Pacific Rims redux

Pacific Rims now in Paperback!
(Photo by Roy Afable)

Y’all heard about the book Pacific Rims, right? I’m pretty sure most of you basketball fans got their hands on its first release. It sold like hotcakes last year. Hell, I even had to order my copy because the book was virtually sold out. I was lucky enough to have my copy signed by the man himself – Rafe Bartholomew, author of Pacific Rims.

Last month, Rafe announced on his blog that Pacific Rims would be released in trade paperback format globally and the Philippines would be the first one to get their stocks. What’s more is that Rafe was in the country to film a documentary about Philippine basketball for National Geographic channel. So it was basically good timing to those who didn’t a chance to score the hardcover edition of the book or perhaps meet Rafe.

Rafe Bartholomew, the American writer behind the book Pacific Rims.
(Photo by Roy Afable)

It all happened so fast the announcement was out 2 days prior to the rerelease of the book – even Rafe was surprised of the news as well but hey, it was all good. He wanted to meet his newfound adoring fans and on a late Saturday afternoon of May 21st marked the date.

Fans lined up for the book signing.
(Photo by Roy Afable)

It’s my second time to meet him actually and got a chance to chat with him before the book signing began. He hasn’t changed since. He’s still that down-to-earth American as last year and was with full of enthusiasm. Only a handful from the media graced the event but a lot of his fans made it to the event. There wasn’t a single vacant seat left and that pretty much was the stamp of approval of sorts.

When everybody was all in their seats, the event officially began. He spoke about the rerelease of Pacific Rims in trade paperback and the documentary he was filming with National Geographic channel (as I’ve mentioned earlier) which will air by October or November, I believe. The first release of book was so successful more people wanted to get their hands on it. It’s fitting that the Philippines is the first on the list of the book’s global release. How cool is that?

A fan gets her booked signed by the man also known as "Paeng" here in the Philippines.
(Photo by Roy Afable)

During the Q & A session and I asked him if the burgers here in the Philippines were any different from the US branch of the Filipino fast food joint. He said the burgers both here and the US were rather ‘close’ HOWEVA, spaghetti in the Philippines was way better than the one sold in NYC. He recalled how he was the first in line of the Filipino Fast Food restaurant’s grand opening somewhere in the Big Apple – Valentine’s Day of 2009, to be exact. The crowd was filled with laughter when he mentioned that the fast food resto’s crew would freak out if they ran out of chicken (Filipinos love fried chicken) and customers might go on a riot. That might happen here if that fried chicken meal was taken out of their menu.

After he was done answering questions, the people lined up for the book signing. I noticed that mostly females were among those that attended. No surprise there. Like last year, he was just as accommodating he didn’t mind chatting with his fans while signing autographs and he even posed for photo-ops as well.



Everybody went home happy with their books signed and got an opportunity to chat with him. Kudos to Rafe and Best Sellers Robonson’s Galleria for the successful launch of Pacific Rims last May 21. Let’s all hope the basketball documentary on Nat Geo will launch here in the Philippines.

Pacific Rims Paperback edition is now available at all bookstores all over the Philippines and retails for Php 399 only.

If you wanna keep track of what’s happening with Rafe Bartholomew, check out his blog or follow him on Twitter.