The Gentleman Stationer community has grown steadily over the past four years, with lots of new readers reaching out every week. This is awesome, by the way, and I love hearing from all of you! One question I frequently get from new readers is "where to start" on the blog. I've been writing here regularly since 2014, so there's a lot of content to navigate. I've played around with the idea of putting together a "Master List" of pens and inks I've reviewed, but that's turned into a rather large project that's still in the works as I try to figure out the best way to do it in a way that's both easy to navigate AND easy to update.
Start with the Guides and Move to the Archives
For now, if you're new to The Gentleman Stationer (or the pen hobby in general), I'd recommend that you start with the various lists and guides I've assembled over the years, including my "Best Pen" and "Best Ink" recommendations for various purposes and at various price points. These will likely be updated in the coming months.
I also maintain an archive of past posts listed in reverse-chronological order (most recent posts listed first), which has been fun to read since it's organized by month, and you can go back and see what pens and inks I started with and how my interests have evolved. Finally, last year I wrote a monthly newsletter titled "Digital Divide," which addressed a variety of analog-related topics. All of these newsletters are now archived on the site. I'm currently working on a couple of different projects along the same lines, including a new monthly newsletter, but I'm struggling with the "not enough hours in the day" problem. Stay tuned.
Finally, all readers of this blog should be aware of Pennaquod, a pen-specific search engine run by Ian Hedley over at Pens! Paper! Pencils! Pennaquod pulls results from several dozen pen blogs (including this one), and it's a great way to read a diverse set of reviews on a pen before you make a purchase.
I hope this little recap has been helpful, and please, don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. Feel free to contact me through the "Contact Me" link on the site, through email at joe (at) gentlemanstationer.com, or via Twitter (@vintagegntlmn) or Instagram (@gentlemanstationer). For all of you who have been been with me for four years, thanks again! I enjoy writing here every week and plan to continue for the foreseeable future!