11:25 AM, 5/17/12
Here’s a nice review of HOW TO SHARPEN PENCILS that was published on the New Yorker’s blog:
The tension between the desire for perfection and the need to live in a world in which perfection is impossible is a covert theme in the book, and Rees’s frequent allusions to the analogous relationship between an imperfect pencil tip and an imperfect life seem both goofily ironic and utterly sincere.
Many thanks to reviewer Mark O’Connell for his thoughtful response to my work!
11:20 AM, 5/14/12
Greetings from North Carolina! My pencil-sharpening tour is just about done. Thanks to everyone who came to the events in Durham and Asheville — they were really fun!
This Friday I’m doing a final event for the HOW TO SHARPEN PENCILS tour. Joining me will be John Hodgman and Jonathan Coulton.
You can buy tickets for the event here.
I’m tired! I’m gonna take another nap!
10:01 AM, 5/12/12
Hello, blog readers from the internet! I’ve been so busy on my pencil tour that I forgot to let you know that I’m recapping a new reality food show on Bravo called “AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 PLATES.”
The first recap is here:
Over at the Drapers Arms, Red Team announces they have temporarily changed the name of the pub to British Love, American Pride (!?!). The British patrons, to their credit, are openly furious.
I guess that’s it for today’s installment of my blog.
5:35 PM, 4/26/12
Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of speaking to a class of second graders about my pencil-sharpening business. These kids GOT IT. They UNDERSTAND what I am DOING.
I showed them photos of antique pencil sharpeners in my book:
We reviewed the parts of a pencil:
I even let them look at some of the sharpeners in my toolkit!
Overall it was a very nice visit. The only thing that made me mad was when one of the kids asked how much I charge per pencil; I said, “How much do you think I charge?” and one kid yelled, “Five dollars” and I made a pained noise. Then another kid said “One dollar?” and then some wiseacre said “twenty-five cents?” I raised my voice over the din and said, “FIFTEEN DOLLARS PER PENCIL!”
I sharpened a pencil for the class and bagged the shavings and told them to charge other classes a quarter to look at it and to send me the money every Friday.
3:46 PM, 4/21/12
Here’s my latest Pencil-Sharpening tour recap, including my encounter with an electric pencil-sharpener salesman and sharpening my 500th pencil!
Let my visit to Salt Lake City serve as a parable about the importance of keeping a positive attitude even as your dreams are ground into black powder by a universe conspiring to destroy you …
6:02 PM, 4/19/12
Hi everybody who reads my blog! I’m in Salt Lake City, Utah in a fancy hotel!
The latest recap from my nationwide pencil-sharpening tour can be found here.
In other news about HOW TO SHARPEN PENCILS, here is a comprehensive, disarmingly sincere interview I did about the project.
And here is a video made by the good people at VICE magazine:
11:39 AM, 4/16/12
Literary Festivals, erotic Christian fiction, Southern Comfort, and more … it’s all here in this recap!
4:29 PM, 4/13/12
I’ve been hired by myself to recap my pencil-sharpening tour. Here’s the first recap!
12:17 PM, 4/4/12
One of America’s top pencil bloggers has written a comprehensive review of HOW TO SHARPEN PENCILS:
There are great illustrations that are genuinely useful, if you wanted to understand your pencil and your sharpener down to a science. Graphics like “Irregular pencil points — a taxonomy” shows you five results of an improperly sharpened pencil. He goes into some detail to explain how to avoid pitfalls that result in these types — this is actually useful, people!
I’m getting very excited for my nationwide pencil-sharpening tour.
Talk to you soon — on my internet blog!
4:05 PM, 3/29/12
Hello, blog readers!
I’m happy to say that my new book HOW TO SHARPEN PENCILS will be published on April 10! Can you believe it? I almost can’t.
Friends, this exhaustive pencil-sharpening manual is a valuable addition to the craftsman’s home library and will be the definitive guide for generations of pencil enthusiasts. It features a foreword by John Hodgman, lovely photographs by Meredith Heuer, and 18 chapters, including:
- SHARPENING A PENCIL WITH A POCKETKNIFE
- PSYCHOLOGICAL RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH PENCIL SHARPENING
- MASTERING CELEBRITY IMPRESSION PENCIL SHARPENING (CIPS)
The book is based on my experiences running ArtisanalPencilSharpening.com for the past two years, in which time I have sharpened more than 475 pencils for clients around the world! (If you’re one of those clients, thank you for your business!)
Here are some computer links for pre-ordering the book from robot bookstores:
ORDER ON AMAZON!
or …
ORDER ON BARNES & NOBLE!
or …
ORDER ON POWELLS!
(Of course, it is my preference as an artisan that you buy the book from your locally sourced bookseller.)
To promote the book, I am embarking on a NATIONWIDE PENCIL-SHARPENING TOUR. More information about this tour will be forthcoming.
For now, I hope you will consider ordering the book! Need I say it makes a lovely gift?
Many thanks for your interest,
From your friend with the blog,
David Rees
http://www.mnftiu.cc
http://www.artisanalpencilsharpening.com
