When a friend sent a link to show me a desired calligraphy pen at an online vendor I was impressed that a place with such a large stock of this specialized merchandise existed. A second surprise happened when I looked at this stores contact information and I found they were located in the city I work in. A few days later I trekked there for a look in person.
I didn’t know if they had an actual storefront so before going I checked and found reference to some clearance books being “next to the door”. That’s all I needed to see since where there’s a door there is a way in. I’ve not seen the door that can keep me out yet (unless it is locked or heavy or had a confusing latch that I couldn’t make work)!
John Neal, Bookseller does sell books on drawing, calligraphy, typography, bookbinding, and more. Beyond that they carry the things you need for binding your own books and creating lovely lettering. All this is packed into a small, funky warehouse like environment that zigzags through the first floor of an old commercial building. It’s not really a “store” so to speak but they still let customers wander around and look. I had fun pulling books off of the shelves in the narrow nooks and the staff was friendly and helpful.
It’s probably more convenient to order off their web site and you are not missing out on any memorable retail experience but seeing a small, hospitable business firsthand at least made me happy. I took a few quick snapshots to share the experience and the claustrophobia with you.
Not too long ago Karen at Exaclair sent me a Quo Vadis Habana notebook to use and, if inclined, relate my thoughts on it. A few words about them before I get any further: Via their blogs, tweets, and other social media presence this company has proven itself to really care about its customers and their feedback. No, I’m not just saying that because I want another notebook. How could you even think that about me? Humph.
I must admit that I was pretty sure how this review would go before I sat down to write it. The Habana notebook pictured uses Clairefontaine paper in it which has been my favorite for years. The paper is smooth to write upon and, important to us fountain pen users, bleed and feather resistant.
The problem was I’m a procrastinator and I didn’t get to writing this entry until just about everyone had already reviewed this notebook doing a much better job of it than I could (like my friend Clem did here). Realizing I needed to come up with a different way to review the notebook, as to not tread over the same old ground, I sat and did my best approximation of thinking. Obviously I needed to push the envelope and do something different, new, and never attempted before. I had to drop the usual paper quality, ink penetration, and binding construction stuff for new frontiers.
Well, if I’m not reviewing the Habana on how it works traditionally as a notebook then what should this newly-styled iconoclast do? Thinking “push that envelope” led me to decide to see how the notebook worked in ways that people not as cutting edge as myself would think of.
At this time from behind me came the loud and rhythmic noises of the dog breed often called the “furry boulders that snore”. That seemed as good a place as any to go for my unique take on this review. However, as you can see, the Habana Pug Pillow didn’t meet with the approval of Snuffy, pug stationary tester. Also it was hard to clean drool off of. Back to the drawing board!
Snuffy did not approve of the Habana as pillow.
I made a nice, hot cup of tea to sip on as I thought more. Suddenly I had a flash! It was my tongue burning form the hot tea! A few medicinal ice cubes later I really had an idea as you can see below.
Covers flopping open made the Habana tea tray awkward.
Alas, the Habana Tea Tray was not roomy enough to use and got soggy when tea was spilled. Back to square one.
Liking the utilitarian track I was following my next brainstorm was so simple it bordered on not being stupid! Here’s something I could get a lot of mileage out of in my review: the Habana Window Prop! Oh yea, I would go on about how great this was for holding my windows open, creating ventilation and the like. No one has even come close to mentioning that in a review! This was sweet!
The Habana window prop had problems on rainy days.
The major failing here is that we’ve had rain for two days straight now. Remember the soggy comment a little while ago? Unluckily I realized it was time to move on once again.
The idea that there might be a productive, non-traditional twist on this all drove me to go deep, deep into the genius that is my mind. Well, deep is relative and I think shallow genius ain’t nothing to sneeze at. After all, an ant thinks a puddle is an ocean! Sadly, and predictably, this feverish activity went nowhere. I needed to take my mind off of all this and so went about repairing things I had broken trying to repair them earlier. It was while at this another eureka moment occurred!
I never got a clean cut with the Habana saw.
Well, Habana Saw didn’t work out and the bias-cut it made was just awful. I guess I shouldn’t have hitched my philosophy to ants.
I wrote off the idea of finding some use for the Habana and went the opposite direction: totally useless. Being quite the expert at that idea flooded in. Happily that idea had to do with how attractive the basic black Habana was so certainly it should be where people could see it… maybe if I move that vase over there we might have something.
It didn't really work as an objet d'art.
The Display Only Habana just never really *merged* with the décor and caused people make comments like “where’s your vase” and “why the hell do you have a notebook here”. Not an astounding success.
So, I gave up and went back to what I wanted to avoid: a typical review. I will make this brief so you can escape from here quickly. The Quo Vadis Habana has a number of features I do like very much. First is the Calirfontain paper which is the usual high quality, bright, smooth substrate you find in items branded under that name. As always this paper is a fountain pen’s friend with only the slightest feathering and bleed thorough.
The look and feel of the cover on this notebook is quality. It’s soft but firm with the logo embossed on the front and the name on the back. A pocket is on the inside back cover which is very handy when you have receipts in your pocket taking up space but you can’t see anywhere to throw them out. The elastic band that holds it all together is pretty standard as is the ribbon that marks your current page.
The binding is quite interesting in that the spin is very soft and flexible. Most of the back of the book block isn’t glued to the sine so it can lay pretty flat. I did notice that one end did have the spine glued down but only in a small area. I think this is where the ribbon is attached. No matter, this is a nice book to open and spread apart.
The images below show how it reacted to my little writing test so click on them to see the big picture.
The size is larger than what I’m used to but I do like the extra real estate. It will fit into my backpack easily and when on your lap for notes offers a more stable platform for writing.
In the end I’m a fan of this notebook and happy to have gotten a chance to see what it can do if motivated to be all that it can be. I don’t see many negatives other than the ribbon can fray a bit and you can’t use it as a frying pan (that experiment I didn’t document due to the fire.) Although I keep calling it the “Havana” by accident it’s certainly straight forward in all other ways. Just remember it works best as a notebook.
Some mentions I heard of bookbinding recently brought back to mind something I wrote to illustrate a trick I learned years ago. It’s certainly not a secret and it may be taught now in bookbinding classes. Since this is a recycled post it has the benefit of quickly filling some space in my too little updated blog.
What’s great about a sewn hardcover binding is that they can lay flat since since the spine of the book case and the binding edge of the block do not adhere to each other. When you open a book like this there’s a gap so the book block can bend flexibly. In a perfect bound book you find that the spine is glued directly onto the block which means there’s a lot of resistance to it laying flat.
Two commercial binding systems (Otabind and RepKover) try to combine the ability of a hardcover book to open and stay flat with the cost benefits of softcover binding. What I did by hand is basically the principle they use.
A couple important notes: use high quality binding glue that is flexible. White glue is great but not ideal for binding. I used a cold set glue and not a hot melt which is kinda brittle. I used a nice thick, strong textured paper stock for the cover since the hinge has to be able to hold up to being creased and bent a lot. Speaking of creases a nice scoring knife is a handy thing to use here. My old instructor had ones made out of bone he swore by. Use a good quality fabric for attaching to the spine which is also known as mull or super cloth (no, it can’t leap tall buildings) so the glue can penetrate it properly. Last, you’ve got to have a book press or some kind of vise apparatus to get a good binding.
The theory is simple behind this: We’re going to glue a wide strip of cloth to the book block’s binding edge and then glue the edges of that cloth to the inside of the cover. We will leave an area extending out from that binding edge unglued.
1. Make a book block. I won’t go into details of this since it’s standard stuff. You lightly roughen up the binding edge, if I remember. Make sure you get good glue penetration. Let the block set and dry in the press.
2. Cut the cover and score the hinges so the spine fits snugly over the block.
3. Cut the super so it’s extends 2 cm or so wider than the block on both sides.
4. Put a thin layer of glue on the binding edge of the block and center the super onto that. Use a roller or something to really get the glue to penetrate. Let it dry. It may have been that this step was done when gluing the binding edge in step one above while that glue was wet. Memory fails me.
5. The block is inserted into the cover.
6. You put a thin layer of glue the outside of the super sticking out about half of its width and attach it to the inside of the cover. Wax paper or something might come in handy as an insert since some glue will ooze out. Be careful of the ooze!
7. When it’s dry that’s about it.
The books I did are from 1993 and still are holding up. Disclaimer: I’m not an expert at bookbinding nor do I know if this technique is a good one for you. Also, these books were trimmed further *after* being bound so they got a nice clean edge and any excess glue or the like was removed.
Here's the old book. I'm not trying to be pompous with the title. The publication I worked on in College was called "Generation Magazine". For this book I went back and found old poetry and fiction I liked from it. This was a typography class project, actually.You can see the super cloth attached to the inside of the cover here.This shows how it works when you open the cover.Another view.It lies pretty flat.
I love to cook and I love to try new recipes from different cultures and countries. Learning about these different cuisines is fun and the pièce de résistance is making something that doesn’t make anyone turn green and double over. Of course I know that my endeavors may not taste authentic especially since I usually have trouble obtaining spices or ingredients you just can’t find in my gastronomically challenged area. Nothing gets in the way of my trying to make tasty things, however.
Until recently I kept myself busy with Indian, Pakistani, Spanish, Mexican and whatever other dishes caught my attention. Food from the Southwestern region of the U.S. is also great and might as well be foreign here (unless you count Taco Bell as food). Even with that track record I never thought that I’d be making dishes from a place that a year ago barely registered on my cooking radar.
This all goes back to what some friends of mine call “that Philippines thing you have” with a bit of befuddled amusement. What they refer to is that through my hobby of using and collecting fountain pens I’ve made friends with a number of Filipinos who have shared (or have been prompted by my incessant questions) a litany of information on their culture and food. Armed with this I usually spit out facts at a rapid fire pace when anyone gets snarky about me knowing people on the other side of the planet. “Did you know we were at war with the Filipino people and were de facto colonial rulers?” “There are over 7100 islands in that nation.” “Manila is both a city and a metro area made up of a number of cities with over 11 million people. It’s the 11th largest metropolitan area in the world and one of the most densely populated.” “Yes, they speak English there but also Tagalog and a number of other regional languages.” By the time I get to that point everyone is usually politely excusing themselves before being bored to death and leave me in peace.
Nonetheless when presented with a new culture or place I always go for the food. I learned early on that a food called adobo in the Philippines is not the Hispanic dry seasoning or tomato based sauce we are used to here. Over there it is a vinegary stew with pork, fish, or chicken as the meat component. So I looked up some recipes and discovered one thing after another about cooking Filipino staples. For example: Everything has a name I can’t remember. I have trouble remembering what things in Spanish are called and I’m a lot more familiar with that language. Additionally there are a lot of vegetables I’ve never heard of which pop up on ingredient lists. Bitter melon? Can I use any melon since I’m a bitter man? Using authentic cane or coconut vinegar when cooking this stuff really helps the flavor. See? You got one real tip out of this and you thought you were wasting your time.
The best part is that I like the dishes I’ve cooked a great deal. It took me two tries (and the aforementioned vinegar) to get the adobe to taste decent so there is a learning curve. Liver is something I seem in the minority enjoying in these parts so finding it in dishes such as menudo (not the same stuff we are used to here redux) and caldereta put a smile on my face (arteries say “no comment”.) I made a sugar free version of a baked meringue dessert called brazo de mercedes as well. Afritada and arroz a la cubana I’ve made with no regrets but major problems with getting up after eating.
What made this all possible was a few more of those kind presents that I accumulate from people who for no known reason send them to me. Yay for cookbooks directly from the Philippines! It is hard not to be incredibly grateful for such wonderful food enablers.
Two indispensable cookbooks from Leigh.
If there ever was a contest for the person who has put up with my curiosity for the longest time then the lovely and mega-talented Leigh would have been crowned Miss Answer Stupid Questions 2008 and 2009. She was the first to generously share her store of knowledge to satiate my many inquiries about her country. She also told me what adobo was then sent me a whole book of adobo recipes! Yep, there are a lot of variations. I’m making my next recipe (embutido) from the other cookbook pictured, which covers a wide swath of Filipino cuisine. It’s another wonderful resource Leigh sent.
Hazel supplied this incredible book on food and society in the Phils.
My friend Hazel is another pug owner, avid fountain pen user and art collector but also a witty cultural resource. The book she sent me is an amazing amalgam of history, society, food, life, and more. It’s a fascinating book that really gives a feel for the way people lived in many regions of the Philippines. It also has more words that I don’t understand than a physics textbook. Still, there are some recipes included that I’m eyeing even if I have no idea what some of the ingredients are.
This beautiful book was Jenny's doing.
The item pictured last isn’t a cookbook but it’s a book I love. This is a pictorial panoply of the Philippines which has helped me visualized much of the beauty there. Taking the time to find and send this to me for no reason other than the fact I was curious is another example of unconditional giving I certainly don’t deserve. Jenny, who sent this, is yet another incredibly sweet person and I normally never, ever say that about anyone since I’m a curmudgeon and try to dislike everyone. I wish I could end here but this book had greetings and signatures in it from other folks I know there. Made me have to walk outside to regain my grumpy demeanor.
The first thing I say about my experience with those I know in the Philippines if asked (and before I get to the stuff intended to bore them away) is “they are way, way too nice.” I hate to say anything so hackneyed as “I live a richer life because I know them” but it certainly is true I eat richer food now. Oh, there’s lots of liver in many things I’ve made. Did I mention that?
Update:
Here’s the embutido I made. I certainly loved making and eating it.
