Bookfest@Malaysia in KLCC

Yesterday, on a whim, I decided to go to the huge Bookfest@Malaysia in the KL Convention Centre. I’ve been seeing the banner ads (real life ones, not the ones in your blog) along KL roads, and while walking in Suria one day it dawned on me it had just started.

Here’s the thing. I knew that it was going to be a lot of Chinese books, since the logo itself was the stylized Chinese word for book, but I thought at least there should be some English books. Well, I was almost correct. MOST of it was Chinese books. I breezed through the first 4 halls of Chinese books and Chinese books and more Chinese books.

Finally I reached hall 1 and 2 where the English books were supposed to be located. There were actually only 2 stalls, one small one by MPH (bless them), which ironically was manned by two Indians and a Malay girl, and a huge area manned by Popular Bookstores. (I found out later that the exhibition was organized them.)

And the other thing was they charged RM2 per entry. What? Nevermind, I paid the fee and they gave me a little handbook with a bookmark (?!). I only got to read the handbook after I got home, I found out that the bookfest was mainly for exhibitors from China, Taiwan, Singapore and other Chinese-speaking countries.

I bought a few English books, MPH had some good discounts.

The organizers have planned lots of events like performances, book-reading, games, contests and giveaways all throughout the exhibition. It’s on until the Sunday 4th June. Details can be obtained at their website.