The sure-fire way to making me happy

A day before my friend and I trooped to the Mall of Asia for the 33rd Manila International Book Fair (MIBF), I bought myself a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Children of Hùrin" from the bookstore in the mall nearest to where I live. It shames me to admit that despite a handful of tries to get through "The Lord of the Rings," I never got to finish the books, although I loved the films. However, I couldn't just leave the copy of "The Children of Hùrin" in the bookshop. I bought it even if I still haven't read the series it was derived from because I was not able to resist the relatively cheap price and the perfect condition (and stunning cover) of the copy.

And the next day, to MIBF we go!

Because I was kind of restricting myself on spending, the book fair was such a treat and torture. The walls and the aisles were filled with books, and my friend and I were beside ourselves from all the choices available. I believe almost everything there were marked down, but the limited amount I had in my pockets then left me helpless.

I saw one of the books my cousin illustrated! *proud*

I had to settle with Ramon Bautista's debut book (with free "artista notebook") and his autograph (which took us almost three hours on the line to get and terribly reminded us of our "training" for patience during  long lines, i.e. our enrollment process at the University especially for prerog for PE and other highly in-demand subjects). 

Three loops of this is the line for the booth where Tado Jimenez, Stanley Chi, and Ramon Bautista were holding their books' launch and signing event

With most of our afternoon spent at the book-signing event, my friend and I had at most a couple of hours left to wander and visit the rest of the booths. The venue was big, so we just chose one bookstore to scour, and there we meandered and searched for titles we wanted to buy.

The "A Song of Ice and Fire" series on display seemed to mock me and Claire, saying "Come get me if you can."

I decided to buy George R.R. Martin's "A Dance of Dragons," the fifth and latest in the series "A Song of Ice and Fire." My friend, on the other hand, bought the first ("A Game of Thrones"), and the second ("A Clash of Kings"). I think it's odd that it's the fifth book that I decided to buy, instead of the first book or the third one which is what I'm reading at the present. My reason was that I needed the map, because I only have the e-books currently and the maps don't show properly, and the illustrations on the fifth book are more comprehensive than the others'. Either way, we both decided that sooner rather than later, we would be able to complete our copies of the series. Because Winter is Coming.

So here goes the latest addition to my books. (RB's book cover is superb and panalo. XD)

I have heard of MIBF only last year, and was not able to attend then because of school and work. This year, I was not able to prepare so I only had a couple of take-home volumes and the new experience of attending such a huge event made for the love of books. Nonetheless, MIBF made the bookworm in me truly happy. Next year, though, I swear my haul will be definitely bigger.

And finally, some words of wisdom from Ramon "The Dragon" Bautista himself. :))