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Explained: how you will get into vintage fountain pens | Extra Fine Writing

Posted on by Shawn Mihalik

Explained: how you will get into vintage fountain pens | Extra Fine Writing

You will not intend to buy Old Pen. You will attend the pen show intending to buy ink and washi tape, but you will wander too close to Old Man’s table and become ensnared in his web. He will ply you with a haunting rime of days long past, its lilting melody transporting you through the mists of time to a simpler era, and before you know what is happening you are holding Old Pen, Old Man encouraging you to “just try it out” with a twinkle in his eye.

Yep.

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Recommended: Two NYC Stationery Shops Worth Your Time

Posted on by Patrick Rhone

I was in New York City recently. It was mainly to tour area colleges and see a few Broadway shows in the evening but we did manage to get one day of shopping in and it was during this time I was able to sneak a visit into two stationery stores that are worth a check out.

Goods For The Study has two locations and is a nicely curated selection of both pens/pencils and notebooks/paper. The location I visited actually has these divided between neighboring storefronts with the writing utensils on one side and the paper goods on the other. Everything was nicely organized and I was a bit enamored with the fact the notebooks/paper goods area was organized by color versus brand.

Measure Twice is in Brooklyn and is absolutely adorable. Less of a straight ahead stationary shop and more of a gift shop, there is a little bit of something for everyone. Owned and operated by a warm and lovely husband and wife team (who I have a personal connection to), it is the sort of place that you could browse through a few times (as I did) and have something new and interesting catch your eye each time. Looking for an unusual gift or card? They have everything to fit any occasion. Plus, they have their own book publishing imprint, mainly specializing in poetry which is worth a browse all on its own.

So, if you happen to be in or visiting NYC, make some time for both. You won’t be disappointed.

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On Keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion

Posted on by Patrick Rhone

On Keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion (PDF)

But our notebooks give us away, for however dutifully we record what we see around us, the common denominator of all we see is always, transparently, shamelessly, the implacable “I.” We are not talking here about the kind of notebook that is patently for public consumption, a structural conceit for binding together a series of graceful pensees; we are talking about something private, about bits of the mind’s string too short to use, an indiscriminate and erratic assemblage with
meaning only for its maker.

A wonderful essay about the what and why for the author, Joan Didion, of keeping a notebook. Which may be different than the what and why you may have. And it is a point she writes so eloquently about here.

I may have to copy this whole delicious thing into my commonplace book.

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The Benefits of Analogue Bleeding Back into Digital

Posted on by Shawn Mihalik

After a year of exclusively using fountain pens and paper for my handwriting needs and foregoing any sort of digital tablet, I got an iPad Pro again a few days ago, with the intent to use it mostly for reading comics, academic papers, and the New York Times. Today, I found myself using it to take notes during an impromptu meeting. While I am alarmed at how easily, and usefully, the digital tool slotted itself back into my workflow, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my handwriting, which I spent months diligently practicing last year because I wanted to learn cursive again, was much more fluid on the tablet than it used to be—and more easily recognized and parsed by the software because of this, too. (Also, wondrously, I wrote this very post by hand, with the Apple Pencil, right into WordPress’s text editor.)