The Moving Finger Writes

Every person over at least the age of five has a history with pens. We cannot live without a dozen of them around the house—pens are constantly being lost, blatantly taken; pens are endlessly bought or freely given away, if not tossed away. Have you ever considered how you personally developed your relationship with pens, the layers of attitudes you have been piling up toward writing instruments? Ted Bishop’s The Social Life of Ink: Culture, Wonder and Our Relationship with the Written Word will take you on a journey from our cave-drawing days to our present keyboard and tablet-writing age—oh, and add to this social history of ink our growing fetish for tattoos and inky symbols of all sorts as well. Along the way, he will startle and enchant you. The Social Life of Ink is a great read, even a brilliant one for some of us, and—no holding back—it is definitely a book for pen lovers and crazed pen hoarders. I mean—ahem—collectors.

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