Dave,

It's nice to know I'm not the only one (and that I'm in such good company). I once drove from Providence, RI to Boston one evening before a conference started so I could check out the Levenger store and the fountain pens and paper they have there. The reaction I got from my friends was along the lines of, "Did you have to drive to Boston for pens?" Some people just don't get it, I guess.

Thanks for the link to incompetech, I know I'll get some good use from it.

I hope your trip was productive, and worth the aggrevation I know you had face in the airports, etc.

If they have to understand the question Brett they won't understand the answer!

Loved the link, although nothing beats Levenger's notepads for me. When I want to celebrate a milestone in my life, or to enjoy a little "retail therapy" to soften a milestone I'd rather forget, Levenger's is my first stop. I have also used Colorado Pen Direct for refills for my Tombow pens (that Levenger no longer carries).

Viv and I a walked into a meeting with an HR manager at a government department in NZ recently. On her table she had a whole assortment of post-it notes, highlighters and pens.

I knew immediately that we were going to get on... As it turned out, she had been an organisational consultant in the past.

Perhaps there's just a really strong correlation between organisational consulting and stationary fetishism. Is it really any different from handymen getting excited in hardware stores, or computer geeks by the latest network monitoring software?

I share your passion, tho most of my notepads were left untouched and I had a storage of them, just as I have drafts of good papers untouched these days :)
I survive with italian leather Filofax, Cross fountain pen and a couple of diaries.

I am Gary and I switched from the personal size to an A4 Filoxfax last year because it takes a variety of loose pages. Some people may not know this story: The building containing the office of Filofax was bombed in WW2. There remained only burnt-out rubble. At that time buyers were mainly Military, Clergy, Doctors, Lawyers etc. Grace Scurr (sp), originally the Temporary Secretary and was the Manager. She had made a copy of all customer details in her own Filofax which she kept with her. She was able to contact customers and continue the business until she retired in 1970s.

Is this the secondary function of the blog and forum - a support group for stationery addicts? (As opposed to stationary addicts, who are reluctant to move).

I'm reassured that I'm not the only person to have all sorts of notebooks - most of mine A5 - but refusing to buy into the Moleskine fad. There seems to be a network of Moleskine pushers who just don't understand that it doesn't work - I'm a promiscuous stationerist.

Although my favourite is still the handmade notebook I found in a little gallery/giftshop a mile above Dundrum in Northern Ireland.

Latest Word Processing: Setting new standards in the Office segment, by Faber-Castell at
http://www.faber-castell.de/docs/index-news.asp?id=14507&domid=1010&sp=E&addlastid=&m1=10329&m2=20551&m3=24486&m4=14507