It’s a poorly-kept secret that I’m (Jess) obsessed with pencils. It comes from years of working in the museum world, I suppose, where ink is a major no-no. I’m not really a collector myself, but if there’s one thing I do collect it’s pencils. And maybe coffee mugs. I’m all about functionality, see? So when Annie showed me this new book, How To Sharpen Pencils by David Rees, I was smitten. How does one devote 200+ pages to something as mundane as sharpening pencils? As it turns out the craft of pencil sharpening is far from mundane, and Mr. Rees’s knowledge is staggering. The inclusion of an appendix devoted to wines with a bouquet comparable to a pencil strikes a special chord in my cold, graphite heart. But don’t listen to me. Trust the brilliance of author John Hodgman who writes, “You may think that sharpening a pencil is easy, but David Rees makes it look hard, and that makes all the difference.”
Inkwell Pencil Sharpener, $12
I think Mr. Rees would also approve of our beautiful and highly functional new inkwell pencil sharpeners.
