Zum Größenvergleich: Der Rot-Blau-Stift Mitsubishi 772.
Das gut 280-seitige Buch „Adventures in Stationery. A Journey Through Your Pencil Case“ von James Ward ist am 11. September erschienen und war sofort in meinem virtuellen Warenkorb. (Die für Mai 2015 angekündigte US-amerikanische Ausgabe trägt übrigens den Titel „The Perfection of the Paperclip: Curious Tales of Invention, Accidental Genius, and Stationery Obsession“ – kurios, aber die beiden letzten Worte sprechen mich durchaus an.) Auf die Lektüre bin ich sehr gespannt, doch vorher lese ich noch „On the Dot. The Speck That Changed the World“ von Alexander und Nicholas Humez zuende.
Nachtrag vom 28.9.14:
The Blackwing Pages: The Blackwing 602 in Adventures in Stationery
Bleistift: Don’t mess with a pencil enthusiast.
The Independent: Adventures In Stationery: Author James Ward loves Post-it notes, paper clips and staplers so much he has written a whole book about them
The Guardian: From stationery fiends to hand dryer enthusiasts… who are you calling boring?
Weblog des Autors James Ward: I Like Boring Things
Weblog zum Buch: Adventures In Stationery
I would be very interested to know how you find this book! Please let us know :)
My curiosity has won so I paused „On the Dot“ and started reading „Adventures in Stationery“ today :-) In my lunch break I read up to page 30 and was impressed e. g. by the author’s research on the history of the paper clip and (even more interesting, at least to me) on the origins of the drawing pin – the latter can be traced back to the first half of the 19th century, and I wish I had known these details for my post about thumbtacks. – Although there are only small and mainly decorative images the items described in this book come to life and make me want to look for and use them immediately :-) I am looking forward to continuing reading this evening. – I will post more here soon (with „soon“ depending on the time I can spend on this book and on my reading speed).
The second chapter is about fountain and ballpoint pens and contains many exciting details too. I already knew a few, but most of them were new to me. And again: The vivid description of the items, their history and the people involved made me want to pick up a BIC Cristal and write a few words – and this is coming from someone who usually steers clear of ballpoint pens!
Oh I give in!! I ordered this together with „The Missing Ink: How Handwriting Made Us Who We Are“, which has been in my shopping cart for quite some time. I can’t wait!
I have improved today’s lunch break with chapter 3 which is about paper and I have enjoyed it too. The next chapter carries the heading „They can’t move until I pick up a pencil“ – you’ll guess what I’ll read this evening :-) Of course your milage may vary but I would be suprised if you didn’t like this book. – I have read „The Missing Ink: How Handwriting Made Us Who We Are“ too but found it only so-so.
By the way, your comment was the 5000th in this blog :-)
Oh, that is a great honor!! :)
You’re welcome :-) I have now read about half of the book and so far I can unreservedly recommend it – it is fascinating, entertaining, quirky, very well researched and full of exciting details.
On page 105 Sean from The Blackwing Pages is mentioned but his posts are characterized as an attack on Cal Cedar; this is not true. His blog is about the pencil’s history, and after his work has been plagiarized by Cal Cedar he made a stand against this unacceptable behaviour. The reader may also get the impression that Sean is a hardcore fanboy of the Blackwing 602 who thinks that nothing will ever be as good or as satisfying as the original 602; this isn’t true either. So, at least this detail is not correctly researched. – Yes, I’m picky ;-)
Anyone who has read The Blackwing Pages in earnest will know that the allegations are not true. I personally have learned a lot from Sean’s posts and was thinking of adding to his list of Blackwing substitutes – in my opinion a crucial dose of sanity for all of us :)
Yes, of course – an attentive reader will get the facts. However, I don’t mean to blame the author for not reading The Blackwing Pages completely; that’s asking too much. I have mentioned this detail in the book because I have followed the problems back then and didn’t want to leave it without comment, not because I wanted to grumble. I still find the book excellent!
The Blackwing Pages are a pleasure for the mind and the eye, and I too have learned a lot from Sean’s posts.
Supplying a crucial dose of sanity is very laudable :-)
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