Absolute Admiration.

Sure, all a writer needs is a pen and some paper, but Ellina T. (@ellbrt), a student living in France, finds far more joy in the writing process when she has one of her beloved fountain pens in hand. “A fountain pen really becomes a part of you the more you use it and take care of it. That’s why I’m so attached to my collection,” she says. Ellina pulls out one of her 20 fountain pens to take notes in class, but where the ink really pours is in her “commonplace book.” “Historically, a commonplace book is a way to record what a person learns and reads throughout their life,” she says. “My notebook contains all the things I find interesting in life or online — quotes from books, recipes, interviews with people, Spanish words, programming language syntax, anything. It’s my personal reference book.” She also writes down ideas that pop into her head and paints or sketches the things that surround her. “I put no limitations on things that can go into my notebook. It’s an ‘anything and everything’ notebook for me.”