Saturday, September 10, 2011

Fullybooked Mall of Asia


There's this unique déjà vu feeling whenever you enter a bookshop that makes the inside of you unceasing to want for more.



That was what I felt when I came inside Fully Booked shop in Mall of Asia (after more than two years).. I was momentarily in trance as I've scanned the place decorated with books on a creative point of view. I couldn't help but to get magnetized immediately in trying to devour the sharply lined-up spines in the shelf under Biographies (lately, I've been eyeing on those true-to-life stories of some of the greatest people  on earth).



I was kind of entering a modernized museum, the lightings were surreal, the shelves were staggering,  giving a distant pleasing look to approach one because of the huge labels. A book hunter would easily led to where he want to look at or find the book he's seeking because of the panelized approach to the bookshelves' tags. It was this simple, it's pretty inviting, and so approachable that you need not to get a hand in looking for a specific title or author.

From the way those books, shelves and ledges were placed, it was neatly accessible and readable from a man's eye view. I've seen other bookstores in the Metro but nowhere could they match how FullyBooked has properly designed their placement of shelves, it has the touch of fashion into it, considering the teeming eloquence it's presenting to its audience, shoppers and visitors.




Time flies when you're inside. I was indulging as I read the summaries, the titles and amazed by the  front covers' arts.

Unlike in SM North Edsa, this branch in MOA do not have a reading kiosk or couches where you can further luxuriate in skimming through the pages. I've noticed that each books were covered in the plastic celluloid where you couldn’t just open it, 'twas like some sort of a seal or protection.



The absence of a reading nook is tolerably understandable because this branch is not that much spacious. I believe it's only fair to exclude one, the hallways were broad enough for someone to squat or stand incase he wanted to spoil in further reading.

The Cashier's and Customer Service' lounge were neatly placed that did not serve as an obstruction  but an area where you can wander to ask queries. The wall behind the cashier's was an adage "When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes" (Erasmus), which reminds me how customer's are flocking in lately to bookshops. I turned my head into a 360 (but of course with my body rotating as well) and I was saddened by the number of visitors. You could count on your fingers how many people are in, minus the staff, that led me thinking on the current trend when it comes to digitalizing prints nowadays.



You may visit the shop with their contact listed here.
G/F Southwing SM Mall of Asia

Tel  02 5560264




The intensifying demand of gadgets such as the iPad and other eBook readers, not to mention those smartphones where you can download an app so you can read a book (in any kind of format) is downright killing the printing press and bookstores, not only here in the Philippines but abroad as well. Bookstore chains in the US are closing down, even those who have been far long enough in the business.

I've asked one of the staffs how is the trend of sale compared to when the digital media was not yet in the market, and she said that it was really hurting for their sales volume.

We have to accept the fact that fewer people are in to reading books, lesser now are the humans who are to be considered as bookworms. Adding to the pie in hurting the bookstore business  is the cut-out share of the digital media, who would want to carry a hardbound these days when infact you could load the latest novel of James Patterson outright through your iPhone's iBook or into your Galaxy Tab straight from a torrent site? (Yep, it's pirated, but it's free). Moreover, the convenience and the state-of-the-art digital effects of these digitalized books are nowhere to match especially if you loved technology and gizmo.

Just my two cents on these softbound and hardbound books, I still find it priceless whenever a real, physical book is in my hand. May that be a novel, a technical manual or just simply a planner or a diary. I'd sound traditional and sentimental but it boils down into one thing, and I would call it preference.

I rode in a jeep one day going to the Southern part of the Metro and someone's holding a paperback copy of John Grisham's latest bestseller. It was a fairly brand new book, as I tried my best not to look so interested in it, while the reader was smiling through the pages.

I have stopped buying physical books when I had my iPhone two years ago, so I was a converted as an eReader bookie, I've read a lot more, get opened up to a plethora of more authors and titles I couldn't imagine I'd have them on my list to read. Neither I felt excitement nor intimacy, I just felt contentment. And I guess, my vision has blurred and I have to have wearing my eyeglasses most often than not.



I would still take pride in reading a book inside the train, in a bus or under a tree, may that be a paperback or a hardbound. Methinks that these physical materials in a book somehow makes you grip, indulge, and be more personal to the story that was written. That as you turn through the pages, it's  as if an intimate bond is formed between the reader and the prose being conveyed by the author. A real, tangible book serves as a gateway for you to feel deep down the story as it unfolds through your eyes and imagination.







-mac