That Fully Booked Thing

‘Hey, I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I’m certainly not the dumbest. I mean, I’ve read books like “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” and “Love in the Time of Cholera”, and I think I’ve understood them. They’re about girls, right?’

-Rob Gordon, High Fidelity

Fully Booked held an event for bloggers last week, of which, I was only too happy to attend. I love Fully Booked already, (the Cubao branch, of which I frequent most often) and if it meant having to leave the batcave long before the bats showed up, it wasn’t too big a problem. (Plus, we were going to spread some 3rd-World-Lovin‘)

Having taken the “secret method” for getting to Bonifacio Highstreet, me and CopraCommander arrived just in time, and so we entered Fully Booked. Probably not paying attention, we ended up taking the escalators going up and up and up. (Plus, it’s probably in the genes, the “not-asking-questions” thing.)

I saw Byahilo – who was wearing a keffiyeh/shemag/scarf/whatever it’s called - in the Starbucks-store-within-a-store, waved, and then he pointed out which floor the event was being held at. (We undergo a little phenomenon that happens during blogger events: the I-think-I-know-you-but-just-to-be-sure-I’ll-wait-for-you-to-acknowledge-me-first look. :p )

We went up another floor, and then to another set of stairs by the side.

Seeing old officemates from Yehey! was a blast — there was Laz, Kan, Elaine and Alvin — plus, they had new blood with them. Azrael was there, taking pre-event pictures. Several other bloggers were there too, occupying tables and/or smoking outside.

We got registered and grabbed our bright-orange nametags. Since the event hasn’t started yet, we were going to kill time and part of our lungs by smoking in the veranda area of the Starbucks, while waiting for Ven and Aia to arrive.

At which point, another officemate, Opep, arrived and said hi.

We make white sin-sticks turn into smoke, then we head on up.

While seated, Alvin said hi, and it occured to me that I haven’t seen him in months. While we were catching up on the ever-exciting tambahay lifestyle, Azrael was circling the room, collecting interviews for a presentation. Animetric was seated by the next table, so I waved. We get several refills of water, smoke by the outside area and have a little chat with another blogger, Tonyo Cruz. Laz, my ex-boss comes out for a smoke and asks how I’ve been doing, and I share a funny story about the US recession. :p

Ven (being just super-awesome for wearing THE SHIRT, 3W<3 R%!) and Aia arrive, but they had to check something by the car, so CopraCommander leaves with Ven. Me and Aia occupy our seats.

The event starts off with a representative of Fully Booked mentioning that there will be a tour of the Boni High Street branch, which was their flagship branch. We were divided into two groups, according to the color of our nametags. Me and CopraCommander had bright-orange ones, while Ven and Aia had pink ones. With us, was a Fully Booked representative and Jona from Yehey!

The bright-orange nametag group had a tour of the basement first, but since the elevator was being done in batches, me and CopraCommander charged through the escalators, reaching the basement at around the time the second batch has just arrived.

Did you know? There’s a mini-theater housed in the basement of the Boni High branch of Fully Booked — they use it mainly for film viewings and/or presentations. It has a 50-seat capacity and can be rented. (I think?) While going up, we bumped into the pink nametag group, Jori was there.

There was a presentation given about that branch, along with a history lesson of Fully Booked. Did you know? Insert-facts-here!

From there, we made our way up, to the ground floor, where we had a mini Q&A with the main buyer for that section, Vivian. (Is that right?)

Then we moved up to the humanities section — which is the largest section in that store. We moved up, filtered what information we could gather at each floor we pass, ’til we finally make our way back to the very top floor, where the event was being held.

There was a line by the buffet table already, but we decided to occupy our table first. While hanging out by the table, we saw Arpee and Noreen and had a fun little chat with them. When we got in line, while wondering what the shawarma-in-a-glass was, we met Penny, of whom we started a conversation with food with, but ended up with me talking about wrestling intro music.

Then we had our turn with the food from Hizon’s — I grabbed a lot of pasta, and meat and strawberry panacotta and various other jelly-based desserts.

While everyone was eating, the organizers were holding a contest, for which they gave away book prizes.

Finally, the most awaited part of the evening was announced — the book giveaway. Earlier on, it was announced that they were giving away a FREE book for all the attendees — but wait, there’s more! Everyone can take home not one, but two FREE books now!

The bright-orange nametag group were asked to go by a little corner in the back, as they unveiled the selection of free books. There were no specific categories, just really interesting books. Of course there were books that no one wanted — wonder how they felt?

I got boxed into a corner, and Elaine was pointing out a management/self-help/success book. I grabbed Artemis Fowl. When I managed to squeeze out of the one corner by the left, I saw p0yt and said, “sobera?” (In-plurk joke) While free, I was handed a magazine giftbag — then I got myself stuck in yet another corner. I picked out Aldous Huxley (yih). CopraCommander got Nick Hornby’s Polysyllabic Spree, so I’m going to get to read that too!

Then we made our way back to the table, each one heavier by two (or more! hahaha!) books. We were then told that Fully Booked was cooking up an online book club, and that registrants were automatically members when that opens up.

When the event was over, pictures were being taken, etc — and we had a Team 3W<3 photo with me off-center and sporting another one of those Joker smiles. Jori said hi, and was taking those surprise photos again.

All in all, (lahat sa lahat, yeh!) it was a fun-in-a-geeky-sort-of-way event. Thanks to Fully Booked and Yehey!

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