FROM THE CHIEF EDITOR (November / December 2006)

Dear readers,

Last September, we had the rare opportunity of visiting the 27th Manila International Book Fair at the very modern World Trade Center in Pasay City. We only have our Workshop Manager JP Canivel to thank for the tip. We would have missed the entire affair if it were not for his prodding, whew! By the way, you can click on the photos below to enlarge them for better viewing.

The floor space - all of 10,810 meters - was so huge that it took us over an hour to go through every booth. Well, we have our favorites and we ended up busting a little hard-earned cash on BOOKMARK, one of the Philippines' finest publishing houses. We bought several coffeetable books (at dirt cheap prices!). I was told JP bought storybooks for children from Adarna House, founded by the National Artist for Literature himself, Rio Alma. I believe some of these story books can be borrowed through the Project R.E.A.D, which will be formally launched mid-January.

We were also able to get an old, old copy of Bienvenido Santos' What the Hell For You Left your Heart in San Franciso at Php 60! Of course you recall Santos' other works - Brother, My Brother or The Day the Dancers Came, which were required reading in college. No? Hmmm...The writer from Tondo would be very sad to know that.

Here at the Guild, books and reading form the central core of our existence, together with poetry and other forms of creative writing. That is why we have soft-launched Project R.E.A.D. to make available to you several great books through which you can explore the world and help you create your own opinions about yourself, life in general, and your surroundings.

Join us as we try to make life in SPi more exciting and meaningful for you.

Welcome to our joint November-December issue. Mabuhay!

Best regards,

Dylan Yap Gozum / Editorial Director, BACKSPACE

Click poster to enlarge.