Current WIPs and Reads | August 2023

August 14, 2023August 13, 2023 ClassicBhaer1 Comment

Hello and welcome to a little mid-month check in with the book or books I am reading and projects that are keeping me busy. I will say, I already finished a book this month…who am I?! But, I am still working on another that I believe will last me the rest of the month because it a TOME. As for projects I am, as always, working on a few.

Current Reads

American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, which is about J. Robert Oppenheimer. Yes, I did see the movie Oppenheimer and then promptly picked up the book the next time I went to a bookstore. This is a tome, but I am reading a little bit at a time and really enjoying learning a bit more about Oppenheimer. I can’t say that this is an aspect of history I really ever delved in, I never thought to look up who or whom created the atomic bomb and their stories. After seeing the movie, I became curious and as is customary, not everything can be kept in a movie so I am already seeing some information that is new to me.

Current WIPs

Completed ribbing on knitting needles on couch next to lemon themed yarn bag.

While I have about four WIPs or works in progress on the go, I am really focusing on two at this point in time. The first being Wyethia by Jessica McDonald (Ravelry | Website) This is a really nice shirt with lace along the bottom that I really would love to finish ASAP so I get some wear out of it before the weather cools off. As of writing this I am done with the lace, body, and have split for front and back. I am currently working on the back, so I don’t have a ton more to do. I am using Concept by Katia Cotton-Merino in color 59 (gray), which is 70% cotton and 30% wool.

The second project I am really just starting is my Tessellated Vest by Andrea Mowry (Ravelry | Website) for New York Sheep and Wool this year. I am using a kit I picked up from Farmer’s Daughter Fibers using pincycle Yarns Dyed in the Wool in the color ghost ranch (wool), The Farmer’s Daughter Fibers Oh Dang! in the color clay dreaming (alpaca suri silk blend), and The Farmer’s Daughter Fibers Spinster’s Daughter in the color willow creek (wool). My goal is to work on this and finish in time to actually wear it to the festival. Since I decided to work on the vest, I think I will be able to do it in time.

Thanks for Reading! ClassicBhaer.com

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Reading Challenges

2021 Mid-Year Check-In

July 11, 2021June 25, 2021 ClassicBhaer14 Comments

Hello lovely people and welcome to my 2021 mid-year check in for my goals. If you would like to see my origional post you can find that here, Reading Challenge | 2021 Reading Goals. I went kind of easy on myself this year, but to be honest the 2020 was a bit hectic in quite a few ways. I wanted to really tailor my goals to what I truly wanted and not try to compete with anyone.

Use Library Monthly

So far I have stuck to this goal very well. Even if I owned a book I used my local library to read the book digitally when on the go or used the library as my only copy of a book. I am still not comfortable going to borrow a physical copy of books just yet, so I am using their digital services at this point of the year,

Twelve Non-fiction Books

I am actually ahead on this goal, which thrills me honestly. I have read a total of 9 non-fiction books at this point. The books I have read that meet this goal are; A Promised Land by Barack Obama, Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish, The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi by Richard Grant, White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History by Tori Telfer, The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary by Catherine Gray, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein and Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde.

Read 50 Books

I am excited to say I am also ahead on this goal as well, at the time of writing this I have read a total of 42 books! If you want the most up to date read count for the year you can check out my goodreads challenge page.

This is where my goals kind of take a turn. The past few ones I have been pretty on top of, but from here on out I have made progress in almost each of the goals, but have not quite on track. Ooops.

Read International Booker Prize Shortlist 2020

The good news is I have read two books from this list, you can see a more detailed post talking about Hurricane Season and The Memory Police here: Reading Challenge | Reading a Shortlist Vol. 1 Update. The bad news is I have 4 more to read. I will say, I am glad I have 6 months to read 4 books, that is very doable and I plan on continuing to work towards achieving this goal.

Read The Farseer Trilogy & Liveship Traders Trilogy

Once again, I have read two books towards this goal. I have read the first two books of The Farseer Trilogy, which I really enjoyed so I cannot wait to continue. I do have all the books either physically or digitally to meet this goal and I plan on doing just that.

Reread The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilology

This is where I start to hang my head in shame. I have not attempted to pick up these books at all so far this year. I love them so much, but the mood has not hit me at all the first half of the year. I am hoping that this changes very soon.

Keep TBR under 10 Books

Last year I got my TBR down to 0 books. I wanted to keep my owned TBR under 10 books going forward, but I am at about 30 books as of writing this. I am not totally happy with it being this high, but I am really happy that it is not as high as it once was. This is what happens when you have some holidays, birthdays, and sales.

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Reviews

Someone Picks My Books | JJ Clapton | The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry

June 24, 2021June 23, 2021 ClassicBhaer2 Comments

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Someone Picks My Books where I ask for volunteers to pick a random book for me to read and see if I like it just as much as they did. This past May I had the wonderful JJ Clapton, who you can find over on twitter as @JJClaptonWrites as well on her website jjclapton.com. Yes, I am sorry I am late to posting this because I have been rethinking my blog a bit, but this series is one I truly love and wont to continue into the future. Anyway, I really excited to share my thoughts on this adventure of a book!

Description

For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can’t quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob — a young lawyer with a normal house, a normal fiancee, and an utterly normal life — hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his life’s duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other. But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world… and for once, it isn’t Charley’s doing.
There’s someone else who shares his powers. It’s up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them, before these characters tear apart the fabric of reality. –goodreads

What I Liked

First and foremost, I absolutely adored the imaginative aspect of this book. I mean, the ideas of book characters jumping off the pages is something a lot of us book lovers say as a figure of speech and most likely has been around for a while. The thing is, the author actually made this figure of speech seem like a reality and created a whole book around it, amazingly I might add.

This book opened up the readers in such a great manner it was a mixture of explaining and showing that was balanced really well. I felt like the author explained just enough that the reader isn’t lost, but we are thrown right into the action of the story. The writing really was just wonderful throughout. The plot was well done, the atmosphere was great, and when I read it felt like I was falling into the book just as much as the characters in this story were coming to life because of Charley’s abilities.

What I Didn’t Like

Honestly, I really enjoyed this book and I can’t think of a single thing I did not enjoy about this book.

Overall

If you couldn’t tell, I loved this book. It was imaginative and unlike anything I have read personally and on top of that was executed amazingly. I was honestly shocked to see that this was the authors first book, but very happy too see that they have others out and another one in the works. This review was hard to write because all I wanted to do was gush about it and say, how much I loved it. I will say that there are a few scenes in the book that depict a few dark things that could be triggering to some such as violence, if curious here is a list of trigger warnings. If this is something that does not affect you, I highly suggest giving this book a try. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I could not be more ecstatic that JJ Clapton picked it for me to read!

Up Next

The next installment that is coming very soon was picked by the wonderful Whitney, who you can find on both twitter as @whitreadslit and over on her blog, whitreadslit.com. She is a very kind individual and her content is amazing!

Have you read this book before or is it on your TBR?

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Reading Challenges

Reflection | Reading a Shortlist Vol. 2

August 12, 2020November 3, 2020 ClassicBhaer3 Comments

Reflection

Hello and welcome to my second check in for my Read a Shortlist Challenge for 2020, you can find more details in my post, Reading Goals | 2020 Edition. In my first check in, Reflection | Reading a Shortlist Vol. 1 I reviewed and talked about the books entitled Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann and Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. In this post I am going to be talking about the next two books I tackled on this list, which are Quichotte by Salman Rushdie and 10 Minuets, 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak. I am very excited to be talking about these two books, so without further delay, onto the reviews!

Quichotte by Salman Rushdie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Overall, I really liked this book it addressed a lot of issues in our society when it comes to both race and mental illness. I recommended this to quote a few people after reading this retelling of sorts of Don Quixote. But, it is more than a retelling, as I mentioned it address quite a few topics, but does so as a magical realism novel mixed with a couple other genres. This one really really took me for a ride, I honestly really enjoyed this read. This novel is the reason I do this challenge every year, I always end up finding a few gems and this is one of them.

View all my reviews

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I want to start off by saying that this is one of the most inventive and unique books I have read based upon the idea alone. But, this book is penned by a very talented writing and it just makes the book that much better. The first part of this book follows the 10 min. after death of a woman named Leila, who lived a very interesting life. You learn about her life through various memories that come to her in her last moments of life. It really hits home the “life flashes before your eyes” idea.

The second part discusses humility, society, and just being a decent human and how a system takes that away. How some individuals in life and in death can be discriminated against. It was a very interesting book that not only showed you the life of the characters, but also talked about society and highlighted how friendship can be such a powerful thing. I feel like this is a book I will be rereading because I feel like I can get even more out of it.

View all my reviews

There you have it, my second installment of this year long project of reading the Man Booker shortlist. I have to say that these two books were both really enjoyable, this year I am really enjoying this challenge more than I did last year. I think at this point last year I only liked 1 book I read and this time around I have enjoyed 3! Now, I have two more books to read from this list and I am very curious about them. I will be honest. I did not enjoy the Handmaid’s Tale, so I am not too excited about The Testaments, but I am very interested in An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma.

Liked: 3

Hated: 1

Have you read either of these books? Are either of them on you TBR?

Sign Off 2020

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Reviews

Someone Picks My Books | Basement Bookcase | A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

June 24, 2020November 3, 2020 ClassicBhaer4 Comments

Someone Picks My Books

Hello and welcome to another one of my Someone Picks my Books post! This month Melinda over at Basement Bookcase has picked my read. This month I was given the task of reading A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, which you most likely got from the title of this post. Now, this is very far from what I normally read. It is the start of series, it’s young adult, and it is fantasy. Now, I do enjoy high fantasy, but I am very finicky when it comes to this genre. Going into this book I was both excited, but worried to say the least.

Book Description

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive. –goodreads.com

What I Liked

First off I would like to say, I am surprised it has taken my this long to give this book a go. I have been blogging for years and this is well loved by many. I have thought that this book is based on a very interesting idea of there being multiple versions of the world, specifically London where some are filled with magic. That is one thing I will give V.E. Schwab a lot of credit for, this idea was thought up by someone with a very entertaining imagination.

The world building on this book was spot on and I felt like it really set the scene for the rest of the series. Not only did Schwab create various versions of London, they came up with a system for traveling between them. Everything they created was unique and intriguing. I kind of wish that there was even more of this because I enjoyed it so much.

Also, I will openly admit I am a sucker for magic being present in a book. If it is even hinted at in a blurb or description I am most likely going to pick it up. As with the world building, the magic is very unique and I loved the way it was used in this book.

What I Didn’t Like

The one thing that stood out to me was I did not care about the characters in the slightest. While reading I was just indifferent and along for the ride. I was more invested in the world created by Schwab than the various people. For me, this is a bit of a bummer because I read more so for the people than anything else. But, if you read for the world building, you will not be disappointed.

Overall

Overall, I felt that this book was average for me. Not amazing and not bad at all, it was just in the middle. I enjoyed the world, but I was not invested in the plot or the characters. I was just someone following along. Now, this could be because as I stated earlier I don’t read a lot of YA anymore and I am annoying specific when it comes to fantasy. I really did enjoy the world building in this novel and I feel like Schwab has a lot of talent when it comes to this. I will say I am happy that I gave it a try and finally read it. I always had the feeling of “Fear of Missing Out” when it came to this series, now that question has been answered. Thank you for picking my book Melinda!

3stars

Next month I am reading a book that is picked by Tay one of the duo running Frayed Books! I am really looking forward to her pick and to find out if I will like it or not.

Have you read this book before or is it on your TBR?

Sign Off 2020

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Reading Challenges

Reflection | 2020 Goals, 6 Month Checkin

June 17, 2020June 1, 2020 ClassicBhaer8 Comments

Reflection

Hello everyone and welcome to my 6 month 2020 goals check in. I cannot believe that wee are halfway through 2020 already. Anyway, I am going to keep this short and sweet and just get into the goal. The thing is I wanted to give you a bit of a heads up. I am writing this blog post in advance so my numbers might be a tad bit higher in real time.

The List

Read a shortlist: Man Booker 2019
- The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, Not really excited about this one…
- ~~✔️Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann~~
- ~~✔️Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo~~
- An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma
- Quichotte by Salman Rushdie Owned
- 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak Owned
Read 50 books, 55 books read.
Read all backlisted books, 46 books in all. Down to 10.
Read 30,000 pages. Read 20,068 pages so far.
Read 16 nonfiction books. Read 8 so far.
Read 16 books from the library. Read 7 so far.
Read a book from each continent
- ~~✔️North America: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett~~
- South America
- ~~✔️ Europe: Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky~~
- Asia
- Australia
- ~~✔️Antarctica: The Magicians by Lev Grossman~~
- Africa
Read a book recommended by Joe Hill or Stephen King
- The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard
- Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman Purchased
- Brutal Youth by Anthony Breznican
- Frankenstorm by Ray Garton
Read a Shakespeare play a month, you can join the fun by going to the goodreads group 2020 Shakespeare Challenge Group.
- ~~January: A Midsummer Night’s Dream~~
- ~~February: Othello~~
- ~~March: Hamlet~~
- ~~April: Macbeth~~
- ~~May: The Taming of the Shrew~~
- June: Twelfth Night
- July:
- August:
- September:
- October:
- November:
- December:

Reflection

I read two of these books and did a review here:Reflection | Reading a Shortlist Vol. 1. I picked up two more I am veery excited to get to. Two I still need to buy or get from the library. One I am really not looking forward to it The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. I read the first book and I did not like it at all. I am technically a little behind on this one, but I am not too far behind.
Did it!!
I only have 10 more books to go, so I am very excited about that, I thought I was going to have a lot more left on my TBR.
I am more than halfway to my page goal, yay! This is always the goal I am more worried about since I can’t just read short books, manga, or graphic novels to just pump up my numbers. I need to put in the reading work for this one.
I am exactly at the halfway mark for reading 16 non-fictions books. I am really happy to be on track for this one. I have been really in the mood to learn lately and I feel like I will have this goal done very soon.
With everything going on with a pandemic, my library was closed for a very long time so I was not able to borrow from them too much. I could request ebooks, but the ebook waits have sky rocketed since that is the only option for many people. I am not too worried about this goal though since I am not too far off.
I am halfway through this one so I am very much on track. I also have the 3 books in mind I am going to be reading. So, I think this is another “win”.
I picked the book I am going to read and purchased it, I just need to get my butt in gear and actually read it.
As for this year long challenge I am very much on track. I was kinda worried I would have given it up at this point.

How are your goals going?

Have you decided to change any of yours or introduce new ones?

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Reviews

Someone Picks My Books | Evelyn Reads | Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

May 27, 2020May 26, 2020 ClassicBhaer6 Comments

Someone Picks My Books

Hello and welcome to another one of my Someone Picks my Books post! This month Evelyn over at evelynreads.com has picked my read. I was very excited when she picked this months pick because I have read other works by this author and really enjoyed it and I have seen many others have loved this book. I guess I should tell you that the book is Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. This is the first adult book I have read and the longest book I have read by this author so I am curious to see is her talent flows into this age group and length.

Book Description

Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story.

Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math.

Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realise it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet.

Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own.

Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained. – goodreads.com

Review

I decided that I am going write this post more like my traditional review format where I talk about what I liked and didn’t like and then my overall feelings.

What I Liked

As with other works by Seanan McGuire the worlds she creates is very imaginative, but this is imaginative in a very different way than the there works I have read by her. One of the standout things in this book for me is the mixture of alchemy and science. While I have read quite a few books with these aspects in them, I have never seen them combined in such a way. It was refreshing and interesting, part of my wishes that I saw more of it.

Also, if you know me science fiction isn’t really my thing…like at all. I don’t know what it is, but I am unlikely to enjoy a book with science fictions details in it with a few rare exceptions of 11/22/63, Jacky, and a few others. I have to say that this book also makes that list for me. I think the reason that it does make it on that short list is because it has an old world feel to it, which I love. It is almost like a spooky gothic modern science fiction book? It is really hard to pinpoint what this book truly is because I feel like McGuire melds together so many things so seamlessly.

On top of everything I also mentioned I found it really interesting the “rules” of this world when it came to particular characters interacting as well as the “government”. I felt like a lot of these aspects were shown and not told to me, which was great. Sometimes books that have such “out there” things in them the author can come across as if they are showing an unknowing child something. McGuire just goes through the story and you don’t miss anything.

What I Didn’t Like

One of the things I did not fully like about this book was that in the start I felt like one section of interaction could have been cut and not a ton would have been lost. This is just a personal thing and I feel like a lot of people enjoy seeing these sections interactions. They are still written in a really enjoyable manner and I didn’t feel like I had to seriously push myself to oread them, but I did find myself going “again?”

Overall

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I am so happy that Evelyn picked this for my to read because honestly, while I enjoyed McGuire’s other works I am fairly certain I would not have picked it up. That is the beauty of this series. This was a very imaginative book with a very gothic/dark/old world feel to it that I was craving. On top of that it was well written had great characters.

Next month I am reading a book that is picked by Melinda at Basement Bookcase!

Have you read this book before or is it on your TBR?

Sign Off 2020

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Let's Talk

Let’s Talk | Personal Reading Sprints with ASMR

May 22, 2020May 22, 2020 ClassicBhaer18 Comments

Let's Talk

Hello and welcome to a bit of a different post. I have not don’t a discussion post in a long time and I felt like doing something a bit different since I have not really been reading as much as I normally do. Anyway, my last post Challenge | One Week Reading Before Bed I talked about how I did a reading challenge where I read every night before bed. Well, I felt like I should share something else as well.

For the past few years or so, I have really fallen in to love a specific type of ASMR video. I don’t mean the food eating, sand cutting, and stuff like that ASMR, I am talked about ASMR Ambience. I love ambience and background noise any time I doing something, I really don’t enjoy the silence. So, when I came across this genre of videos I was really excited. For me, this is great to fall asleep to, get stuff done, but also the perfect method to set up a reading sprint for myself.

A lot of the videos I watch are around an hour, for me this is the perfect amount of time for a reading sprint. Putting on one of these ASMR Ambience videos I know the amount of time I have for a task or in this case reading. Also, it is great when you can find one that fits the setting of your book, it really ads to the experience. Now, when I use these videos for a reading sprint I don’t need to keep track of the clock or get startled out of my book by an alarm.

While reading it is a great experience for me. I don’t get distracted by sounds around my room or home. It also keeps those I live with away, they can hear I have these videos on and it is a signal at this point that I am busy. These videos allow me to just focus on my book, which is the whole point of a reading sprint in my option. But, as I mentioned before it can even pull you more into reading if you can find one that can go with the world you are falling into.

When the video is done and my hour long sprint is over, as I said I am not startled out of my book. Things just go silent. For me this is a lot more beneficial to my reading experience. If I am in the middle of a sentence, page, or chapter. I can finish without having to rush to turn off an alarm that is getting louder and louder as I try to ignore it. These allow me to find a natural stopping place, which I always need to stop at. I can never stop reading in the middle because I will forget my spot.

Anyway, this is my experience and I thought I would share it. I feel like this has made a good impact on my personal reading habits and experience.

My Favorite ASMR Ambience Youtube Channels

Do you participate in reading sprints?

Do you listen to ASMR?

Sign Off 2020

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Reviews

2020 Shakespeare Challenge | March

March 29, 2020March 27, 2020 ClassicBhaer4 Comments

Shakespeare

Hello and welcome to the third installment of the 2020 Shakespeare Challenge, you can find my original post with an explanation here: Blogmas | Goals | 2020 Shakespeare Challenge. I have been really enjoying this challenge more than I thought I would have, but here we are, three months into the challenge and I was looking forward to giving Hamlet a try, something I really didn’t think was going to ever happen. Also, if you want to see what reads are coming up and what books I have read to can check it out in the goodreads group 2020 Shakespeare Challenge. Now, on to Hamlet!

The Book

This month was the very popular play of Hamlet, I feel like this is one of the more popular and referenced plays from my own personal experience. It is also a tragedy, up until this point I have been reading his comedies so, this could be interesting. Anyway, Hamlet was written around 1599.

My Review

While I have read Shakespeare before, I have never read so many so quickly before. I am beginning to notice a few things I am not too keen on. Why is it that Shakespeare always wants to punish a woman for loving? I get it, it is the time period, but isn’t there something else you can try to write about? I know that love and loss are always great plot lines when it comes to plays, but his ideas are becoming a bit too repetitive for my personal liking.

This is a very dramatic play with quite a few deep feelings that many can relate too. The thing with this play is that they are very amplified. There is quite a bit of passion in this story. We have loss, revenge, anger, dishonor and quite a bit more. This truly is a sad play. You watch a young man in grief become more and more erratic and many around him begin to question if he is truly alright.

This is murder and death, accidental and planned. There are plots within plots. This play really has a lot going on. I just wish some of these characters just talked to one another and weren’t so impulsive, a lot could have been avoided. While I know that wouldn’t make such a tragic play, but I think it would have made a better story personally.

Also, without really spoiling anyone I had to reread a few times how the ghost says he dies… that is the most interesting cause of death I have ever heard.

Overall, I don’t regret reading this play. Did I love it? No. Was it my favorite? No. Did I absolutely hate it? No again. I did enjoy the creepiness and the exploration such deep feelings, even if they were exaggerated for the sake of the play. This was very average in my book.

Next months pick is Macbeth, which I kinda of think will have about the same rating as Hamlet. I don’t know what the outcome will be, but I am very much willing to give this a shot. I just need to keep an open mind and hope that Hamlet doesn’t put a damper on future plays.

https://twitter.com/BookishLuna/status/1238938824186658822

What did you think of this play?

Which play should I add to the monthly polls?

Sign Off 2020

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Bullet Journal & Planning

Bullet Journal | Testing White Pens

March 25, 2020March 14, 2020 ClassicBhaer3 Comments

Hello and welcome to a little discussion/testing bullet journal supplies, this time around I am testing different white pens. I know for me personally I always use a white pen to cover up mistakes or add some highlights to a doodle I added. I feel like the white pen has a lot of uses. I was using my go to one a gellyroll and I wondered to myself, is this one really the best? So I decided to compare a few of the ones that ones I see more frequently. Now, on to the white pens!

The Pens I Am Testing

Gelly Roll
Uniball
Pilot G2
Sarasa Clip

I just want to point out for the sake of this little experiment that I am using my Olive & Archer notebook. So, how a pen interactions with the paper will vary some depending on the color and type of paper. This is just my experience with the notebook I use.

As you can tell on the picture above I tested four different whjte pens in this experiment. I decided to write with them on white paper and then try and write on top of blank ink.

With the first part of this experiment, just writing with the pen you can see some show up more than others. The uniball and gelly Roll really hold their own in this regard, even on white paper you can still make out the writing. The other ones just dissapear to my eyes.

The second part of this experiment for me is the most important. I tend to use my white pen over areas I have already written on to either correct or decorate my bullet journal. For this test I just added a line of ink and let it dry for about 3 min., following this I decided to go over the area a few times. As you can see from the picture above, most of the white pens tended to lift the ink a bit. The only one that did not mix with the ink under it seemed to be the uniball pen. I was quite surprised since my previous go to with the gellyroll pens, but after this experiment with the ink I use the paper I use, it seems that uniball is the one that works best for me and my uses.

I suggest giving these a go in your own bullet journal and seeing what works best for your circumstances, but here are the results I have found for me personally.

What is your go to white pen?

Is there a different one that you use or a different one I should try?

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