Are you a pen geek?

Some people might think they're pen geeks, but I found this test today that can prove to you whether you are or aren't. It's at a cool site - pengeek.com (I found it while searching for domain names to forward to this blog - it's kind of a long name to remember). Pengeek was obviously taken, but stationarygeek wasn't - so I'm taking it. Because, really, I'm an equal-opportunity stationary-products-lover.

I've been hanging out at the American Library Association annual meeting (it's a work thing) and have been collecting some fun conference pens. I'm trying to be judicious in my pen-taking because I don't want them to all just pile up again after getting rid of so many conference pens recently. But I have to say, books24x7 has some good pens. As does the Pitt MLIS program.

I'm hoping to go to Flax, aka pen heaven, on Wednesday. Hopefully they'll have some passion there.

More Adventures in Pen Buying (and praying for a pulse)

I recently made an excursion to the Brentwood Stationers, a much-heralded mom-and-pop store in the center of hoity-toity Brentwood. Back in April, I went to the Piedmont Stationers in Oakland and apparently the owner of that store used to work for the owners of the Brentwood store back in "the day."

They have a huge collection of filofax stuff, which I quite liked looking at. And I did see some pens by people I've never heard of before. Like a Xenon Gel, a silver barrel pen with a black 7mm needle tip, ergonomic little cushion for your fingers, and smooth writing. For like $3.99, I believe. I also got one with an opaque turquoise barrel. I also bought a purple Pilot Razor Point pen - I just love porous point pens, but for every pen there is a matching piece of paper, and I can never find the right paper for porous points. On smooth paper they run. On scratchy paper, they scratch too much. So it's a continual quest for me to try to find the right notebook to write in with my lovely porous point pens. I also bought two notebooks - a moleskin one for $17.95 (they're cheaper at Borders, but I can't bring myself to give Borders that much money for blank paper. I give them enough money for paper with words on it already).

So the selection was ok. They didn't have the best collection of pens (they didn't sell my favorite Y&C gel pens, for example) but I'd chalk that up to the fact that, according to the staff, a store called Flax, described as 'pen heaven' is close by, so I'll have to make another trip to check that out soon. And their notebook selection was just ok. Not great. But it's not Office Depot, so I wouldn't expect it to be that great.

The thing I noticed, though, was how it seemed that everyone was really uninspired. They were friendly enough, but they just didn't seem to be passionate about stationary. I go to stores like that so I can be a stationary geek and discuss the virtues of pilot pens over pentel ones. Or the binding of a notebook. Or whether narrow rule is better than wide. I mean, if you can't get passionate about stationary in a place like that, where on earth CAN you? Most non-chain store employees are totally into their product - they'd go work at a chain or something if they didn't care that much. So I was expecting a low-level buzz about new shipments of planner pages that were arriving the next day, or whether all gel pens only last about 30 pages and then you're done. But it wasn't there. There was a nice breeze coming from the back door. Cue image of ghost-town sounds like tumbleweeds blowing across a deserted road. I did overhear their end of a phone conversation where a potential customer wanted something that was going to be nearly impossible for them to order, so they told them to go to a ...gasp ...bookstore.

Now I don't know - for all I know they were asking for a miniature replica of the Taj Mahal. And maybe they were having a crappy day and weren't really up for my weirdly upbeat chitter-chatter about how much I love stores like theirs and how I have this blog, and they should check it out. But when I told them I wrote about pens and had a blog (that actual real people read) they just looked at me like I had arrived from Mars. Maybe they don't know what blogs are because they're so into the physical stuff. I don't know. I'm trying not to judge them too harshly, but really, they were so unenthusiastic. It was like they had no idea why I would talk to them about pens at all. I kept hoping so much that a pulse would appear, but none did.

Which is a bummer. I spent $64 there. I really wanted to like them and have it be my new favorite stationary store and take monthly road trips into sidewalk-cafe-celebrity-dog-walker central to stock up on pens.

--

So on the drive home, I was thinking about how anyone can be unenthusiastic about pens and paper. I mean, ideas become real when people write them down. Symphonies happen because someone wrote them down. They just lived in Beethoven's head until he wrote them down so we can all hear them. A bunch of guys sat in Philadelphia in 1776 and talked a good game, but it wasn't until they wrote it down that it became Independence. It's magic, the power that paper and ink have. How can you not completely get goosebumps being around all that power all the time?

Conference Pens and other assorted Swag Thoughts

I went to the country's largest book fair last Friday, and came away with nearly 100 free pre-pub galley copies of new books. The trunk of the car was loaded. A trunk-full of new books makes me very happy, indeed. But I also made time to stuff some freebie pens into my bulging bags as well. It's made me think about Pen Giveaways, and whether I like them or not.

So as we all know, I have more pens than I will ever be able to use in this particular lifetime. And I have lots and lots of Good Pens (I define Good Pens as basically anything better in quality than the disposable bic ballpoint, medium tip, black ink that I used on my ballot when I voted today). So why do I grab cheap crappy pens from assorted independent publishers I've never heard of and don't care about, as if the Great Pen Shortage is coming?

I've talked about hoarding before, and how I do it, and why. But I'm deciding that I don't really want to hoard all these pens from Ingram Library Services. Because they kind of cheapen the act of writing itself for me. Even when I just write my daily to-do list on a post-it, I want to take it seriously and actually enjoy writing out my to-do list. Which is why I get pretty post-its with flowers and winnie-the-pooh on them. So why on earth would I ruin all that prettiness with crappy pens?

There was a time, relatively not so long ago, when most people couldn't read or write, and the very act of communicating via the written word was reserved for the upper classes. There were beautiful painted manuscripts with gorgeous handwriting written in expensive inks. And writing was special. Though writing is more democratic now (though, sadly, not in all parts of the world, or even our country for that matter) that doesn't mean it has to be taken for granted anymore than it was then. Writing with a pen, and being able to be in contact with people via pen and paper is a special privilege that we get to enjoy, and life's too short to waste our precious writing with a crappy pen that leaks, doesn't feel nice, or scratches the paper.

Thus, I will be donating all my Conference Pens (except the ones with real sentimental value!) to Goodwill.

--

And on another note, I wrote a real letter this week. It made my hand hurt. I'm not used to writing that much with a pen at once. I'm used to typing. It kind of made me angry. Even when I journal, I'm not writing quickly, so I guess I don't feel it. I'm going to have to do some hand-exercises. Maybe lift pen weights with my fingers.

Can't afford to ride a Ducati? Write with one!

Filed in the "What will they think up next" column. My hubby reads Auto Week religiously, seeing how he's a Car Guy. He saved the April 3 issue for me, in which there was an article entitled "The Pen is Mightier than the V12" - a 2008 guide to auto-inspired fine writing instruments. I guess, if you are sitting on an extra $13,500, you can get a Bentley pen.

Apparently, "the automotive inspired pens are a relatively new, stylish trend - one that is increasing more and more over the last couple of years..." Steve Wiederlight, co-owner of the Fountain Pen Hospital in NYC was quoted. The writer, Aaron Sigmond, ended the article by extolling the virtues of the car-pen. "In the end, you will find the pleasures of returning to a pen, especially one inspired by your actual (or fantasy) automobile's marque, will lead to both self-satisfaction and a greater appreciation of your personal style from those around you."

Yeah, I get it, but I'll tell you what. If I had an extra $13,500 hanging around, I know of lots of other ways to get self-satisfaction. Like buying everything at Target or Sephora.

I checked out the Fountain Pen Hospital website here, and they are some kind of fancy. Definitely not my style. Who knew there were so many expensive pens out there? Though I may decide to splurge and get J a pen made from the wood from a Dodger Stadium seat. Only $180.00!

You can read the entire article on car-pens at the Auto Week site, here.

Muji (and the art of minimalism)

I'm journaling in a Muji notebook. I'm a big fan of Muji stuff. I stock up on the pens when I'm in the UK (89p each - even with a crappy dollar, that's still a great deal). And the notebooks are awesome. All minimalist and unpretentious, with narrow lines (or unruled if you prefer). I get them in the A5 size, which is just perfect for me to journal in for about 3 weeks to a month, depending on my religiousness in journaling. And that's a perfect time for me because I get all ADD and sick of my notebook after then. Plus, they're lightweight so they don't add to the already-considerable weight in my tote bag.

But the coolest thing ever is that Muji has this deal where you build your own pen. You pick the casing, the ink type, and the colo(u)r, and presto-chango, you have a unique super-dooper pen.

I think this is a brilliant exercise in pen-creativity, and I'm a big fan. I just wish they had a store in Los Angeles. I'm very sad that I have to go to Carnaby Street or New York or Tokyo to get them. It's not right that pens of this caliber should be kept from us Angelenos. I know we aren't the most literary set, but dammit, we need to write, too.

Getting what you pay for

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bit of a Pen Snob. No, I don't require expensive luxury brands like Cross, and I love the Foray brand for Office Depot as I've said before. But I just can't get into Rose Art gel pens, at all. I bought a package of SRX Gel Pens (they're so obscure I can't even find a web link to them) at Target last week, and when my Pilot Precise V7 RT went dry tonight, I thought to try these Rose Art ones. No more. For the first time in a long time, I'm throwing unused pens away.

So I have two things I'm thinking about now, and they are intertwined. First, the feeling of satisfaction I get from finishing a pen. It's such a rare occasion in this world. Mostly people lose track of pens, or switch pens before the first one is dry. Or the dog eats them. Or something. But most people don't just stick with a pen until it dries up and then throw it out.

I try to stick with a pen until it dries up. It's a wonderful feeling of completion when the pen dries up and I get to think about all the things I wrote with it.

It's one of the reasons I hate to throw away pens before they are used, which is the second topic I'm thinking about tonight. It's almost as if all the possibilities of the pens aren't going to be fulfilled if I throw the pen out before its time. The words I won't write with that pen may not ever be written in the same way with another pen. I'm superstitious like that. There's a reason I picked that pen, and there's a reason I saved it to use until the time I did. If I throw it out before its time, those possibilities might never be realized.

But it often keeps me writing with pens I don't like, just because I don't want to throw them out early (this is also the reason I finish books I hate, too - there might be a gem of a chapter up ahead, and I'll never know if I don't finish it).

But not this time. These Rose Art SRX Gel Pens they sell at Target absolutely SUCK.

Piedmont Stationers and Flair Markers

So I spent the week in San Mateo and had two Adventures in Pens.

The first was at Target (I was the winner of one of those "fill out our survey and win a huge gift card" contests in January, so Target is my Store of Choice these days). I lovelovelove Sharpies, especially the ones with really fine points, but I hatehatehate how they always bleed through my paper. I was happy to discover, in the same general area as the Sharpies, these new ultra fine needle point markers from Flair, which write like Sharpies, but won't bleed. I bought two packs (they're $4.99 for a pack of five - black, blue, purple, red and green). I'm markering in all my notebooks and happy to report that there is no bleeding.

My other adventure was today when I went to the Piedmont Stationers in Oakland. It's my boss's favorite stationary store, and ever since she's started her job, and become my boss, and known how in love with stationary I am, she's been telling me how she has to get me there.

It reminded me of the Sussex Stationary shops in the UK. All small and quaint with stuff stored in bookshelves and every off-beat kind of stationary product you could want. And a resident dog. They sold Filofax products, which make me feel like I'm in the UK again. And loads of European notebooks like ones by Clairefontaine.

I spent $46 on notebooks and some wonderful gel pens that are the same kind that I bought in my hubby's university store back when we first started dating. I've been hanging on to them all this time because they're special and sentimental, but now I have new ones, AND I know where to get them, so I'm going to start writing with them. Yay!

Anyway, that's the Exciting Pen Report for this week.

It's been a while since I blogged about pens. That's because it's been a while since I thought about pens very much. It's the whole “owning a house” thing. Other stuff, like installing a double-sided wall heater, seems to take precedence. Call it crazy, but there you go.

The other day, though, I had a wonderful pen conversation with an airport security woman at the Ontario airport (ontario california, not canada). Apparently my bag was deemed suspicious during the x-ray security fun, and they had to go through my bag by hand. It was the pens that set it off. I guess through an xray machine, a bag of pens can resemble a weapon, and so they had to check it out.

So the lady was going through my bag, and opening and closing little compartments, and then she found the pen case culprit. We started talking about pens, and I told her that I loved pens, and was completely addicted to them, and we agreed that pens were fun. She started looking at me funny, though, when I explained that the pouch she was holding in her latex-gloved hand held those pens which were my security-blanket; the most important pens that I need to have with me when I travel because they are comforting. I explained that I knew where each one came from, why I had bought it, how much it was; and that looking at them reminded me of whatever happy time it was when I had bought said pen.

It made me think of photos. We carry photos of people in our wallets to remind us of those people. We aren't actually carrying the people themselves, but something that represents them because it helps us picture them. I'm not the most visual person and images don't really stick in my head very much (the other day I realized that I could not, for the life of me, remember what kind of closets we had in the apartment we were in for 2 years and just left in November).

So I don't really remember, nor, to be blunt, do I really care about looking at photos of loved ones for security. What I do remember, and care about, though, are the feelings I get when I'm somewhere, or with someone. And often those feelings are things I write about with pens I've bought in special places. Often just by holding the pen in my hand, or writing my name with the pen, I can bring back all the memories and emotions of a special time.

For example, on September 11, 2001, I was living in London and over my lunch break I walked down Carnaby Street, past the Lush cosmetics store and I got a sandwich at Boots. I also went to Muji, a great Japanese store, and bought three notebooks, a few gel pens, and some markers, all of which they put in a cute little paper muji bag with sturdy folded paper handles. I remember walking back to my office – it was a glorious day and the sun was making one of its last stands of the summer, and I thought about eating outside in Golden Square, behind my office.

But I decided to go back in and catch up on some work because all morning long I'd been goofing off on email with my friends Nick and Paul about tv, gossip, music, and general goofing-off stuff. I thought I should be responsible and go back inside and finish work, and then perhaps I'd leave early and walk most of the way home.

When I got to my computer, there was an email from Nick to Paul and I telling us to look at Yahoo news because something weird was going on in New York. I looked and I remember seeing a headline about a fire in the World Trade Center. Then another email from Nick. Then I thought I shoud call my parents before the phone lines went dead, as they invariably do for intercontinental calls during times of crises. So I called my parents, they watched the news as I watched the internet, and doodled in my new notebooks and nibbled at my sandwich. We stayed like that for several hours; me doodling, just hanging on the phone with my parents. Finally it was time to go home, and I walked out of the office a different person, as we all did that day.

The point is, whenever I look at Muji pens and notebooks now, I remember that feeling, I remember my parents' voices, I remember the confusion and the sorrow, and I remember very much wanting to be around Americans and eat at a TGI Friday's with unlimited icey coke refills.

It makes just as much sense to me as carrying a glossy paper representation of someone.

--

In other news, I bought some pens this weekend from Office Max. I'm not usually an Office Max girl, prefering Office Depot because they have a nicer looking logo (I hate courier font in general and especially on a logo) and because Office Depot sponsors Carl Edwards in Nascar, and he's super-cute. When you go into many Office Depot's, they have a lifesize cardboard cutout of him, and I like to pretend to lick it as I walk past.

But I went into Office Max and was happily surprised to see this new line of writing instruments designed for them – the brand is Tul, and it looks all Scandinavian and minimalist and like the kind of pens you'd write with while sitting at your Ikea kitchen table with your perfect laughing baby, and your perfect blond haired husband scaling a perfect Scandinavian cod next to you.

So I was a little bit scared of them, but decided to give them a whirl. And I'm glad I did because I highly approve. The writing is smooth, the tips are strong and bold in the 7mm ones, and very easy to write with in the fine 5mm ones. The pens are nice to hold and just feel good in your hand. Not at all Scandinavian.

Also, I've bought some notebooks from Target's new batch of eco-friendly ones. I like the banana paper you can get at whole foods, and this new stuff didn't look very eco-friendly and recycled, but I guess that's part of the appeal – no banana fibers to distract you from your important writing. They come in many different sizes, too, so it's a versatile collection, and I'm definitely a fan.

In a few weeks I'll be visiting my boss's favorite stationary store in Oakland with her. I'm very excited.

On Notebooks and cats...

I have been journaling lately in a notebook that is scented. It's a lovely little pink volume, about 6 inches by 9 inches, and has wonderful scratchy pages and narrow lines so my writing is it's tip-top best, and it's scented of strawberries. I can understand the whole idea - scent can stimulate ideas and such - but this book smells like Strawberry Shortcake, and I'm not certain how much I like it.

It also drives the cats crazy. Sometimes they like to sit with me while I journal, which is a lovely purry ritual for us all, but this whole strawberry scent thing has them a little out of sorts. They don't know whether to hunt it, lick it, ignore it, or play with it.

So it's a fun thing to try, and I don't regret starting this notebook, but it's a bit much and I don't think I'll do it again. Scented stuff like that needs to be reserved for stickers and lip glosses.

More on the importance of journaling
...and a tribute to Leta

My hubby's grandma passed away yesterday. This is a sad event, but she was in her late 80's and lived a good life, and she died peacefully, so it's ok. The thing that makes me really happy, though, is that she told me I could have all her writings. Whether or not you believe in life after death, her journal is a little piece of her that will live on for years and years.

We went to visit her on Wednesday, two days ago, in the hospital. While we were there she said that she had written in her notebook just that morning, and she'd been keeping up with her writing. I asked her whether she had any special plans or wishes for her writing, and she said she didn't think so. I asked her whether I could have them to type up and make into a book for the family to keep, and she said that she didn't know why I'd want to do that since she didn't write about anything special; just her day to day life.

Maybe it's the fact that I was a history major and appreciate the sacredness of the everyday, but I told her that I thought that in 200 years people might be really fascinated by her day to day life. Then she thought for a second about whether she'd written anything negative about anyone, and she'd decided that she hadn't, so it was ok for me to have her writings, but I should be aware of the fact that her writing was awful.

I'm incredibly excited to type them up - they're like a little treasure chest of her thoughts and feelings, and I can't wait to see what we might learn about her from her journals.

IN OTHER NEWS, I'm currently writing with a pentel metallic gel pen in green. I'm a big fan of these pens and always have been. Not only do they write great and have a perfectly sized barrel, but they also don't last very long (about a week), which in my opinion is a good thing since I'm totally ADD when it comes to pens.

the bic z4 plus

I have just started writing with the bic z4. I usually am too much of a pen snob to use "common bics" but the needle tip and fine point on this bic really appealed to me.

The one thing I'm happy about is that it doesn't look like the ink is going to last that long. I'm happy about that because I don't really like this pen. It's not the worst pen, but it's also not the best, and it's scratchy on the paper that I'm using right now. Also, the ink levels are visible, which makes me happy - I like to see my inky progress. The handle grip is comfy and is about the right size for my fingers.

I got mine at Target, but they sell at Staples for $13.99 a dozen. I wouldn't get the dozen, but half a dozen might be a fun way to switch up your style from time to time.

hoarding

It's a basic human instinct that comes from millenia spent hunting and gathering scarce food and supplies. But many of us still hoard, even though we will most likely never feel the needs and wants of our ancestors.

I hoard several things - tea, lotions and pens. I hoard things that have special meaning to me - teas because of the feelings that I got when I bought them, lotions because the smells are like olfactory photographs, and pens because of the potential lying within them.

Someday I might write a brilliant (or at least above-average) novel. I want the pen I use to do that to be a special one, maybe the one I bought at the Paperchase in the Paddington train station, or at the airport in Copenhagen. So I have my favorite pens, but I refuse to use them, preferring instead to save them up for something special.

Then I have the pens I pick up at conferences, the dentist, the dry cleaners, hotels, etc. These pens mostly don't have much meaning to me. I can't imagine a time when I'll be sentimental over an Oxford University Press pen. But I don't use them because I want to save them in case there's ever a pen shortage.

So the collection grows.

Then there are the pens that are in the middle. They aren't meaningless pens, but they aren't exactly my favorite or most sentimental. These are the ones I use everyday because they are so easily replaceable.

But that leaves me feeling unsatisfied because my favorite pens are sitting in a rubbermaid storage container drying out while I'm using a Bic gel pen with a fine needle point that I got at Target on a completely unremarkable visit.

It's really a dilemma and I guess it's one that many collectors face. If I managed to get a Birkin bag, I don't think I'd ever take it outside the house. So there it would be, collecting dust.

There's a big difference between Birkins and Muji pens, though (about $11,999 worth). So I really should start to use my favorite pens. That would make me happy, and would probably get me to write more.

the eee pc

I am writing from my new, very digital little machine, the asus eee pc. This little computer weighs in at less than 2 lbs, has a solid state 4 gig hard drive and a seven inch screen. This little gem is tiny. It fits nicely in my daily bag and is hardly that much bigger than my palm pilot was. It's the size of my journal, only just a bit thicker. This baby is going to let me write down my thoughts from anywhere I might happen to be. The bookstore, the hampstead heath, a beach in Goa, etc.

But is this a good thing? Obviously I think so – I bought one just three days after they were released in the US. But it's not going to replace my longhand journaling, nor will it mean that I'll never buy pens again. But for some people, it might. When was the last time you got a handwritten letter that arrived in a mailbox that you didn't need a computer to access? I get cards from my parents and in-laws, and that's about it.

I have decided to do more letter writing. I believe that I might go out and get some lovely stationary to start me off. And I'll choose one of my nicest pens. And I'll write a letter to a friend. One that requires postage. Perhaps I'll try to do this once a month. It hardly seems ambitious, but if I can manage it, then perhaps it will inspire the recipients to do so as well. And the cycle will continue.

And we'll all start using more pens. And receiving things that the sender actually touched, with their own hands. Something real, tangible, that can be held.

I'm a big fan of these eee computers, and I'm hardly a luddite. But I think that in several decades, when I'm gone, my children and grandchildren will be happy to have my journals; pieces of me that I actually touched, held in my lap, carried in my bag; and not just these digital bytes, though they might be easier and ever more convenient.

By writing more letters, I will be scattering those parts of myself around the world; literally leaving my mark rather than just a digital signature.

And that, along with this gorgeous little eee pc, makes me very happy.

Cataloging my pens

I work in the world of libraries and spend a lot of time around librarians so I pick up lots of information about stuff like cataloging, indexing and subject headings. I am embarking on a grand plan to completely catalog all of my writing instruments. I've done smaller catalogs before, but this is going to be something special. This morning I took out all of my pens and organized them by brand, and then by line width, needle tip, etc. I'm making it into an excel spreadsheet.

This is a picture of all my pens this morning. I've organized them in a big rubbermaid clear box, but I had a heck of a time doing it. I know this is probably more pens than I'll ever use in my lifetime, and I just have too many choices as to which ones to use first. The ones I like least (the ball points) will probably take the longest to use up, but if I use the ones I really like first, then they'll be gone. So I don't know. It's a real pickle, and an example of why too many choices is a bad thing.

Journaling

I have started The Artists Way more times than I can count. Really, it would be a breakthrough for me to actually finish it. I get confronted by the idea of actually living my life as fully expressed and creative as I can imagine. But hey, at least I know about it, so that has to be something.

But I digress.

So I start the Artists Way, and I get confronted, and I quit it, which is a subject that belongs in another blog. The reason I bring it up is that one of the things they have you do, early on, is write Morning Pages. Three pages every morning. It clears your head, gets you ready for the day, is kind of a meditation of sorts.

I like Morning Pages because it gives me a chance to use pen and paper. I've always been a journaller, though. I got my first diary for my 7th birthday - a cute little Hello Kitty one where I pasted pictures of Wham! and discussed why I wanted to be cool like Lois Shippen.

I've always kept my journal, with varying amounts of regularity, but always at least two or three times a week. The times when I do it every day tend to be good times in my life - I think it's because I'm doing a regular writing meditation. I like to go back and look at my journals and think about what I was doing a year or ten ago.

Right now I'm writing in a Working Class Press journal. I like the pocket in the back to keep sentimental stuff. And the lines are good and narrow, which keeps my handwriting looking presentable so that my grandchildren will be able to read it. The lines are dark, the paper is smooth (but not slippery) and the binding seems to be holding up well. The one I'm using has about 120 pages, and cost about $10 at Barnes and Noble.

Tonight I just spent an hour on the living room floor listening to the Beatles really loudly and playing with the cat in between writing my three pages of thoughts. What a lovely way to spend an evening.

Why Pens? Why blog about pens?

It's been a while since I've blogged, and it's especially been a while since I blogged about pens. Since I started this blog I've done the following:
1. Met my now-husband
2. Moved in with my now-husband
3. Got married
4. Am in the process of buying a house

While I have been able to keep up a modicum of journaling, and have managed to go through about 5 or 6 notebooks, I haven't had a chance to keep writing about my love affair with pens and notebooks.

We are going to be moving up to the mountains (the Lake Arrowhead area) in a few weeks, and I think that my life will be a lot calmer without all the stress of LA just outside my door. So I am hoping to be able to write about pens and notebooks more often.

To that end, I thought I would paste in a Post to the Host that I sent to Garrison Keillor, of Prairie Home Companion fame, about my pen fetish. And his response. I think it very eloquently sums up why people like me (and him, evidently!) like pens, why they are good, why the world is a better place with them, and why we'd all be happier if we'd leave the keyboard and write out a page or two in longhand once a day.

--

Dear Garrison:

I suffer from a blank notebook/book/pen fetish. All over my apartment there are books and notebooks strewn about and I can't walk out of The Strand without dropping at least $50. This is bad for several reasons. I move around a lot. When I moved to London I could only take three suitcases, two of which were crammed with books and journals and a shoebox of pens. Having such a large percentage of my luggage taken up with books/stationary made it difficult once winter came and I needed sweaters. And I simply lack the space to store all this stuff. I'm 27—I'm moving to New Zealand soon. So what do I do? Should I sell all my books on ebay and pay back my student loans and then buy more when I have a house and room for a library? Or do I keep collecting them and just deal with the fact that I'm never going to be the kind of girl who can fit her life in a backpack?

Heather A. Buettner
New York, NY

Heather,

I'm happy to meet someone at last who shares my secret predilections. What you describe is all very familiar to me. If I see a stationery store, my heart jumps, and when I go in and see a whole counter of pens, I am helpless to resist. I buy about a dozen, or two. I love Pilot pens and the Sanford Uni-Ball and have tried various German and Japanese things, though I consider the Mont Blanc to be an obscene rip-off.

I also buy books, steadily, more than I can read, and when I stroll into a bookstore, particularly one of those independent ones that's run by people who share my tastes, it's hard to get out with less than a shopping bag full. And now that I'm rediscovering the pleasures of writing in longhand, I'm stocking up on legal pads, and various other paper supplies ... hmmm, graph paper, maybe this could give me a stronger sense of structure.

What to do? Well, don't strain your back, my dear. A person can handle only so much luggage. If you love to buy books, then you should also learn to love to give away books. But if you are actually using the pens to write on the paper, then buying them isn't a fetish. It's simply the sensible pleasure of writing, including the sensuous feel of a lovely pen in the hand and the point against the paper. A person can take a lifetime of pleasure in this. You pick up a sheet of handsome paper and your favorite pen and pick up a book to use for a writing desk and hold it on your knees and proceed to improve the page with a few paragraphs and thus you leave your mark. A noble enterprise, nothing to be sheepish about.

Pentel Hybrid Gel Roller

I bought this hybrid gel roller out of curiosity - how do you combine the feeling of a roller with the gel ink? How would it work? I normally love Pentel pens, and it had a funky, futuristic look about it, and the price wasn't bad (about $3 for 2) so I bit.

I have to say, I'm less than impressed, especially since Pentel normally does such great pens. I'm writing in my journal with it, and the paper is rather smooth, not very pourus and scratchy, and the pen makes this dreadful "fingernails going down a blackboard" sound every twentieth word or so. It depends as well on how I hold the pen - if I hold it mostly straight up and down, something about the weight of it doesn't make the scratcy noise. During those times, I quite love the pen and all is right and blissful in the world. But then I get lazy, relax my wrist, and suddenly the screaching noise happens again. It wakes my neighbors. No, not really. Honestly, it's not a horrible noise, but it is cutting, and additionally, then pen kind of gets "stuck" for just a second as that noise is happening, so I can only assume it's something up with the roller bit.

The one redeeming quality for me right now - though it's not really a redeeming quality in general - is that the ink goes really quickly. I hate throwing out a pen I've not finished - it leaves me feeling really incomplete - and I'd be hitting myself if this pen was going to have to be with me for months. As it is, I only started it on Wednesday, today is Friday, and it's well over halfway through. Just on 5 pages a day. So I'm assuming it will be finished by Sunday and I can start out the week with something nice and new.

So, in sum, this pen will do you well if you write with the pen at a straight 90 degree angle. If you have anything less than that, wear earplugs. Note that this image came from the Pentel website at www.Pentel.com

Freeform Finger Grip Gel Pen

So I found a new Office Max in Culver City last week, and it was HUGE! And it had all the Back to School stuff out, and there were just aisles and aisles of pens and notebooks. I was in Office Supply Heaven!

I bought a Finger Grip Gel Pen - and man, is this thing weird. The back of the wrapping says, "Freeform is a line of writing instruments designed to provide you comfort, performance, and control while giving everyone else a glimpse into what makes you, you..."

I started writing with it, and the ink flows well, but I found it really hurt my wrist. I don't know why - maybe it had me writing with different muscles in my hand than I normally use, but I don't think I'll be using this pen again. It just felt too weird, and after about a page, my wrist really hurt. I would not want to be having to take notes in a three hour lecture class with this pen. No thank you. For $2.99 it wasn't a bad experiment, but I don't think I'll be getting it again.

I've only ever seen this pen at Office Max, so I don't think it's out there in a big way, yet. Maybe it's just me and my hand, but if other people have the same experience, I don't think it'll ever make it out of that Office Max in Culver City...

Note: The picture was taken from the official FreeForm website at http://www.ideastreamproducts.com/FF/FFproducts/FFfinger.html

Pilot PermaBall

I just made a Fourth of July visit to Office Max and found something very interesting. A Pilot PermaBall. This is meant to be a medium point ball point pen that writes on anything, just like a permanent marker (more on my Sharpie obsession in another post). So I shelled out the $5.25 for a pack of four (with a free G2 7mm) including a red, blue, black and green pen.

It's an interesting writing instrument, I'll give it that. Takes a bit of getting used to. I'm writing with the green one right now - it has a metal tip rather than a needle tip, which I tend to not like as much, and the 7mm is a thicker line than I tend to write with normally, but it does have a fun rubber grip, and I like that.

I tried writing on a picture - I put some devil's horns on an ex boyfriend - and it worked just fine, and didn't smear, which is a plus. The ink didn't flow as nicely as I'd like on the picture, but it's a ball point, and not a felt tip marker, so I can't expect everything, I guess. It did tend to leak through normal paper, but I suppose that the point isn't to write on normal paper, but to write on plastic, or pictures, etc. So that should be forgiven.

Overall, this isn't a bad pen, and kudos to Pilot for always coming with new writing instruments, but I'm really not sure what I'm going to use this pen for, other than the aforementioned devil horns. Then again, $5 for hours and hours of fun at the ex's expense might not be a bad deal?

note: above photo was taken from the Pilot website at www.PilotPen.com

The Pentel EnerGel Retractable Needle Tip
I am really up on the whole needle tip thing. I've found that with needle tips that my writing is just so much neater and more legible. Which is certainly something I look for, given my atrocious penmanship.

Anyway, I like the Pentel EnerGel Retractable because the blue color is really vibrant. I know, that sounds kind of corny (then again, this whole blog could be considered corny) but if I'm going to write with blue ink, darnit, I want it to be vibrant blue ink. Right? Right. This pen also comes in black and red, but really, I prefer the blue to all of them.

The retractable end also makes a really great clicking sound.

See, it's all about these subtleties!

I've found that this pen works best on notebook paper, or any kind of paper that is absorbant (ie, not shiny cards, where it will smear - as will any kind of gel pen). It's got a great ergonomic design (the rubber grip is fantastic), and if I were still in college, this would be my gel pen of choice for taking notes in philosophy class.

Basic Stats:
Pentel EnerGel Retractable Pen Needle Tip
Approximately $1.75/each, cheaper by the dozen
5mm or 7mm, gel ink
Available at Walmarts, Office Max, Staples, etc.
Lasts: About 50-75 pages

note: picture comes from the Pentel website at www.Pentel.com