pilot bamboo…

…is on its way to me! This is a pen that I have wanted since I first saw the exquisite photos  of it in a review written by the FPN member Pinarello –  that you’ll find if you click here. I got the opportunity to buy it – used – for a real good price. I have a very restricted pen budget at the moment, but this opportunity was too good to pass, so I jumped on it. Another special pen from Pilot. Not much of bling – just shape and a special design – by a French designer – Juliette Bonnamour. I think she has succeeded very well in creating a pen that feels Japanese – shape oriented, aesthetic, functional simplicity – with a twist of her own. Very special. Maybe not as special as the M90, but hey! my heart (the section with a material and profane focus)  is big enough to cherish more than one pen. I really look forward getting this pen. Please USPS and Swedish Posten – be swift and efficient!

After starting out with a heavy overweight of German pens – mostly Pelikans – I have gradually began to realize that the countries (design spheres) that manufacture pens with a design that often appeals to me – by different reasons – are Italy and Japan. I love Italian pens for their saucy, glossy, elegance. Smart rascals.  I love Japanese pens for their shape awareness, perfection, functional simpleness and grace with the M90 as their modern icon and the Nakaya pens as their traditional representative. Of course there are many variants and exceptions – but when I think of Italian of Japanese pens at their best – the essence of the best of their design cultures – it is those things that I think of. When I feel rich sometime in the future I shall buy myself a Nakaya. Preferably with a little dandelion painted on it.

Photos are not by me – they are linked from Pilot Europe. These official photos don’t make them justice in my opinion – check the photos in the review mentioned above if you want to get a feel of it.

Posted in design, fountain pens, pens, pilot, Pilot Bamboo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

persuasion revisited

(Photo linked from e-books – Penguin Classics frontcover – the same as the one I’ve got).

I’m rereading Persuasion by Jane Austen and  am struck by that it feels so modern, even though it was written in a dramatically different age. Many of its issues are still current and she has such a sharp eye and wit. It is a pity that Anne Elliot in the recent dramas (even though I really like them) is much mousier than in the books. It – actually all her novels – is well worth (re)reading – much more than a mere romantic saga. Sharp and unsentimental. Very few – if any – contemporary chick lit writers are capable of that sharpness and dry unsentimentality when it comes to the material aspects of life and choosing a partner. Persuasion can be found for free at Google books.

Posted in jane austen, literature | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment