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誰把橡皮擦戴在鉛筆的頭上？：文具們的百年演化史
鉛筆、原子筆、橡皮擦、立可白、筆記本、膠帶、便利貼、口紅膠、釘書機、迴紋針、螢光筆、多孔資料夾……他們到底怎麼來的？又為什麼長成現在這副模樣？
螢光筆的誕生都得感謝奇異筆？螢光筆的筆頭又為什麼變平頭？
原來文青三寶之一「Moleskine筆記本」連畢卡索與海明威都超愛用？
有個祕書跟IBM打字機不對盤，這樣的打字白痴居然意外發明了修正液？
要不是想吃麵包的鴨子很愛攻擊拿麵包屑擦筆跡的畫家，不然橡皮擦也不會被發明？
某一天因為一個男人在飛機上看到女人擦口紅，不禁想入非非就發明了口紅膠……
不像恐龍演化到一半就滅絕了，文具們從人類懂得記事之後便一路癡心相伴，穿越幾世紀、演化至今，時時刻刻幫助人們紀錄事件、量吋畫軌；越來越強大的功能讓人類的生活越來越便利也越來越不思議──透過鉅細靡遺的歷史考證，跨越東方與西方，穿越時空回到古代，一場文具們的穿越劇活跳跳上演：回到文具們被發明的那一天、那一刻，看見文具們最初的清純樣貌，看著它們在演進的路途上如何在外觀與功能上彼此影響，最後造就了文具王國，也改變並創造了人類文明史。
文具在人類文明史中佔有重量級角色，一點都不意外──如果沒有文具，人類便無法寫字、畫圖、傳遞訊息，就無從完整保留歷史。不要小看你桌上的一根小小迴紋針、一罐膠水、一本便利貼、一支鉛筆，它們活了近千年，經歷過的故事比你想像中的多更多！
螢光筆的誕生都得感謝奇異筆？螢光筆的筆頭又為什麼變平頭？
原來文青三寶之一「Moleskine筆記本」連畢卡索與海明威都超愛用？
有個祕書跟IBM打字機不對盤，這樣的打字白痴居然意外發明了修正液？
要不是想吃麵包的鴨子很愛攻擊拿麵包屑擦筆跡的畫家，不然橡皮擦也不會被發明？
某一天因為一個男人在飛機上看到女人擦口紅，不禁想入非非就發明了口紅膠……
不像恐龍演化到一半就滅絕了，文具們從人類懂得記事之後便一路癡心相伴，穿越幾世紀、演化至今，時時刻刻幫助人們紀錄事件、量吋畫軌；越來越強大的功能讓人類的生活越來越便利也越來越不思議──透過鉅細靡遺的歷史考證，跨越東方與西方，穿越時空回到古代，一場文具們的穿越劇活跳跳上演：回到文具們被發明的那一天、那一刻，看見文具們最初的清純樣貌，看著它們在演進的路途上如何在外觀與功能上彼此影響，最後造就了文具王國，也改變並創造了人類文明史。
文具在人類文明史中佔有重量級角色，一點都不意外──如果沒有文具，人類便無法寫字、畫圖、傳遞訊息，就無從完整保留歷史。不要小看你桌上的一根小小迴紋針、一罐膠水、一本便利貼、一支鉛筆，它們活了近千年，經歷過的故事比你想像中的多更多！
288 pages, Paperback
First published September 11, 2014
54 people are currently reading
1796 people want to read
About the author
James Ward
2 books12 followersJames Ward is the cofounder of the Stationery Club and the Boring Conference, featured in The Wall Street Journal and The Observer (London). His blog, I Like Boring Things, has been featured in The Independent and on the BBC website. He lives in London, and The Perfection of the Paper Clip is his first book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 124 reviews
April 24, 2020
Have you ever opened your junk drawer and wondered where some of those random items came from? Pencils, highlighters, paper clips... these sorts of things appear as if out of nowhere. James Ward goes one step further in this book, asking where these items originated and the history behind them. A self-professed stationery geek, Ward opens his piece telling of how he found a small desk organiser, before beginning to explore what he keeps in the various compartments. The curious reader who has always wondered about the history and varieties of paperclips, pens, and even pencils will find this book enlightening and entertaining. Ward also explores the impetus behind the creation of the highlighter, the glue stick, and even the common stapler (which can be used in a few configurations). Ward dazzles with his enthusiasm on the various topics within the book, which is sure to be something about which few people give a second thought. That said, it’s fun to explore things we use regularly and yet know so little about, at least for me. The concluding chapter sums it up so well: the history of stationery is the history of human civilisation, plain and simple. I admit, I am much like James Ward, as I got my ‘geek’ on while learning so much about the world of stationery. Recommended to those who like a lighter read that is packed with information, as well as the reader who truly does want to know the controversies that occurred in the world of stationery advancements.
I’ll be the first to admit that this book almost fell into my lap when I was at the library a while back. I held onto it, wondering how I could incorporate it into my reading schedule. When it came time to create topics for my A Book for All Seasons reading challenge (we are up to Round 10), I knew I would have to find a zany way to weave this into my reading list. Ward does so well laying the groundwork for this interesting collection of short biographies. While many would rather stab themselves in the eye with a paper clip, Ward delves into the histories and controversies about patenting this piece of stationery equipment that makes life so much easier. Ward pulls on the various storylines and histories without boring the reader with too much information. Travelling across the various pieces of stationery, Ward traces the history of items to a time before the Common Era while debunking some of the rumours and urban legends that have been tied to these small things. Who knew that an out of work secretary (who was a horrible typist) could create a fluid to cover her regular mistakes on the typewriter? Might you have guessed that there was a huge controversy in the making of ballpoint pens, both their ink viscosity and writing fluidity? Ward tackles these and many other topics that are perfect for your next (post-COVID 19) dinner party. While I am sure many would let a copy of this book collect dust in their junk drawer, should they be gifted one, I would find a place on my coffee table and riddle my guests with this knowledge. Perhaps that’s why no one comes to see me for a social visit.
Kudos, Mr. Ward, for this great piece of writing that pushes the boundaries of the random facts and fictions. I learned so very much and would love to see what else you might ‘pen’ in future for my reading perusal.
This book fulfils the Topic #3: Junk Drawer requirement of the Equinox #10 reading challenge.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
I’ll be the first to admit that this book almost fell into my lap when I was at the library a while back. I held onto it, wondering how I could incorporate it into my reading schedule. When it came time to create topics for my A Book for All Seasons reading challenge (we are up to Round 10), I knew I would have to find a zany way to weave this into my reading list. Ward does so well laying the groundwork for this interesting collection of short biographies. While many would rather stab themselves in the eye with a paper clip, Ward delves into the histories and controversies about patenting this piece of stationery equipment that makes life so much easier. Ward pulls on the various storylines and histories without boring the reader with too much information. Travelling across the various pieces of stationery, Ward traces the history of items to a time before the Common Era while debunking some of the rumours and urban legends that have been tied to these small things. Who knew that an out of work secretary (who was a horrible typist) could create a fluid to cover her regular mistakes on the typewriter? Might you have guessed that there was a huge controversy in the making of ballpoint pens, both their ink viscosity and writing fluidity? Ward tackles these and many other topics that are perfect for your next (post-COVID 19) dinner party. While I am sure many would let a copy of this book collect dust in their junk drawer, should they be gifted one, I would find a place on my coffee table and riddle my guests with this knowledge. Perhaps that’s why no one comes to see me for a social visit.
Kudos, Mr. Ward, for this great piece of writing that pushes the boundaries of the random facts and fictions. I learned so very much and would love to see what else you might ‘pen’ in future for my reading perusal.
This book fulfils the Topic #3: Junk Drawer requirement of the Equinox #10 reading challenge.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
May 19, 2015
I now have an inappropriate crush on James Ward. There are very few humans in the world who would find nine pages on the history of the stapler engrossing reading, and I bet they're all on GR. The man who wrote it? I want to mark him with a Trodat date stamp and lick his brain (I know, I said it was inappropriate, I'm so sorry). And to then expand that to encompass ink, correction fluid, the highlighter, paper, ball point pens, rulers, pencils, filing systems, erasers, glue and tape and Blu-tack, and . . . ooh, I'm shivering just at the recollection.
March 21, 2017
Some people see stationary as a necessary evil, as long as the pen works and the end of it has not been chewed too much, then all is good. Then there are those who covert the clean piece of paper, the curl of wood from a freshly sharpened pencil, the cellophane covering the new pack of Post-It’s or the possibilities that a pristine cover of a Moleskine holds. If you are in the latter group; this book is for you. Each and every one of us uses stationary in some form or other, though that has fallen with the advent of smart phones and devices.
Ward has an obsession with stationary bordering on the unnatural, but that obsession has driven him to ask the questions that no one else would ask, such as: What are the 1000’s of uses for blue tack? How many pencils do Ikea supply each year? Who pays $43 for a pencil? Is there a risk when licking a gummed envelope? And where has the sellotape gone again?
He tells us just how the highlighter came into being, the evolution of the pen from quill to gel, Why the staples never fit your stapler and why one bank stopped chaining its pens to the desk. Sadly we seem to be losing the art of writing, as tapping things out on your phone seems to have more appeal. I have always liked stationary; as I look around me I have two of the black and yellow waspish coloured Staedtler pencils, one un branded pen, a Uni-ball pen (my favourite), a plastic eraser and one of those double pencil sharpeners that have a standard and a large hole. In all my years I have never used the large hole to sharpen a pencil…
This is a brilliantly quirky book about those things that we never really consider in any depth. Ward has uncovered the history behind the most mundane of objects and tells the stories of some of the characters who made the brands that we know and love today. Great stuff.
Ward has an obsession with stationary bordering on the unnatural, but that obsession has driven him to ask the questions that no one else would ask, such as: What are the 1000’s of uses for blue tack? How many pencils do Ikea supply each year? Who pays $43 for a pencil? Is there a risk when licking a gummed envelope? And where has the sellotape gone again?
He tells us just how the highlighter came into being, the evolution of the pen from quill to gel, Why the staples never fit your stapler and why one bank stopped chaining its pens to the desk. Sadly we seem to be losing the art of writing, as tapping things out on your phone seems to have more appeal. I have always liked stationary; as I look around me I have two of the black and yellow waspish coloured Staedtler pencils, one un branded pen, a Uni-ball pen (my favourite), a plastic eraser and one of those double pencil sharpeners that have a standard and a large hole. In all my years I have never used the large hole to sharpen a pencil…
This is a brilliantly quirky book about those things that we never really consider in any depth. Ward has uncovered the history behind the most mundane of objects and tells the stories of some of the characters who made the brands that we know and love today. Great stuff.
June 21, 2015
When I got the email from the publisher asking me if I'd be interested in a review copy of this book, I pounced on it. I mean, I know that I don't typically review non-fiction, but it seemed right up my alley anyway, so I went for it.
The thing about this book is you really need to FUCKING LOVE stationary and useless facts and history and patents. This book is mostly just paragraph after paragraph of who applied for which patent when. The chapters open up with a verrrrry quick anecdote about the office supply the author will be tackling - usually just a paragraph or two - and then we launch right into the history. This "dry British humor" is very hard to come by. It's usually a word or two at the end of a point. Some deadpanning or sarcasm here or there, but otherwise much more "dry" than "humorous." And I found the chapter headings misleading. For instance "Everything I know about people, I learnt from pens" is really just a history of the pen. It started off interesting, with the development of the Bic Cristal, but quickly devolved into the history of writing tools. Since there is less of a narrative than just a spewing of facts, this all got very boring, very quickly.
I ended up just skimming most of it after the first four chapters. Reading every single word was putting me to sleep. The little bits of humor were funny but too few and far between to keep my attention. The design, however is beautiful, with gorgeous full-color photographs for endpapers and interesting illustrations for the chapter headings.
I really wish I had loved this more, but it just wasn't as charming or quirky as I expected it to be.
The thing about this book is you really need to FUCKING LOVE stationary and useless facts and history and patents. This book is mostly just paragraph after paragraph of who applied for which patent when. The chapters open up with a verrrrry quick anecdote about the office supply the author will be tackling - usually just a paragraph or two - and then we launch right into the history. This "dry British humor" is very hard to come by. It's usually a word or two at the end of a point. Some deadpanning or sarcasm here or there, but otherwise much more "dry" than "humorous." And I found the chapter headings misleading. For instance "Everything I know about people, I learnt from pens" is really just a history of the pen. It started off interesting, with the development of the Bic Cristal, but quickly devolved into the history of writing tools. Since there is less of a narrative than just a spewing of facts, this all got very boring, very quickly.
I ended up just skimming most of it after the first four chapters. Reading every single word was putting me to sleep. The little bits of humor were funny but too few and far between to keep my attention. The design, however is beautiful, with gorgeous full-color photographs for endpapers and interesting illustrations for the chapter headings.
I really wish I had loved this more, but it just wasn't as charming or quirky as I expected it to be.
October 30, 2022
'It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that the history of stationery is the history of human civilization.'
Review to follow.
Review to follow.
December 10, 2014
I love stationery, and I absolutely adored reading Adventures in Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencil Case by James Ward recently.
Ward's love of stationery is infectious, and I frequently lost myself researching his favourite shops, and discovering websites dedicated to various forms of stationery.
Every time I picked up this book, I had to have my tablet handy, just so I could look up images of the items described: the Blackwing 602 pencil, Pink Pearl eraser, different paper clip shapes and more. I enjoyed many trips down memory lane, remembering the kinds of glue I used in primary school (clag, PVA and remember these?) to the different types of white out used in high school (liquid paper bottle, the correction pen and who could forget the thinner!).
Adventures in Stationery is funny, entertaining and educational, and I loved reading about the invention of sticky notes, how Scotch tape got its name and even that 3M was originally known as the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing company. If you've never understood the meaning behind staple sizes then this is the book for you.
Here is just a small selection of my favourite discoveries in Adventures in Stationery:
Page 78 - the term foolscap, "used to describe a sheet of paper 13.5" x 17"... derives from the 'fool's cap' watermark... introduced in the middle of the fifteenth century."
Page 100 - "a ferrule is the metal sleeve holding the eraser in place."
Page 115 - before there were erasers or rubbers, "the preferred method for removing pencil lines was to use stale bread."
Page 213 - "When Blu-Tack was originally developed, it was white in colour, but the blue colouring was added after concerns were raised that children might think it was chewing gum and attempt to eat it."
Finally, Ward's mention of the use of skeuomorphic design by software designers to replicate an object's physical characteristics in another form (for instance, making the icon for the 'cut' function in MS Word look like a pair of scissors) blew my mind.
Adventures in Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencil Case by James Ward was an absolute joy to read and even the book itself is a treasure with an attractive hard back design featuring paper clips, drawing pins and pen lids. Perfect, right?
Highly recommended for stationery lovers everywhere!
Ward's love of stationery is infectious, and I frequently lost myself researching his favourite shops, and discovering websites dedicated to various forms of stationery.
Every time I picked up this book, I had to have my tablet handy, just so I could look up images of the items described: the Blackwing 602 pencil, Pink Pearl eraser, different paper clip shapes and more. I enjoyed many trips down memory lane, remembering the kinds of glue I used in primary school (clag, PVA and remember these?) to the different types of white out used in high school (liquid paper bottle, the correction pen and who could forget the thinner!).
Adventures in Stationery is funny, entertaining and educational, and I loved reading about the invention of sticky notes, how Scotch tape got its name and even that 3M was originally known as the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing company. If you've never understood the meaning behind staple sizes then this is the book for you.
Here is just a small selection of my favourite discoveries in Adventures in Stationery:
Page 78 - the term foolscap, "used to describe a sheet of paper 13.5" x 17"... derives from the 'fool's cap' watermark... introduced in the middle of the fifteenth century."
Page 100 - "a ferrule is the metal sleeve holding the eraser in place."
Page 115 - before there were erasers or rubbers, "the preferred method for removing pencil lines was to use stale bread."
Page 213 - "When Blu-Tack was originally developed, it was white in colour, but the blue colouring was added after concerns were raised that children might think it was chewing gum and attempt to eat it."
Finally, Ward's mention of the use of skeuomorphic design by software designers to replicate an object's physical characteristics in another form (for instance, making the icon for the 'cut' function in MS Word look like a pair of scissors) blew my mind.
Adventures in Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencil Case by James Ward was an absolute joy to read and even the book itself is a treasure with an attractive hard back design featuring paper clips, drawing pins and pen lids. Perfect, right?
Highly recommended for stationery lovers everywhere!
September 28, 2014
I loved this - but I think you'd have to be a fellow stationery addict to do so. The author details the history of pencils, pens, staplers, post it notes etc. My favourite part is in the chapter on highlighters; the author is reading the Stabilo company's history and '. . . you can probably imagine the sense of satisfaction - the visceral thrill - I felt as I ran the chisel tip of a yellow STABILO highlighter over the words . . .' Excellent.
August 3, 2015
I am fascinated by this topic and couldn't wait to dive in to a quirky history of stationery. I was pretty thoroughly disappointed, however. Ward's writing ranges from similar to an elementary school report (factual, dry, repetitive, unnuanced) and snarky. He has a tendency to end paragraphs with punchlines that are irrelevant. The coverage isn't very deep, nor very clever, and the chapters struggle to connect disparate points.
April 3, 2015
Received as an ARC from the publisher. Started 3-11-15. Finished 3-16-15. Mr. Ward, who has a blog about loving boring things, has taken what you would consider to be a boring subject and turned it into a fascinating and funny one. This book is wonderful. Our house has lots of office and art supplies, so it was especially interesting to read about an iconic product and be able to say that you had(or have) one of those items. The stories behind the invention, development, rivalries and brand names were compelling reads. So that's how our numerous Sharp tv's got their names! This book details the intriguing stories behind everyday objects. Among other thing you'll learn about the connection between the musical group The Monkees and Wite-Out. It's a trivia hound's heaven and will be kept as a reference book in my library.
December 21, 2015
Yes, I am the girl who went to the stationery store after school and wandered around, just looking at all the cool stuff in there. I've given superior erasers (I'm quite serious) as gifts to friends. I've also been frustrated by the disparity between standard paper sizes in the U.S. and Korea (8.5" x 11" and A4, respectively), so having a UK author discuss the stupidities of purely American (unobserved elsewhere in the world) systems was a bracing relief to me.
You learn a bit about the inventors of each object and how the world survived without each, with sly humor to entertain along the way. Don't use this as a research source, but as a breezy tour of office supplies, and you'll be fine.
This is not a deep read or one that will astonish you, but for a certain niche audience, it's perfect.
You learn a bit about the inventors of each object and how the world survived without each, with sly humor to entertain along the way. Don't use this as a research source, but as a breezy tour of office supplies, and you'll be fine.
This is not a deep read or one that will astonish you, but for a certain niche audience, it's perfect.
September 20, 2015
James Ward ... please write more books. Your first outing was more fascinating that even I, a fellow worshipper at the shrine of stationery, could have imagined. Who'd have thunk that hole punches are a direct consequence of the abandonment of pigeonholes for mail? Who'd have posited that Post-it notes had such a long period of stasis before becoming ubiquitous?
There's the odd typo, and Ward doesn't treat data as a plural word - something about which I still get cranky - but I enjoyed every chapter, every page, every fact and factoid. And learn? Wow, did I learn a lot.
So, Mr Ward. Hope you've got another book in the works. You may write a blog titled 'I like boring things', but you and your offerings don't qualify for inclusion there.
There's the odd typo, and Ward doesn't treat data as a plural word - something about which I still get cranky - but I enjoyed every chapter, every page, every fact and factoid. And learn? Wow, did I learn a lot.
So, Mr Ward. Hope you've got another book in the works. You may write a blog titled 'I like boring things', but you and your offerings don't qualify for inclusion there.
December 16, 2015
Who knew this book would be as good as it turned out? I almost passed it by. The author is slightly deranged but in a good way. He sprinkles the text with his dry humor and it works wonderfully.
After delving deep into the paperclip he focuses on many of the other common desktop items that we all know and have used. There are some surprises, for example the ruler slash letter-weigher. To paraphrase Ward, oh what a world it could have been if I had known about this device earlier.
There are altogether too many typos in the book, but they don't detract much from the enjoyment. No one, I think, will be misled into thinking a sheet of paper is 8.5 x 11 feet in size. (Ward is British and has fallen prey to the metric system; he or his editor need to look more carefully at their conversions back to the British-devised inch system.)
After delving deep into the paperclip he focuses on many of the other common desktop items that we all know and have used. There are some surprises, for example the ruler slash letter-weigher. To paraphrase Ward, oh what a world it could have been if I had known about this device earlier.
There are altogether too many typos in the book, but they don't detract much from the enjoyment. No one, I think, will be misled into thinking a sheet of paper is 8.5 x 11 feet in size. (Ward is British and has fallen prey to the metric system; he or his editor need to look more carefully at their conversions back to the British-devised inch system.)
December 27, 2015
I really wanted to like this book, but the stories are strung together weakly and rarely provide interesting information. For example, how exactly did the paper clip assume its shape? Ward doesn't tell us, but is happy to provide patent details. I also wish Ward included more photos to illustrate his product descriptions. I thought that I could handle just a chapter before going to sleep, but when I find myself skimming even the mercifully short chapters, I know it is time to let go.
May 13, 2015
Entertaining read. I don't think you have to be an office supply geek like myself to enjoy this book. It gave me a new appreciation with how historically recent are most of the office supplies we use every day. The book could have used fewer histories of the acquisitions and mergers for some of the companies.
March 4, 2015
Interesting information about commonly used items. I never really thought about the development of many of the things on my desk that I use daily! Well-researched and fairly easy to read.
April 11, 2022
This book was absolutely MAGICAL.
We take so many things for granted that are staples (no pun intended) in our daily lives, without knowing the stories behind them, the journey to their conception, the path they took to exist in the form they do today, or the creative minds behind them.
Being a lover of all stationery and office supplies, reading Ward's writing felt like the ultimate literary adventure to me. Using the items I do daily is already a joyful experience, but knowing the history behind each one of these things will only make almost every daily work activity I engage in even more meaningful.
I stumbled upon James Ward when I was reading "Curious" by Ian Leslie, in the context of learning about his Boring Conference (which is anything but). Leslie dropped this book title in his text, and I immediately put it on my to-read list, though it took me a couple of months to get to it as I was working through many other books on my list.
I've said this for a couple of books recently, but I'm glad I get to say it again -- reading this was a transformative experience for me. It not only taught me a massive amount of information about the origin of very commonly used items, it left me thinking about much deeper things like: why don't we take more time to learn more about things so integral to our lives? Why do we write so many things off as mundane or trivial or boring, when the truth is that we simply haven't learned enough about those things yet? I can see why Leslie recommended Ward's work, because it really allows you to extend your thinking on the topic of curiosity and understand the need for broadening horizons and nurturing the desire to know.
Nothing we have in this world would have been created without people who were open to discovering the magic in everything they encountered.
Organizationally, Ward divides the book (for the most part) into a chapter per object: Paperclips, Pins and Clips, Pens, Paper, Pencils, Erasers, Postcards, School-Specific Supplies (i.e. rulers, protactors, etc), Highlighters, Tape, Business Cards, Post-its, Staplers, Filing Cabinets/Systems, and then concludes with the advent of technology in the digitization of stationery.
The writing is incredibly accessible, and in addition to being innately interesting, Ward is also excellent with his perfectly-timed pop culture references, and perfectly placed humor. He's a joy to read.
Just as Leslie's book led me to Ward's, Ward led me to add the following texts (referenced in his book) to my to-read list:
- How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics, by N. Katherine Hayles
- Paraphernalia: The Curious Lives of Magical Things, by Steven Connor
- Natural History: A Selection, by Pliny the Elder
- The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective, by Carl Sagan
We take so many things for granted that are staples (no pun intended) in our daily lives, without knowing the stories behind them, the journey to their conception, the path they took to exist in the form they do today, or the creative minds behind them.
Being a lover of all stationery and office supplies, reading Ward's writing felt like the ultimate literary adventure to me. Using the items I do daily is already a joyful experience, but knowing the history behind each one of these things will only make almost every daily work activity I engage in even more meaningful.
I stumbled upon James Ward when I was reading "Curious" by Ian Leslie, in the context of learning about his Boring Conference (which is anything but). Leslie dropped this book title in his text, and I immediately put it on my to-read list, though it took me a couple of months to get to it as I was working through many other books on my list.
I've said this for a couple of books recently, but I'm glad I get to say it again -- reading this was a transformative experience for me. It not only taught me a massive amount of information about the origin of very commonly used items, it left me thinking about much deeper things like: why don't we take more time to learn more about things so integral to our lives? Why do we write so many things off as mundane or trivial or boring, when the truth is that we simply haven't learned enough about those things yet? I can see why Leslie recommended Ward's work, because it really allows you to extend your thinking on the topic of curiosity and understand the need for broadening horizons and nurturing the desire to know.
Nothing we have in this world would have been created without people who were open to discovering the magic in everything they encountered.
Organizationally, Ward divides the book (for the most part) into a chapter per object: Paperclips, Pins and Clips, Pens, Paper, Pencils, Erasers, Postcards, School-Specific Supplies (i.e. rulers, protactors, etc), Highlighters, Tape, Business Cards, Post-its, Staplers, Filing Cabinets/Systems, and then concludes with the advent of technology in the digitization of stationery.
The writing is incredibly accessible, and in addition to being innately interesting, Ward is also excellent with his perfectly-timed pop culture references, and perfectly placed humor. He's a joy to read.
Just as Leslie's book led me to Ward's, Ward led me to add the following texts (referenced in his book) to my to-read list:
- How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics, by N. Katherine Hayles
- Paraphernalia: The Curious Lives of Magical Things, by Steven Connor
- Natural History: A Selection, by Pliny the Elder
- The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective, by Carl Sagan
November 8, 2024
This book was a random library find - I was literally just wandering the aisles, and this happened to be on display in the nonfiction section. I found this capsule history of office supplies absolutely delightful. It appealed to me on a bunch of different levels: as someone who loves stationery and desk supplies; as someone who is very into vintage; as someone who enjoys history.
We take for granted the items found amongst the detrius of the office desk, but I was surprised to find that it's not as ubiquitous as we think: there are American versions, European versions, Japanese versions, of basically everything: pens, pencils, tape, staplers, standardized paper, thumbtacks/pushpins, glue, business cards, even vertical files! Apparently the US rejection of the metric system has put us at odds not only in weights and measures, but also in standardization of paper sizes and holes punched. I have personal experience with this from my time in grad school in Europe (learning the A sizes and why everything has 5 holes instead of 3), but I never really considered that Americans were the outliers. I guess because so much of American culture is distilled around the world.
Anyway! This was a fun, easy read, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who has ever pondered where Post-It notes really came from, or the history of the humble ruler, or the marketing wars over Moleskine (and moleskine) notebooks.
We take for granted the items found amongst the detrius of the office desk, but I was surprised to find that it's not as ubiquitous as we think: there are American versions, European versions, Japanese versions, of basically everything: pens, pencils, tape, staplers, standardized paper, thumbtacks/pushpins, glue, business cards, even vertical files! Apparently the US rejection of the metric system has put us at odds not only in weights and measures, but also in standardization of paper sizes and holes punched. I have personal experience with this from my time in grad school in Europe (learning the A sizes and why everything has 5 holes instead of 3), but I never really considered that Americans were the outliers. I guess because so much of American culture is distilled around the world.
Anyway! This was a fun, easy read, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who has ever pondered where Post-It notes really came from, or the history of the humble ruler, or the marketing wars over Moleskine (and moleskine) notebooks.
November 4, 2019
A charming and funny book for anyone with a weakness for office and desk supplies. Filled with great bits of trivia and amusing asides, each chapter contains the history of one object: the paperclip: white-out: Moleskine notebooks. Only one quibble - white out is made from tempera paint, not tempura. That would make it flash fried and delicious, but not so hot for covering typewritten mistakes.
August 20, 2015
There's something about the perfectly-balanced pen in your hand, or the feel of a smooth sheet of writing paper. There's something about the smell of a freshly-sharpened pencil or the fwip of a Post-it note coming off the pad. We start using stationary supplies (such a generic name) when we're in elementary school or younger, and no matter how old we become or how much technology we use, they're always with us.
James Ward provides an interesting and often humorous look at the history and design of our stationary supplies, from erasers to paper clips to the Rolodex. The book is from the UK so the humor is generally of the dry British sort. I consider this a plus. The products similarly aren't focused only on the US (a nice change) but cover UK and European inventions as well.
The history of the design decisions made - from the flat cone of a highlighter to the different shapes a stapler can produce, provides insight into the world we live in. That sounds trite, but really, it takes a special kind of person two years to create the right kind of ink in a pen, and most of us don't put any thought into it past "the line keeps skipping" or "eew ink blobs". James Ward is interested in how these decisions are made, and he makes those decisions interesting to the rest of us, thus sneakily teaching us design skills we'd otherwise lack. (You'll give your spiral bound notepad a second look when you're done this book.)
This is the kind of book I enjoyed reading, and will keep, not so much for its reread-ability but because the little facts of interest will be great fun to quote back to designers and developers at work (where I do web design) for quite a lot of time to come.
James Ward provides an interesting and often humorous look at the history and design of our stationary supplies, from erasers to paper clips to the Rolodex. The book is from the UK so the humor is generally of the dry British sort. I consider this a plus. The products similarly aren't focused only on the US (a nice change) but cover UK and European inventions as well.
The history of the design decisions made - from the flat cone of a highlighter to the different shapes a stapler can produce, provides insight into the world we live in. That sounds trite, but really, it takes a special kind of person two years to create the right kind of ink in a pen, and most of us don't put any thought into it past "the line keeps skipping" or "eew ink blobs". James Ward is interested in how these decisions are made, and he makes those decisions interesting to the rest of us, thus sneakily teaching us design skills we'd otherwise lack. (You'll give your spiral bound notepad a second look when you're done this book.)
This is the kind of book I enjoyed reading, and will keep, not so much for its reread-ability but because the little facts of interest will be great fun to quote back to designers and developers at work (where I do web design) for quite a lot of time to come.
10-thank-you-print-won-gift
February 22, 2016Update July 2015: It has arrived!! Thank you Touchstone Publishing for getting this out to me. I've taken the one star rating down and took it off my "read" shelf as explained below.
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This book looks like so much fun so I'm totally bummed, but it never arrived so I'm finally deciding to accept that it's not going to arrive according to what I've been told is Goodreads TOS, mark it as "read", one star it, and explain in the review box why it got one star to keep my GR's account in good standings.
It's not one starred for the book itself, because it looks fantastic and it's Simon and Schuster so I know it's most definitely a fantastic book. If anyone doesn't know......I adore Simon and Schuster.......so doing this is breaking my heart, but I really don't want anyone thinking I received the book and didn't care enough to read/rate/review/share it.
Thank you very much Goodreads, Simon and Schuster/Touchstone, and the Author James Ward for my winning this book through the Goodreads First Reads Program.
~*Happy Reading, Goodreaders*~ :)
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This book looks like so much fun so I'm totally bummed, but it never arrived so I'm finally deciding to accept that it's not going to arrive according to what I've been told is Goodreads TOS, mark it as "read", one star it, and explain in the review box why it got one star to keep my GR's account in good standings.
It's not one starred for the book itself, because it looks fantastic and it's Simon and Schuster so I know it's most definitely a fantastic book. If anyone doesn't know......I adore Simon and Schuster.......so doing this is breaking my heart, but I really don't want anyone thinking I received the book and didn't care enough to read/rate/review/share it.
Thank you very much Goodreads, Simon and Schuster/Touchstone, and the Author James Ward for my winning this book through the Goodreads First Reads Program.
~*Happy Reading, Goodreaders*~ :)
November 27, 2022
This book gives that odd satisfaction of knowing where your favorite stationery comes from, not just physically but, in terms of history too.
I am that guy who still relies on pen and paper when I want to organize my thoughts. Writing keep me sane. So, I do have a sacred relationship with stationery.
I have always been curious about stationery, its purpose, how they come to be, and so on the backstory of these little things that help us accomplish big things. I chanced upon this book by sheer luck. The Universe certainly was listening to me.
I love how James has traced the long history of most stationery products we use in our daily lives. The research is commendable. The writing is witty and captivating. The book has only fanned my romanticism towards stationery making me want to hoard more of them.
A great read for anyone who is still using analog stationery in the digital era.
I am that guy who still relies on pen and paper when I want to organize my thoughts. Writing keep me sane. So, I do have a sacred relationship with stationery.
I have always been curious about stationery, its purpose, how they come to be, and so on the backstory of these little things that help us accomplish big things. I chanced upon this book by sheer luck. The Universe certainly was listening to me.
I love how James has traced the long history of most stationery products we use in our daily lives. The research is commendable. The writing is witty and captivating. The book has only fanned my romanticism towards stationery making me want to hoard more of them.
A great read for anyone who is still using analog stationery in the digital era.
May 25, 2015
received advance uncorrected proof from giveaway. Thank you.
very interesting book about all things used in an office or in the family home. had some prior knowledge about Post-it notes, but did learn bunches about filing cabinets, staplers, ink pens, and hi-lighters. it is hard to imagine how we lived without such inventions in our daily lives. impressive that some of these inventions were mistakes in the formations of other products or just an accidental misuse. it seems that most of the older products where developed by European or American engineers with the Japanese influence a more recent event.
this author did a lot of research in writing his book. he must really like all things stationery. must say that the beginning chapters about clips was hard to read. information was cut and dried. however, the remaining chapters proved to be more exciting.
very interesting book about all things used in an office or in the family home. had some prior knowledge about Post-it notes, but did learn bunches about filing cabinets, staplers, ink pens, and hi-lighters. it is hard to imagine how we lived without such inventions in our daily lives. impressive that some of these inventions were mistakes in the formations of other products or just an accidental misuse. it seems that most of the older products where developed by European or American engineers with the Japanese influence a more recent event.
this author did a lot of research in writing his book. he must really like all things stationery. must say that the beginning chapters about clips was hard to read. information was cut and dried. however, the remaining chapters proved to be more exciting.
August 24, 2015
Ward is an office-supply nerd, which shines through with overflowing enthusiasm in each essay of this surprisingly informative cultural history. As much as I love going to the local stationary or office supply store, I still had to give pause every time someone asked me what I was reading: A book about office supplies. No, not a catalog, not an academic treatise about design and function, just a simple little history. And I know (I KNOW) I should have been bored with it, but I wasn't! Ward's infectious passion for the mundane and keen wit served to enlighten what would have been an otherwise DULL read. A fun, quick little read!
May 21, 2015
An interesting account of the history of all kinds of stationery. I would have liked a bit more detail but I suppose the author did have a lot of items to consider. If your idea of heaven is a visit to a large stationery shop then this is the book for you!
June 24, 2016
So disappointed. I was so excited to see a book dedicated to exploring the history of office supplies (including pens, paper, and highlighters!). But each of the three chapters I tried to read bored me--even the one that discussed fountain pens.
May 16, 2015
Read this for work, it had some interesting parts but was mostly bland. Patents unfortunately aren't that interesting!
February 14, 2017
Screw this insufferable book.
February 10, 2025
Adventures In Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencil Case by James Ward
☀️☀️⛅ (2.5 rounded down)
A delightful concept I was keen to explore let down by dry writing and structural issues.
It's clear that Ward has some humour by the occasional quip thrown in at the end of a paragraph, which makes it all the more disappointing to find this book reads like a textbook. There is little creativity or nuance in the explanation of each item; rather, we're given a dry, factual play-by-play of its history with focus on patents and variations rather than what makes that specific item so special.
There are some interesting and enjoyable connections made within, like the fact that we have liquid paper corrector to thank for MTV, and why Scotch tape is called Scotch tape, but those gems of information were totally drowned out by the bland and repetitive facts.
Breaking the book up into chapters specific to each item(s) was smart but within chapters I struggled to understand the editorial choices. Ideas didn't flow logically into one another and many segues felt forced. The pictures throughout were wonderful but the book would have improved with more thoughtful use of them.
I really wanted to enjoy this but the style let down the small amount of interesting substance that could be mined from its pages.
"Is the perceived quality of these notebooks just an example of the placebo effect? We think they're better than their rivals just because we think they're made by Italian artisans and when we discover they're mass-produced in China, we assume the worst? The irony is that people assume 'made in China' suggests poor quality, but China is essentially the birth place of paper and for centuries led the world when it came to paper production."
☀️☀️⛅ (2.5 rounded down)
A delightful concept I was keen to explore let down by dry writing and structural issues.
It's clear that Ward has some humour by the occasional quip thrown in at the end of a paragraph, which makes it all the more disappointing to find this book reads like a textbook. There is little creativity or nuance in the explanation of each item; rather, we're given a dry, factual play-by-play of its history with focus on patents and variations rather than what makes that specific item so special.
There are some interesting and enjoyable connections made within, like the fact that we have liquid paper corrector to thank for MTV, and why Scotch tape is called Scotch tape, but those gems of information were totally drowned out by the bland and repetitive facts.
Breaking the book up into chapters specific to each item(s) was smart but within chapters I struggled to understand the editorial choices. Ideas didn't flow logically into one another and many segues felt forced. The pictures throughout were wonderful but the book would have improved with more thoughtful use of them.
I really wanted to enjoy this but the style let down the small amount of interesting substance that could be mined from its pages.
"Is the perceived quality of these notebooks just an example of the placebo effect? We think they're better than their rivals just because we think they're made by Italian artisans and when we discover they're mass-produced in China, we assume the worst? The irony is that people assume 'made in China' suggests poor quality, but China is essentially the birth place of paper and for centuries led the world when it came to paper production."
November 5, 2023
Ward is a pleasant writer with a quirky sense of humor and not too shy to insert the obscure reference. (He says foolscap is "the only traditional paper size to be name-checked in a Brian Eno song as far as I know.")* As with so many non-fiction books these days, this originated in a blog, but he's made the transition to book form less awkwardly than most. One trouble is, though, that the significant differences in common office supplies, or at least their names, in the UK and in the US can make the book hard to follow for American readers. Certainly I'd never heard of a "desk tidy" before; I'd never even heard the term "tidy" as a noun. Same with drawing pins, the biro (okay, I knew that one), and even Blu-Tack: in my life, the most common such product was white, and we called it "poster putty." So there's a significant amount of translation and understanding from.context to be done. Some differences in the familiar boggle the mind, though. Ward says that some of the desks at his primary school (i.e., elementary school) still had inkwells — in the 1980s.
With those differences in mind, this is a fun, discursive book that has a lot to teach anyone, breezily going through the surprising history of the graphite ("lead") pencil and of Liquid Paper (I knew the one-sentence outline, which I won't spoil for those who don't know, but Ward was able to fill in a lot of the story that I had never heard). It can be read quickly and with pleasure by anyone nerdy enough to be interested in its subject matter.
* I'm not too shy to show off, either. The song is Back in Judy's Jungle.
With those differences in mind, this is a fun, discursive book that has a lot to teach anyone, breezily going through the surprising history of the graphite ("lead") pencil and of Liquid Paper (I knew the one-sentence outline, which I won't spoil for those who don't know, but Ward was able to fill in a lot of the story that I had never heard). It can be read quickly and with pleasure by anyone nerdy enough to be interested in its subject matter.
* I'm not too shy to show off, either. The song is Back in Judy's Jungle.
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