A brief look at the wide variety of beautiful and ornate writing utensils all presented in this one-of-a-kind full color volume! All kinds of pens are presented in their comprehensive book, together with a historical synopsisfrom the goose quill to the fountain pen and the BIC of today. The selection is rounded out by references to contemporary and cultural history, as well as interesting essays on the themes of rarities, accessories, luxury brands, design, collector's conventions, dealers, clubs, and international contacts. Regardless of whether you are looking for something for the writing desk or for the display cabinet, with "The Ultimate Book of Pens," readers are best equipped for their next rip to the stationary store.

Proving that any subject can be interesting if you delve into it deeply, stationery aficionado James Ward offers a surprisingly entertaining history of office supplies. Did you know that Henry David Thoreau contributed to pencil manufacture? Or that the Monkees' Mike Nesmith inherited $25 million earned by his mother's invention, Liquid Paper? Or that Norwegians wore paper clips as a symbol of resistance to the Nazis? Ward, who blogs on I Like Boring Things, unearths the magic in the mundane, relating the often-convoluted stories behind the creation of paper, pens, pencils, paper clips, staples and tape. Don't expect business case studies of 3M or the Parker Pen Company; Ward is a cultural connoisseur who tempers his enthusiasm for the stationery cabinet with full awareness of its absurdity. getAbstract recommends his informative, memorable and fun essays to anyone who ever borrowed a Sharpie from the office or made a necklace of paper clips.

If you have always wanted to excel at drawing, then The Complete Guide to Drawing & Illustration is for you. All you need is a pencil, a bit of blank paper and the expert guidance you will find within these pages. This book is designed to systematically teach you the essentials of drawing and lays the groundwork for you to develop your own personal drawing style. • Hands-on course in drawing and illustration, suitable for beginners and improvers alike • Practical, step-by-step, easy-to-follow exercises and demonstrations • From simple object drawing, move on to tackle all aspects of our environment, people and animals • Sketching and observation, materials and theory, tips and techniques - everything you need to know to create original artworks, cartoons and illustrations • More than 1,000 illustrations

Master the power of influence and persuasion to achieve more in work and life For business leaders and managers, as well as those who work in sales, the power of influence can be a potent advantage. The ability to persuade others based on what you know about them is the first step to convincing someone to buy your product or buy into your business vision. In The Ultimate Book of Influence, author Chris Helder—a master of communication and one of Australia’s most sought after speakers on influence—shares ten essential tools that will enable you to influence others so you win the sale or seal the deal. The tools in this book will show you how to read body language, uncover what’s most important to a client, convince others to take action, understand the four essential types of people at your workplace, and much more. Written by one of Australia’s most successful speakers on the art of influence Includes ten powerful tools that allow you to understand what matters most to a client or colleague and use that knowledge to influence their actions and behaviors Ideal for salespeople, business leaders, corporate executives, and anyone who must regularly convince others to take action Before you can truly influence people, you need to learn how to communicate effectively. The Ultimate Book of Influence teaches you how to choose the right kind of communication technique for any situation, so when you speak, you know people are listening.

The Ultimate Book of Spells is essential reference for anyone wishing to take control of their lives and become confident in the art of spell making. The book includes over 250 spells and techniques, covering every aspect of life and spiritual development. Whether it is creating opportunities for love, doubling your money or protecting your teenage daughter, there is a spell for everyone. With sections on the folkloric history of magic, astrology, divination and mysticism, The Ultimate Book of Spells provides the reader with a complete background to the art of magic. The complex social and cultural influence of spells is revealed, as well as their power to enrich and transform modern lives

The best backyard experiments for hands-on science learning The Ultimate Book of Saturday Science is Neil Downie's biggest and most astounding compendium yet of science experiments you can do in your own kitchen or backyard using common household items. It may be the only book that encourages hands-on science learning through the use of high-velocity, air-driven carrots. Downie, the undisputed maestro of Saturday science, here reveals important principles in physics, engineering, and chemistry through such marvels as the Helevator—a contraption that's half helicopter, half elevator—and the Rocket Railroad, which pumps propellant up from its own track. The Riddle of the Sands demonstrates why some granular materials form steep cones when poured while others collapse in an avalanche. The Sunbeam Exploder creates a combustible delivery system out of sunlight, while the Red Hot Memory experiment shows you how to store data as heat. Want to learn to tell time using a knife and some butter? There's a whole section devoted to exotic clocks and oscillators that teaches you how. The Ultimate Book of Saturday Science features more than seventy fun and astonishing experiments that range in difficulty from simple to more challenging. All of them are original, and all are guaranteed to work. Downie provides instructions for each one and explains the underlying science, and also presents experimental variations that readers will want to try.

This summer, during these strange strange times, immerse yourself in words that have touched all of us and will always get to the core of all of us, of every single person. Books that have made us think, change, relate, cry and laugh: Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman) Siddhartha (Herman Hesse) Middlemarch (George Eliot) The Madman (Kahlil Gibran) Ward No. 6 (Anton Chekhov) Moby-Dick (Herman Melville) The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde) Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) The Overcoat (Gogol) Ulysses (James Joyce) Walden (Henry David Thoreau) Hamlet (Shakespeare) Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) Macbeth (Shakespeare) The Waste Land (T. S. Eliot) Odes (John Keats) The Flowers of Evil (Charles Baudelaire) Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë) Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë) Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy) Vanity Fair (Thackeray) Swann's Way (Marcel Proust) Sons and Lovers (D. H. Lawrence) Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy) Two Years in the Forbidden City (Princess Der Ling) Les Misérables (Victor Hugo) The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) Pepita Jimenez (Juan Valera) The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane) A Room with a View (E. M. Forster) Sister Carrie (Theodore Dreiser) The Jungle (Upton Sinclair) The Republic (Plato) Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) Art of War (Sun Tzu) Candide (Voltaire) Don Quixote (Cervantes) Decameron (Boccaccio) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Dream Psychology (Sigmund Freud) The Einstein Theory of Relativity The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Agatha Christie) A Study in Scarlet (Arthur Conan Doyle) Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) The Call of Cthulhu (H. P. Lovecraft) Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) The War of the Worlds (H. G. Wells) The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe) The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Call of the Wild Alice in Wonderland The Fairytales of Brothers Grimm The Fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen