searching & timing

On Friday, September 18, I was supposed to visit places, but instead I spent the entire day looking up titles from book lists that I had acquired from the Manila International Book Fair. Though I had anticipated having to do some bibliographic searching before I could acquire titles, I absolutely miscalculated the amount of time it would take. And this happened throughout the trip. So, the lesson is that, next time, I need to schedule more time for searching.

In the evening, I went back to the Book Fair. This time, I brough my laptop because I found out there was wifi there. And, there, I also searched titles. That was difficult to do, as there were no places to sit down. Instead, I was squatting and/or leaning against displays most of the time. My neck and back were not happy about that.

I went back to the ASEAN booth since it was empty the last time I came. I was rather annoying when I found out that many of the titles I had been interested in had already been purchased since the last time I was there. This tells me that these vendors only brought single copies of their titles, and that I need to be there first if I want them.

I did get to talk to the delegation from Brunei, and I found out that that was their last day there (the fair ran through that Sunday) because they wanted to be back home to celebrate the end of Ramadan. So, if I had come on a later day, I would also have missed the opportunity to purchase these titles. This just goes to show how unpredictable a book fair in Southeast Asia can be (I don't know what it's like in other regions)!