In defense of print and ink

I am an advocate against going paperless.  Not that I don't love technology; on the contrary, I am a gadget fiend.  But I also love actual paper, print, and writing by hand.  I have used iBooks for some reading, but I still prefer holding an actual book in my hands, turning the pages, flipping around, and reading in bed without worrying about breaking a device.  I also like magazines.  Again, it's about holding the magazine in my hands, flipping pages, and not worrying about breaking anything.  


Perhaps one of the things I love most about books and magazines is browsing in a book store.  Sadly, there aren't any bookstores that are less than an hour's drive from my house, but I'm willing to put in the driving time.  Even more sadly, driving an hour only gets me to a Barnes & Noble.  To get to a really good bookstore, it's a much further drive.  I can, however, get to a pretty good pen store in about an hour.


I collect fountain pens.  This may seem pretentious, but allow me to explain.  I've always loved writing, both the physical act of writing and the intellectual pursuit of writing.  The things I've loved about the physical act of writing have been finding new and interesting writing instruments and using them on different kinds of paper.  My father mostly used fountain pens when I was a child.  He thought he was state-of-the-art because he used cartridges.  I never really thought about fountain pens, myself, until one day when I was in a drug store when I was about 19 years old.  I came across the Varsity, a disposable fountain pen by Pilot.  I bought it and loved it.  I loved the way the ink flowed out of the pen and how the nib looked as I wrote.  


Unfortunately, at that time I couldn't afford any high-quality fountain pens.  And, since I was going into teaching, it was many more years before I could afford to buy one of my own.  Eventually, though, I got a Waterman Hemisphere and a Parker Sonnet.  These were my first 2 real (non-disposable) fountain pens.  I went on to buy many more and I now have a nice little collection.  My current favorite is my Pelikan Souveran 215, although I still use my Hemisphere very regularly.  I don't have any antique fountain pens, which is what the "real" collectors love, but I'm quite happy with my pens.


Of course, as soon as I got my own fountain pens, I had to look into inks.  This is where things got really interesting.  I started by getting a bottle of ink from Levenger, Cobalt Blue.  Then, of course, I had to get some cartridges, since most of my pens take cartridges as well as bottled ink.  When surfing the internet, I came across Private Reserve Ink, which has a great selection of ink colors.  My favorite of theirs is DC Supershow Blue.  But my favorite ink company is, without question, Noodler's Ink.


Noodler's has a fantastic selection of colors, and it also has some truly inspired names for them.  Currently, I have Dragon Napalm (a bright orangey red, kind of like mercurochrome), Baystate Blue, Navajo Turquoise, Concord Bream (a pale, grayish lilac), and Polar Blue.  Next, I plan to get Nikita (a bright red), Eel Cactus (magenta), and Bad Blue Heron.