The Gayest Thing Ever…

I can’t believe it’s taken me nearly 43 1/2 years, but I finally own a fucking fountain pen! A FOUNTAIN PEN! Look at it!

Granted this is a cheap version of a fountain pen, a Pilot Metropolitan Collection with a fine-point nib available for purchase at chez Amazon for only $17.50. But in the weekend I’ve had it, it hasn’t ripped through any paper or had any ink accidents. It is brass and not plastic which makes it feel a lot more permanent. And of course it is refillable which does, in a sense, make it permanent and not disposable.

I bought this because I wanted something to help me start reading again, and doing it a bit more seriously and critically. As anyone who follows me on Goodreads or StoryGraph, you’ll see that I finished the following books since the start of the month:

• Queer by William S. Burroughs
• Communions by Adam Lehrer
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

And that I have started JR by William Gaddis again.

I wanted something to help me jot things down, converse with books, and the pretention of a fountain pen I thought would be perfect. Yes, I realize I am saying that I bought a fucking pen because I thought it would help me read better. And yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds. But of all the things I have bought impetuously, this is probably one of the cheaper things I have purchased. It’s not like I purchased 15 books or anything. Um…