Bibli-Arch de Triomphe

For book-lovers here in the Philippines, it’s always been a case of counting on the fingers of one hand (and no more, unfortunately) the number of establishments which realistically cater to our particular quirk and obsession.

In decades past, my travels abroad would always have me avidly anticipating the one ’afternoon on to evening’ I’d devote to Barnes & Noble or Borders if in the United States, or Waterstone’s if in the UK. And then, I’d troop out of the store dreading the overweight baggage billing I’d have to part with. Thank God for Amazon.com in the mid-1990’s, but poor me when you input the mailing and customs charges that the books and CDs I’d order would incur.

When daring entrepreneurs put up stores like A Different Bookstore, and National Bookstore spun off Powerbooks, I was thankful to high heavens – and you can imagine how pleased I was when Jaime Daez pushed the limits of Bibliarch and franchised Page One from Singapore.

Here at last were serious bookstores that catered to addicts of contemporary fiction such as myself, and also satisfied the whims of those who were into non-fiction, self-help, Photography and Art and Architecture coffee table books. While there were moments when I’d wonder about the success ratio for this kind of business; as a consumer, I certainly was grateful for their existence, and silently prayed they’d soldier on. Page One morphed into Fully Booked, but by and large, it seemed that as the hardy stuck it out, the groundswell of consumers ready to support these literary establishments reached a critical mass that allowed for survival, and even expansion.

Recently, I was invited to the launch of Fully Booked Gateway’s launch, and coupled with the move to the third floor of Rockwell’s Power Plant (by the cinemas, where Dish and Kingfisher used to stand), this meant that from Makati to Cubao, avid book buyers now had the option to choose where to end up spending countless ‘bookstore hours’. If you missed it, renowned fantasy English author Neil Gaiman (of Sandman fame) was in town recently, and showed up for a successful book tour/’meet and greet’ at Fullly Booked. At his Gateway appearance, from as early as 10 a.m., there were people lined up for blocks, patiently awaiting his 3 p.m. appearance. Years ago, our own Maria Ressa (formerly of CNN, and now with the ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs desk) was a special guest as she launched her non-fiction book about terrorism and the Al-Qaeda, and its links within Southeast Asia.

These are all ways by which establishments such as Fullly Booked are raising the ante, striving to approximate the big chain bookstores that exist in the United States and Europe, and can be found in major Asian hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong.

Author sightings and book signings, in-house coffee shops and lounge areas, copies of books that are specifically earmarked for viewing, standees and point-of-sale merchandising, highly developed customer service desks (although here, you’re only as good as the training that is given, and the kind of people that are hired), advance sales and reservations for soon to be published bestsellers, extensive foreign and local magazine racks – all part of the drive to make today’s bookstore more than just a repository of bound pages, but a lifestyle statement.

As with commercial establishments such as coffee outlets, hair salons and department stores, the trick is to have your clientele spending countless hours within your premises. Throw them everything under the sun that could pique their interest, all in the hope that as their lifestyle is being catered to by the various added ‘attractions’ and regulars within the store, those hours spent there can translate to their ‘spending’ while whittling the hours away. This may be a very calculated and commercially driven reason for putting all these elements on one store floor; but I, for one, can say that as a ready and willing ‘victim’, I’ve wholeheartedly supported these trends in retail and merchandising. Books have always been an integral part of my life and to find local bookstores developing along the lines of the major chains abroad is a welcome move. It’s us, the consumers, who benefit the most.

Another Fine Mess...

In the midst of the political turmoil we find ourselves in (yet again), I was struck by a report I saw on the Singapore cable news network. Without much fanfare or chest-beating, mention was made of how Singapore shares were enjoying a 52-week high. It was painful to see this news flash before my eyes; while in sharp contrast, we were experiencing yet another peso devaluation, plummeting share prices, eroding investor confidence in our markets and spiralling gasoline prices.

These may make for ‘interesting times’ in some Dickensian manner, but when all the hoopla fades, where exactly has it brought our country and the people? Just another case of ‘one step forward and five steps backwards’? With enough of these scenarios, all these steps backwards may end up with us tottering over some precipice or falling backwards and pitching over with finality into Fourth and Fifth World status. Interesting times for some telenovela or a work of fiction; but when the stakes are so high and it’s not some dream-world scenario we’re contemplating but our very own real world and future, I’ll take bland, predictable and forward moving, over interesting anytime of the year.

On the 14th floor of the ELJ Building at the ABS Compound, I bumped into Time foreign correspondent stalwart Nelly Sindayen, and Time executive editor Anthony Spaeth. Now based in Hong Kong, Spaeth is an old Philippine hand, living in our country back in the ’80s, at the forefront of the coverage the foreign press would give of those turbulent Marcos to Cory times. At some point in the ’90s he moved to New Delhi and was in town for a Time story that would also highlight ANC’s dedicated pursuit of the currrent political soap-opera.

I made a comment about how it seemed to me that up to mid-July, the major global news networks (CNN, BBC, etc.) had relatively ignored the swirling Philippine situation. Was it focus on the G8 summit, the cutbacks on Far East news bureaus, or was the ‘deadma’ a result of how this very Filipino merry-go-round of imbroglios never seems to cease?

Cautiously, he averred that it was probably a combination of all those reasons. Until something with more resolution could form the core of the reports, it would seem that our ‘comedy of errors’ was not even newsworthy for the major news wires and networks. That’s a pretty sad indictment of of our ‘state of affairs’. For me, and for the country’s sake, I just hope some speedy and peaceful conclusion could be achieved; as once again, I see the other ASEAN countries continuing their purposeful progress and wonder why we can never get our act together!