we’ve both seen, an album we’ve recently cried too, or a show we’re currently bingeing on (lookin’ at you, Bojack Horseman Season 5). But it’s not every often that we get to do that with books. They just don’t form as big a chunk of the entertainment we consume today — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s still kind of saddening. Is there still a demand for books?
The obvious answer is yes, because when events like Manila International Book Fair get announced, suddenly people show up in droves. Alongside the MIBF also occurred Book Binge Bazaar: a three-day event that took place at the SMX Convention Center. Think of Book Binge Bazaar as International Book Fair’s ukayukay section, in that it’s almost absurdly easy to find a title you like at a fraction of what it would normally cost, from novels to cookbooks to art books to comics.
Thousands of books in Binge were available at five different price points: P75, P125, P175, P275, and P375 (although I was able to find a few academic books, probably secondhand, that were priced as low as P50). Let that sink in really quick: usually, a thin YA novel can go for P700 if we’re estimating conservatively, and most hardbound books are priced at four digits. But I myself was able to get a collection of Sylvia Plath’s letters as thick as a phonebook for P275. I saw it again at a non-sale bookstore and it went for around 2,000 bucks. How the hell?
There were a few strategies I employed while looking for books to purchase, which you might want to consider for future reference. Instead of picking up titles as I went, I opted to just survey all the shelves and go around the venue two or three times. Because I wasn’t carrying anything, I was brisk in my movements, quickly scanning for my favorite titles and making mental notes. After I was sure of what to buy, I went to work and just picked everything up in one go before falling in line.
On a related note: the low-key amazing thing about book sales like this is you can buy multiple copies of the same book for what a single copy would usually cost. I bought two copies of Everyone’s a Aliebn
When Ur a Aliebn Too by Jomny Sun — one for me and one for a friend, around P275 each — in the hopes that both of us would be able to rave about it when we see each other next. You might be able to do that, too — talk about good books instead of just TV and music for a change — when Book Binge Bazaar visits Davao this coming October.
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Book Binge Bazaar’s next stop will be in Davao, at Function Room 1 of SMX Davao, 3rd level of SM Lanang Premier, from Oct. 25 to 28, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.