Slip of the Pen

My last post about Fischer backfired. Call me sentimental — my dog’s pic made me avoid this blog for some time. That, and every delinquent blogger’s pet excuse — “my day job!”

Well, save for the last post, all I’ve been recently babbling about in this blog are books and LIRA. One more article about both of them won’t hurt.

Sir Rio with some of the LIRA 2007 fellows. I’m the one in stripes and with the long hair. From L to R: (back row) JC Sola, to whom this and the next three photos belong to, Karla, Pau, Christa, Rhodge, (front row) Por, Daboi, Da Man, John, Daisy, Guia.

Last Saturday, Ia and I trooped to the much awaited 28th Manila International Book Fair to — what else? — buy a ton of bargain books, as well as attend the “Araw ni Virgilio Almario”, a tribute to the National Artist for Literature and director of the LIRA poetry workshop who’s also known as Rio Alma. The event was part of Pistang Panitik, a five-day literary festival within the Book Fair that was conceived by sir Vim Nadera.

Sirs Roger Mangahas, Bobby Añonuevo, Mike Coroza, and Tata Funilas, who provided comic relief by walking up to the stage wearing a Rio Alma mask, stunning sir Rio’s good friend Roger and distracting him from his talk.

Of course, the fellows of this year’s Palihan sa LIRA were out in full force to support sir Rio. We helped out in the usual chores — preparing the exhibits, ushering in the audience (”Bagay na bagay ang polo mo ah!”), giving out leaflets to Book Fair attendees (”O, mambugaw muna kayo ng ating event”), giving the loudest applause, and whatnot. The programme was good; the critics/presenters were the distinguished trio of Rogelio Mangahas, Roberto Añonuevo, and Michael Coroza. El Batch Presidente and UP Writers’ Club member Pau Hernando was the emcee.

Sirs Michael Coroza and Romulo Baquiran Jr. with Batch Sidhay. Notice the substantial loot I’m carrying; later that night, my left hand was sore.

The small Exhibit Room was jampacked, with many more Book Fair strollers peeping in from time to time. Unfortunately, some members of the audience, mostly students, weren’t paying attention to the talks. That’s respect for the country’s National Artists for you. Curiously, some of these short-attention-span gits were seen avidly lining up for sir Rio’s signature after the programme.

Ia and I having a not-so-sweet-but-sweet-enough moment. JC, thank you for this shot! Hehehe. Nagulat na lang ako noong nakita ko ‘to.

Sir Rio’s event took place in the afternoon, and before that, Ia and I made the rounds of the Book Fair’s stalls, along with Pau (who’s one of my closest co-fellows) and sir Joel (the senior member of the batch). The book fair didn’t really have an ‘international’ feel to it. Still, the sprawling fair grounds were packed with heavily discounted books of all kinds and genres, contrary to earlier blog posts I read that said that the MIBF was “a disappointment”.

Here’s the summary of my book-hunting: Ten books. Damage to my wallet, around Php 2500.

As I implied in my Prodigal Bibliophile post, before the year ends I’ll be featuring in detail every book I bought at the Book Fair. Here’s a literary appetizer:

The three books above from Bookmark were the biggest steals (figuratively, not literally, mind you!) of the MIBF. Normally, I wouldn’t buy these expensive, hardbound, glossy-paper, coffee table books. But, man, the prices were ridiculous! Here were the trio’s price tags:

• Lugar: Essays on Philippine Heritage and Architecture, Augusto F. Villalon — Php 750 from the original ~2000
• Mindanao: A Portrait, edited by Rene B. Javellana — Php 350 from ~1500
• Cuaresma, edited by Gilda Cordero-Fernando & Fernando N. Zialcita — Php 400 from ~2000

And they gave customers free hand fans to boot, haha. According to the salesman, they only cut these books’ prices for the Fair, and once it was over, they’d revert to the original prices. Too bad the hardbound editions of the Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo weren’t discounted that much.

Of course, I wouldn’t let the Book Fair pass without me getting my hands on a fantasy/sci-fi title. My catch for the day was Dragonlance: The Annotated Chronicles, by the epic tandem of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The one and only copy on display at A Different Bookstore sold for Php 599, way below the Php 1500-2000 tag I saw in National Bookstore Superbranch a few days before. But of course, look at this copy — some serious cover damage that the plastic hid well. Oh well.

I was supposed to buy another fantasy book along with this one, namely one of R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt Do’Urden titles. Unfortunately, a few hours’ hesitation cost me the three copies available at the stall. New motto in life: Carpe Liber Libri!

For many of my LIRA co-fellows, the real draw of the Book Fair was the presence of local publishing houses and college presses offering a treasure trove of homegrown literary tomes, most especially poetry. Pau, Joel, and I raided the three big school presses (UP, UST, Ateneo) and Anvil Publishing for some gems in the rough:

• Ang Hayop na Ito!, Rio Alma (Anvil) — Php 80 from 245
• Patnubay sa Pagsasalin, Virgilio Almario, et al. (Anvil) — Php 50 from 195
• Edad Medya: Mga Tula sa Katanghaliang Gulang, Jose F. Lacaba (Anvil) — Php 20
• Maaari: Mga Bago at Piling Tula, Allan Popa (UP Press) — Php 140
• Mga Lagot na Liwanag, Michael M. Coroza (UST Press) — Php 100
• Dili’t Dilim, Michael M. Coroza (UST Press) — Php 50

The last two books are now the proud bearers of sir Mike’s autograph, hehe. (Sir Rio, on the other hand, has a policy of not signing a LIRA fellow’s books until he graduates. If he graduates, that is.) Dili’t Dilim is particularly special because it’s supposedly rare nowadays, not to mention it contains one of my all-time favorites, Putol.

On the other hand, Ang Hayop na Ito! includes one of my favorite Rio Alma poems, Retrato ng Isang Labak. The other Almario book I bought, Patnubay sa Pagsasalin will be an essential weapon in my future quest to parlay my English proficiency into translating Tagalog poems, including those written by my ‘fellows of fellows’ (you know who you are) in our LIRA batch.

Whew. With the bibliophiles’ event of the year finished, I vow not to buy anymore books for the rest of the year. Well, maybe just one more. Or three. Or let’s make that five, for Christmas’ sake…