Adventures in Stationery

Adventures in Stationery, again

Last month I sent an email to James Ward, the author of Adventures in Stationery, asking him about his favourite pencil. I’m not surprised that I didn’t hear back from him, but my email might have triggered another reaction (or not): I got an email telling me about a competition where you can win a signed copy of his book.

A quick look at the terms and conditions shows that unfortunately this competition is only open to UK residents.

You can find the competition and a Q&A with the author here.

Adventures in Stationery

Adventures in Stationery, again Read More »

Don’t mess with a pencil enthusiast.

After Lexikaliker and Sean: my blog post about the Adventures in Stationery book.

This book must have been mentioned in all the major British newspapers and I have to say that it’s very nice to see that there is such an unexpected interest in stationery. I hope the readers will be as enthusiastic about this book and stationery as the newspapers.

Quality

Unfortunately it took unusually long for my order to arrive, but thanks to Sunday deliveries I got my copy today. I certainly didn’t expect such a well made book for under £10. Let’s take about the non-content aspect first: Hardcover, the rubbery feel to the cover which became popular a few years ago, nice, rounded corners, and  amazingly well put together (and printed and bound in Italy). Even the ‘ribbon’ on the inside of the spine keeps to the outside’s colour theme.

Adventures in Stationery

I didn’t have a good look yet, but I had a quick look at the pencil chapter and my first impressions: the content is extremely exciting.

First thought (pencil chapter): nice – finally all the information that is spread across different sources offline and online in one place. It would have been nice though to see references to the original sources, e.g. Petroski’s book, Derwent’s material, etc. – but then, this isn’t supposed to be an academic article …so references might not go down well with most readers and might interrupt the flow.

Second thought: What’s that – Sean being mentioned That is unexpected. An analogy to Moleskine – what a good way to get the point across. The title of this blog post is a reference to Sean, taken from the book.

I’m very much looking forward to reading more of this book.

Don’t mess with a pencil enthusiast. Read More »