Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. Fill up your wallet and empty out your largest handbag. In less than 48 hours, Book Expo Thailand begins, the sister event of the National Book Week Fair held each April.If the two events are sisters, then they're identical twins. Same venue, same booksellers, and most of them are even in the exact same spot.
At these semi-annual events, my budget puts on its stretchiest sweat pants, and I do my best to force feed it into a coma. Sure, it's compulsive, but it makes a bibliophile happy. Sure, I haven't read most of my acquisitions from last time, but that's not the point. Today I did my warm-up exercises on a table of 20-baht books (mostly crap) that was set up at Century Plaza today. I managed to snag a half dozen or so.
The fair is great. Booksellers clear out their stocks at often ridiculous prices, brand spanking new books are heavily discounted, and--my favorite part--all the big used booksellers are in one place. Granted, probably 98% of the books there are in Thai, but Asia Books and White Lotus Press will be there, among others, so it's a great place to get discount English books, too.
October 11-23, 2008. Queen Sirikit Convention Centre. 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. every day. Thirteen days of booky goodness.
I'll be there. How about you?
Shame on you, you haven't added this event to librarything-local yet. But seriously - when will the next National Book Week Fair be held exactly. Last year I missed it though I was in Thailand at that time, so next year I want to try my luck there.
ReplyDeleteShame on me indeed. I've just righted my wrong.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I’m a big sucker for book fairs. I like to know when it’ll be in advance, so I can start saving up. I also start looking and listing down good books I’m going to look for once I’m there. Buying about 4 or 5 books is about the smallest number I purchase before I go home.
ReplyDelete