Fountain Pens

Given the choice, I generally choose typing over handwriting. That's more an issue of efficiency (91 WPM, bitches!) than anything else.

But I recognize that there's something nice about writing something out by hand. Especially if I'm writing in cursive instead of my regular half-print half-cursive chicken scratch. And crossing things out in pen is so much more satisfying than hitting the delete key.

The key to maximizing the awesomeness of handwriting things is a fancy pen. Specifically a fountain pen. Nothing is more satisfying than writing things out by hand and then crossing them out with a fountain pen. I like to write things of dubious quality with a fountain pen and feel pretentious.

I'd like to note that cheap fountain pens suck. If you've ruled out using a fountain pen because you spent $4 on one at Staples and wasn't happy, you need to give them a second chance. You'll need to spend a bit of money, but quality fountain pens last a lifetime. Plus, fountain pens in the sale section are generally much much cheaper (and who cares if it's a little ugly).

I recommend Cross pens. They're great, you can generally find them for reasonable prices if you look for sales, and you can get 20% off already-reduced items on their site if you shop in the next four days.

Note: I like fancy pens, but I hate fancy notebooks and journals. I'm a regular paper kind of gal. I find fancy paper too intimidating, and I need to be able to rip pages out without feeling guilty. Also, it's paper. Get over yourself.

Cross Fountain Pens at Amazon

Cross Sale Section (extra 20% off until 3/24/09)