Reading and Writing
Dec. 11th, 2020 03:09 pm1. I got my second Christmas card of the year from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
misbegotten!
2. So tantalizingly close to being done with Yuletide treat. I am very happy with how it's going so far.
3. Several years ago when I became fascinated with bullet journaling, I bought a dot grid Leuchtturm 1917 journal for my bujo. I abandoned bullet journaling pretty quickly; turns out it's too fussy for me, and I am not artistic, so it just became something that didn't work for me. I also really disliked the dot grid. I don't see very well, and I had trouble using the dots to guide my writing. When I started journaling again this spring (although not bullet journaling, just regular hand writing in a diary), I used a blank Midori MD. At first, my writing slanted all over the place, but by the end of the journal, I was writing pretty consistently in a fairly straight line. When I finished the Midori, I went back to the Leuchtturm which only had about 40 pages used. Turns out that all that writing in the blank journal means that I can just write on the dotted page and not even worry about trying to use the dots to guide my writing; basically, I have learned to ignore the dot grid which means my notebook options have increased since the whole journaling world seems to be head over heels for dot grid (or graph ruling, bleck).
An interesting fountain pen point of data: so far, the Leuchtturm paper is my favorite to write on with my fountain pens. It has a little bit of tooth to it but not too much; dry times are not very long. The Midori paper has a little too much tooth for me; it's fine, but I don't think it will be my first choice again for fountain pen friendly paper. The Clairefontaine is almost too smooth; I haven't written in that journal very much. I'm using it as a commonplace book and copying out quotes I like, so only about three pages have been written in. It's so smooth that I almost feel like the pen kinda gets away from me a little. I need to spend more time with that notebook to make a real judgment though. Try times are the longest on the Clairfontaine of the three. I haven't written in the Rhodia notebook I bought yet beyond pen tests on the back page, so that will be an experiment for the future.
4.
Sylvia Plath: A Critical Guide by Tim Kendall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
So, I thought I wasn't going to enjoy this very much for the first chapter or two. The back of the book describes this as a "detailed and dispassionate examination of her poetry" that avoids "preoccupation with her life and death." Predictably, I enjoy this book the most when Kendall is dealing with her life and death which he starts to do more frequently about three chapters in. I'm not a Plath scholar and can't judge the quality of Kendall's criticism, but the book is interesting and well argued.
View all my reviews
misbegotten!2. So tantalizingly close to being done with Yuletide treat. I am very happy with how it's going so far.
3. Several years ago when I became fascinated with bullet journaling, I bought a dot grid Leuchtturm 1917 journal for my bujo. I abandoned bullet journaling pretty quickly; turns out it's too fussy for me, and I am not artistic, so it just became something that didn't work for me. I also really disliked the dot grid. I don't see very well, and I had trouble using the dots to guide my writing. When I started journaling again this spring (although not bullet journaling, just regular hand writing in a diary), I used a blank Midori MD. At first, my writing slanted all over the place, but by the end of the journal, I was writing pretty consistently in a fairly straight line. When I finished the Midori, I went back to the Leuchtturm which only had about 40 pages used. Turns out that all that writing in the blank journal means that I can just write on the dotted page and not even worry about trying to use the dots to guide my writing; basically, I have learned to ignore the dot grid which means my notebook options have increased since the whole journaling world seems to be head over heels for dot grid (or graph ruling, bleck).
An interesting fountain pen point of data: so far, the Leuchtturm paper is my favorite to write on with my fountain pens. It has a little bit of tooth to it but not too much; dry times are not very long. The Midori paper has a little too much tooth for me; it's fine, but I don't think it will be my first choice again for fountain pen friendly paper. The Clairefontaine is almost too smooth; I haven't written in that journal very much. I'm using it as a commonplace book and copying out quotes I like, so only about three pages have been written in. It's so smooth that I almost feel like the pen kinda gets away from me a little. I need to spend more time with that notebook to make a real judgment though. Try times are the longest on the Clairfontaine of the three. I haven't written in the Rhodia notebook I bought yet beyond pen tests on the back page, so that will be an experiment for the future.
4.
Sylvia Plath: A Critical Guide by Tim KendallMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
So, I thought I wasn't going to enjoy this very much for the first chapter or two. The back of the book describes this as a "detailed and dispassionate examination of her poetry" that avoids "preoccupation with her life and death." Predictably, I enjoy this book the most when Kendall is dealing with her life and death which he starts to do more frequently about three chapters in. I'm not a Plath scholar and can't judge the quality of Kendall's criticism, but the book is interesting and well argued.
View all my reviews
