Floating bookshop to dock in Manila

For the sixth and perhaps the last time, the world’s biggest floating bookshop, m/v Doulos, will dock in Manila to give Filipinos another chance to board the historic ship and purchase books from it.

Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim announced yesterday that representatives of the ship confirmed that m/v Doulos will be in Manila from Nov. 30 to Dec. 23.

Lim said Doulos project coordinators Sofie Eriksson and Mathias Bosch told him it could be the ship’s last visit to the country.

The floating bookstore, which was built two years after Titanic, last visited Manila in January for 21 days. M/v Doulos was built in 1914 as a freighter named Medina. In 1948, she was renamed the Roma and transported immigrants to Australia. In 1952, she was transformed into a cruise liner.

Over the last three decades, Doulos has visited more than 100 countries, welcoming more than 20 million people on board. It has 350 volunteers from over 50 countries who have the common commitment of bringing knowledge, help and hope to the people of the world.

The ship carries more than 500,000 books that are on sale at affordable prices. The 6,000 titles cover a wide range of subjects such as science, education, cookery, technology, dictionaries, sports and children’s books, among others.

Lim welcomes the upcoming arrival of the M/V Doulos, which will give the public a chance to “obtain books at much lower prices than in the usual bookstores.”