Make: Fun!
by Bob Knetzger
Maker Media
2016, 254 pages, 8 x 9.7 x 0.4 inches

Buy on Amazon

The first thing that struck me about this collection of toy and game projects from former Mattel designer Bob Knetzger was how many of my favorite projects from the pages of Make: magazine were his. Bob has contributed to the magazine for over nine years, and this collection represents a best-of from that run (with some original projects as well). WINK’s own Mark Frauenfelder (founding editor-in-chief of Make:) also contributes the book’s introduction.

Make: Fun! features full step-by-step instructions for some 40 projects. They range from the very simple, fun, and ephemeral, such as the actuated “Ouija Be Mine” Valentine’s Day card and “Gnome Holiday Hats” to a classic “Diving Spudmarine” bathtub toy to more elaborate builds, such as constructing your own “Kitchen Floor Vacuum Former” and building a “Desktop Foundry.” Some of my favorite projects include the “Monster Candy Snatch Game” (think: Operation), the “E-Z-Make Oven” (think: Mattel’s Thingmaker), and vacuum forming your own “Tiki Masks.”

Make: did a really nice job on the production of this book. The projects are well photographed, in full color, and the instructions are well laid out and easy to follow. And there are fun little “gimmicks” that serve the playful spirit of the book (a flip-book animation on the page edges, QR-code videos for some of the projects, and colorful templates and paper project components in the back). You can see the videos, view the templates, and find out more on the book’s companion website. I cannot imagine an imaginative, industrious kid (of any age) getting this book and not wanting to dive right in to building a number of these projects. – Gareth Branwyn

BABA YAGA’S ASSISTANT – A PSEUDO FAIRYTALE THAT BLENDS PRESENT WITH MYTH

Baba Yaga’s Assistant
by Marika McCoola (author) and Emily Carroll (illustrator)
Candlewick
2015, 136 pages, 6.2 x 8.8 x 0.7 inches

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I have long been a fan of Emily Carroll’s distinctive art style, which I was first introduced to in the video game The Yawhg. Her beautiful illustrations fit perfectly with Marika McCoola’s wonderful pseudo-fairytale about a young woman named Masha. Masha feels out of place after her grandmother passes away and her father remarries a woman who has her own daughter. So, when Baba Yaga puts out an advertisement for an assistant, Masha decides to leave and try her hand at working for the terrifying witch of Russian folklore. Masha will have to use her wits and memories from her youth to thrive in her new profession.

The story blends present with myth and memory, and these different moments are beautifully conveyed in Carroll’s pictures, with different styles for each storyline. For example, when Baba Yaga’s bear attacks Masha, she recalls fairytales from her childhood in order to figure out how to dissuade him from eating her. The style or art changes, with the panels outlined with geometric designs, and the internal images appearing as abstract watercolors. Later, when Masha remembers moments from her past, the images are frequently rendered in duller colors, creating a hazy appearance that appeals to our sense of what memory “looks” like. At other points, the panels spill over into each other, pushing the story quite literally from one section to the next.

My favorite thing about the book is Masha herself, who is plucky enough to stand up to Baba Yaga, and independent enough to pursue her own path. McCoola expertly weaves together folklore with a more modern spin, creating a fairytale for the modern world, and Carroll’s lovingly rendered illustrations only add to the enchantment. If you’ve ever wanted to run away from your life and become a witch (or a witch’s assistant), this is the book for you. Curl up on a rainy day, and enjoy a story that makes you wonder where you’ve been and imagine where you might be going. – Julia Pillard

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

Practical jokes made practical

Stuntology

Pranks you can use. Stupid tricks, dumb gags, and funny routines. Liberate your inner 12-year-old with this handdrawn manual. — KK

Low-tech sand castle construction manual

Sandcastles Made Simple

In case you haven’t noticed, sand castles have become very elaborate and sand sculpture a new art form. Building them is a complicated business. We’ve used the simple methods here to build sandcastles we can be proud of without too much equipment. In our experience the most important part is finding a beach with suitable building sand. For the rest, follow this book and/or DVD. — KK

Most beach trips I would sit and read while my wife played around in the sand building castles. This year, I found a great resource that had me building sand castles and sculptures that stopped every passerby on the beach.

The Sons of the Beach Sandcastles Made Simple book showed me how to build high-reaching towers and arches by hand, without any buckets or forms. Their tool set was perfect for giving professional looking details. Their optional DVD makes it even easier to learn their technique.

The first week I had their book, I built a 48″ tall light house, several castles (one with a monorail train), and a snowman (they teach you how to make snowballs out of sand). Many people asked me how many years I’d been doing sand sculpture!

The book and DVD teach “hand stacking.” This is a process of scooping a big handfuls of completely saturated wet sand and plopping them on top of each other. By jiggling the sand just as the excess water is running out, it fuses the new plop with the previous ones creating a stable tower.

These folks also discuss and sell large forms (5, 3, 2 foot diameter) which can be used for large competition sculpture, but that was more than I wanted to carry down to the beach. — Chris Evans

Circus resources

Doing Circus

Circus is a physical art-form that can engender a sense of control just as any type of athletics or dance training can. However, unlike most physical disciplines, circus has a place for almost any physical type. It’s one of the few places where I’ve seen short powerfully built women valued for their bodies. The circus is associated with the carnavelsque, so it’s a great way to have a party or to disrupt social patterns. And circus is also a lot of fun.

Circus is still mainly an oral tradition. Moreover, for certain of its disciplines it is confined to very particular places that can rig the necessary equipment and safety devices. It would be, for example, impossible and probably immoral to write a book describing how to learn the flying trapeze. There are plenty of books and resources for learning the object manipulation arts, eg. juggling, stick spinning, plate spinning, diabolo, etc. A good place to start with these would be Juggling Information Services. However, most serious folks quickly move back to oral traditions.

I think the best value however, if you have the time, are youth circus programs. Many big cities have non-profit programs that teach circus to youth. Many of these programs will offer volunteers instruction in the circus arts. The American Youth Circus Organization has a directory of youth circus programs.

I personally have not been too interested in the professional schools. They are more like the graduate programs.

Of course, working for a circus is not a bad way to learn either, and the way that most people, historically, have learned the trade. — Forest Gregg, co-founder of Runaway Circus

Teach new riders how to balance

Skuut Balance Bike

Balance bikes teach balance before pedaling. Learning to pedal is easy if you know how to balance. Learning balance is fairly easy, too. But learning them concurrently is hard. With a balance bike instead of a trike or a standard bike with training wheels, it’s much easier for a child to learn the balance, steering dynamics and handling required to ride a bike. My son, at 2 1/2, can go at least a mile on his Skuut bike, and is learning all the skills he’ll need, so that when I get him a normal bicycle, with pedals, he won’t need training wheels.

The design of a balance bike is brilliant—it’s actually similar to the design of the first bicycles (velocipedes) that had no drivetrains. The particular brand of a running or balance bike for kids is not of much concern. Cool Tools previously featured the Likeabike, which was imported from Europe and lovingly crafted, but notably expensive. You can find cheap $50 metal balance bikes these days, but we use the current wooden standard Skuut which is good enough quality for $85. — Elon Schoenholz

Extreme Pogo Stick

Flybar

When the guy at the bike store first told us about the Flybar, he said “Man, that thing bounces twenty feet!” It doesn’t, but I understand why he exaggerated. The Flybar has an amazing Boing Factor. Instead of a standard spring, it uses rubber-like bands which make the bounce feel more like a trampoline and can give you a real workout. It’s bulky, but sturdy. You can adjust to handle adult or kid weight. My 13-year-old son saved up for months to buy one and he’s never been sorry, because when he takes it to the local park, the little kids stare at him open-mouthed and the big kids try to keep their mouths closed and hide the fact they’re staring. It’s expensive, but until everyone has one, you will be the most awesome novelty on your block. Yeah, it’s dangerous. You should wear a helmet. Pads would be a good idea. But skateboards, mountain bikes, trampolines, and see-saws can be dangerous too. And fun! — Jay Allison

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

A home budget that makes sense to me (YNAB)

For years I’ve tried to keep a home budget, but it never seems to work. I end up spending more than I budgeted in some categories, less in others, and I don’t keep good track of what I’ve spent. When our Cool Tools podcast guest Lillian Karabaic recommended something called You Need a Budget (YNAB), I decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did. YNAB’s websites and mobile apps are excellent, as are the podcasts, videos, blog posts, and mailing lists they produce. It took me a while to wrap my head around the YNAB method, but now that I get it, I’m a true believer. For the first time in my adult life, I feel in control of my finances. — MF

High-leverage philanthropy

I’ve been making micro-loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world via Kiva for 10 years. I loan small amounts (less than $100) to, say, women in Africa hoping to buy a sewing machine to start their own sewing business, or herders in Bolivia needing some equipment to make cheese, and soon enough they will repay the loan so that I can re-loan the money again to someone else. I’ve gone through 4 cycles of loans for my first money, and there is less than 0.1% delinquency — a rate any bank would die for. 100% of my money goes to helping the individuals I select; Kiva’s operating costs are funded separately. The money keeps going around. It’s one of the best bargains in the world. — KK

Salary Transparent Street

Salary Transparent Street shares videos of people on the street being asked, “What do you do?” and “How much do you make?” It’s humbling and (mind-boggling!) to imagine how I would survive in the Bay Area on certain salaries across the U.S. The channel’s goal is to promote pay transparency across the United States, close the gender pay gap, and increase diversity and equal opportunities. You can follow it on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok. — CD

Online notary service

Notarizing documents traditionally requires visiting a notary, but I’ve been utilizing online notary services for the past few years to avoid this hassle. All that’s needed is a laptop with a webcam. There are numerous online notaries available; my recent choice was Notarize.com, which charges $25 to notarize a single document. — MF

Equipping students

Few things in life are as satisfying as getting handwritten thank-you notes from school kids for helping them learn. DonorsChoose is a non-profit that features thousands of public school teachers seeking basic school supplies, or extra gear for special projects (rocket kits for science!). The teachers post their pitch. You choose a project. When it gets fully funded, they post verification pictures of the kids using the resource which your funds provided, and later they’ll send you a fistful of amazingly detailed (and endearing) letters from the students themselves. You’ll want to do this. — KK

Zelle payments

I use PayPal to send money to strangers (like on eBay or Etsy); I use Venmo to pay friends; but if I need to send a lot of money (more than several thousand $$$), I use Zelle. Unlike Venmo, which holds a reserve in your account that you replenish, Zelle is basically a bank-to-bank wire transfer – for free. But the interface is person-to-person. Still can’t do it internationally, but it is very handy for larger peer-to-peer payments in the U.S. Easy to set up. — KK

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Get the book

Everyday Genius shows that there’s no such thing as “photographic memory.” Having a good memory is a skill — and six-time U.S. memory champion Nelson Dellis shows how to improve yours.

Core Principles

Genius Is Trained

In 2009, Nelson Dellis had an ordinary memory. Then he watched Alzheimer’s disease take his grandmother’s memory away. He decided that would never happen to him. He found a memory champion willing to teach him the tricks of the trade. Today he holds six national championships and two Guinness World Records. His message: what looks like genius is the result of training.

Memory Is the Foundation

Every skill in this book — fast reading, quick math, effective problem-solving — depends on memory. Dellis uses three simple tools to keep everything straight: pictures, associations, and something he calls the “memory palace.” These are the same techniques the ancient Greek orators used to memorize long speeches.

Focus Is the Multiplier

Your brain can’t multitask. It switches from one job to the next, and switching slows you down. But you can train your focus. A few minutes of meditation, slow breathing, and the discipline of finishing one thing before you start the next will get you there.

Break Impossible Questions into Answerable Ones

Someone once asked physicist Enrico Fermi: “How many piano tuners work in Chicago?” Fermi didn’t know the answer, so he broke the question into smaller ones. How many people live in Chicago? How many of them own a piano? How often does a piano need tuning, and how many can one tuner handle in a year? His guess was remarkably close to the real number. It’s a trick worth remembering the next time a problem looks too big to tackle: break it down into pieces that you already know or can look up.

Try It Now

1. Walk through your house in your mind — the front hall, the kitchen, the stairs. Now place five things you need to remember in five different spots along that path. Later, take the same mental walk, and you’ll find them waiting for you. Memory experts call this a “memory palace.”
2. The next time you’re introduced to someone new, don’t just nod and forget. Build a quick mental picture that ties their name to their face — the stranger the picture, the better it sticks.
3. Set a timer for 25 minutes. Put the phone in another room. Work on one thing, and only one thing, until the timer rings. You’ll be surprised how much you get done.

Quote

“I would forget things just like anybody else. And I trained this skill. I learned it from another memory champion and practiced the hell out of it until I was able to do it.” — Nelson Dellis, interviewed on Here & Now, March 2026

Book Freak is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run Recomendo, the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, and Book Freak.

Each year I update this post on the best cheap hotel chains in the USA, but I use the JD Power & Associates survey that covers all categories as the source. (Ritz-Carlton and Waldorf-Astoria are tops overall if that’s your income level.) With the four largest hotel corporations having more than 110 brands between them, we could all use a shortcut. The winners in each category from the bottom were Microtel, Tru by Hilton, Hampton by Hilton, Hyatt House, and Drury Inn. The worst score of all went to OYO Hotels, which you’ll find bad reviews for all over the world.

New UNESCO World Heritage Sites

UNESCO recently announced its latest batch of sites added to their lists for this year and you can see them all here. Some are not much to look at, the “heritage” being the key factor. Some are well-known though, like Mount Olympus in Greece, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, and Sarnath Buddhist temple in India. There’s a tilt to modern buildings in this round and I’ll be seeing one entry soon: “Tashkent Modern Architecture.”

Where You’ll Get Triple-taxed to Visit

It has unfortunately been a return subject on here this year: new taxes and fees popping up for you to stay in a specific country or city. Europe has led the way, with Edinburgh being the most recent one: as of July 24, you’ll pay an extra 5% per night on your room. While we understand the dual motivations of tempting revenue increases gleaned from people passing through and the hope that fees will deter overtourism, these charges are on top of plenty more. There’s the destination tax already included in your airline ticket, the hotel or rental apartment tax you’re already paying, and other local taxes levied for rental cars, restaurants, taxis/rideshares, and tours. Here’s a full rundown of new ones this year.

Oldest Bar in Every State

If you want to get a drink in a place that has been around for a century or two, this rundown of which bar is the oldest for every U.S. state will give you a destination. To the best of my recollection, I have only been in two of them. One in a historic mining town in Montana, the other a couple of blocks from my first apartment in Nashville, TN.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

PHYSICAL

• Walking Pad: MERACH W50. I tried using a walking pad while working. It was fine during calls, but deep work while walking did not work for me. Then I made a rule: I can watch Netflix only while walking on the pad. That worked much better. I now easily reach 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day, and quite often more than 15,000.
• Battery-Free Luggage Scale. We usually check one or two bags on family trips. I am also the person who really does not want to pay an overweight baggage fee.
  A luggage scale helps us check the weight before leaving and see whether there is still room for souvenirs. The problem with my old scale was the battery. Once, it died right before we left for the airport. This one has a tiny hand-powered generator inside. You push the button a few times, and it creates enough power to weigh the bag. No batteries and nothing to charge.
• Tapo Smart Plugs. I do not like using the ceiling light in my home office. Instead, I have several lamps around the room. The light feels warmer and makes the office much nicer to work in. The annoying part was walking around and turning every lamp on and off. I connected them to Tapo smart plugs and grouped them together. Now I can control all the lamps with one tap in Apple Home or by saying, “Alexa (or Siri – I have both), turn on the office lights”.

DIGITAL

• Spark Email. I have several email accounts for different purposes. Connecting all of them again every time I get a new device is annoying. I use Spark on two MacBooks, an iPhone, and an iPad. I connect my accounts once, and Spark syncs them across my devices. When I replace or upgrade a device, I do not have to set everything up again.
• The Curious Procrastinator Newsletter. This is a weekly read about behavior, some of the psychology behind it, and useful technology. It mixes interesting ideas with personal stories and dry, self-sarcastic humor.

INVISIBLE

Answers are hidden in action, not thinking.

Many times, I do not know what to do. Sometimes I am not even sure what I am doing. But I have learned that I usually do not find the answer by searching or thinking longer. I find it by starting. Works every time.

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Feathers: Displays of Brilliant Plumage
by Robert Clark
Chronicle Books
2016, 176 pages, 7.6 x 9.5 x 0.8 inches

Buy on Amazon

We live in a world of backgrounded miracles, entire worlds of wonder and beauty that we either can’t see or stopped noticing a long time ago. Look closely at the wings of a fly on your window sill, stare into a bisected piece of fruit, or look carefully at a growth of mold on a dish. Millions of such micro worlds surround us, breathtaking examples of design, engineering, and evolutionary artistry. When we bother to look.

Feathers is a photographic examination of one such overlooked natural wonder, the lowly bird feather. A single bird has thousands of feathers, of different types, and there are some ten-thousand species of birds. Feathers takes a broad view of the evolution of the bird and its feathers while focusing its lens on the plumage of 75 or so notable species. Each species gets a few pages, with one or two impressively photographed feather close-ups and a brief explanatory text.

This book reminded me a lot of Rose Lynn Fisher’s BEE (which I loved). Both books are minimal in content and feel, but that only helps to narrow and maintain your focus on the world under examination. The text in Feathers doesn’t try to tell you everything about the species of the bird and feather that you’re looking at, but the bits of fascinating science it does contain are probably far more memorable. Like BEE, I felt like I got to peer into a world I don’t normally see and came away greatly enriched by the experience. You can’t really ask for more from a book. – Gareth Branwyn

WARREN THE 13TH AND THE ALL-SEEING EYE: A NOVEL

Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye: A Novel
by Tania del Rio (author) and Will Staehle (illustrator)
Quirk Books
2015, 224 pages, 7.8 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches

Buy on Amazon

A gloomy, nine-story mansion, perched on a plateau in a desolate countryside. A trench-coated, top-hatted visitor stands in an illuminated doorway, a tiny, frog-faced boy dwarfed by this imposing figure, as he stands on a checkerboard-tiled floor, the scene ringed by an ornate, circular frame. Taking up two pages, his aunt and uncle sit at a very long dining room table. The boy’s aunt accuses him, a black word balloon contains the word “Liar!” in calligraphic script. The boy uses the reflection of an algae-filled basin to read the mysterious page of a handwritten journal, its letters written in ornate, backwards cursive.

Warren, a peculiar-looking child with a toad-like face and a luxurious head of hair, is the 13th descendent of the founder of the now-decrepit hotel where he lives with his lazy uncle and mean aunt. Hidden within the walls of the rundown hotel is the All-Seeing Eye, a mythical treasure. Rumors of its existence brings untold numbers of treasure hunters to his family’s hotel, including a mysterious lodger covered in bandages. The nine-story-high mansion begins to be ransacked by these new guests, its furniture toppled, its floorboards pulled up, its carpets unraveled, all in the search for the treasure. A pale spectral girl lurks in the hedge maze, and a strange tentacled creature dwells in the boiler room. Warren’s only friends are Chef Bunion, and his tutor, Mr. Friggs, but his circle of new friends begins to grow in unexpected ways. A colorful cast of characters include witches, pirates, ghosts, librarians, perfumiers, and chefs.

Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye is a lovely book with a foil-embossed cover, nearly every page containing red and black line engraved illustrations that look as though they were pulled from an antiquated reference book from a dusty library. “The ugly boy with the big heart and beautiful hair” meets several intriguing characters, who often aren’t what they appear, and navigates a compelling storyline, strewn with puzzles and clues. Ominous black pages hint at arcane goings-on, and they’re topped with backward, spell-like chapter headings. As the plot twists and turns, descriptive passages weave an atmosphere filled with the scents and flavors of zesty beef goulash, the feelings of dread, excitement, loneliness, and ultimately triumph. It’s a delightful page-turner. – S. Deathrage

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

Japanese pen store

Jet Pens

Japanese pens are simply the coolest pens on the planet. Whether for writing notes, manga, or drawing, Japanese pens are the best. The finest are .18mm while the widest are brush pens that will allow you to practice your kanji. They also come in colors that will never see the inside of a Staples or and Office Depot.

The best place to get them is a web site called Jetpens.com. Given the exotic character of the merchandise, the prices are fine, but the extras, such as Japanese stationary, erasers, pen holders, and notebooks are simply amazing. Where else can you buy erasers that are also a game of balancing the erasers in an ark on your desk? And the colors, ranging from yellows and pinks to the office standards, are just awesome.

In the end, it is a very cheap way to gain a bit of understanding of a very different culture, while also getting some really cool pens. — Michael Aaron Dennis

Like many others I have an unhealthy obsession with office supplies, especially mechanical pencils. I’m always looking for the perfect pencil. JetPens.com offers a great selection of mostly Japanese pens, pencils, highlighters and supplies. Many of the name brands they offer are familiar in the U.S. (Pilot, Pentel) but you won’t find any of these at your local office supply store. JetPens also carries the hard-to-find Uniball Paper Clipper and Clips – a reusable paper binding system. — Amy Kahle

Affordable and reliable technical pen

SKB Pens

This is the only pen I have owned that is suitable for writing technical notes. It has a .5mm point, which allows me to write small details such as subscripts and fractions. It is a ballpoint so it doesn’t bleed which is an annoyance I’ve encountered when writing small details with other pens. It doesn’t gum up as my Zebra ballpoints tended to do and so is suitable for drawing diagrams. It can write continuously without drying up and flows well over the paper. Most .5mm pens I’ve used dry up after writing for a while and are so sharp that they end up scratching the paper.

It’s also affordable. Unfortunately, while it only costs $1 a pen there is only one supplier in the US (that I’m aware of) and you have to buy twelve pens at a time.

You can buy it in black, blue, red, purple, or green with a .5mm point. You can also get it in black with a .7mm point. — Daniel Woelfel

Freeflowing fountain pen

Lamy Safari Fountain Pen

Most fountain pens are appealing for their authoritative weight and the prestige of pushing an antique technology around the page. However, the Lamy Safari pen (designed by Wolfgang Fabian) re-thinks the fountain pen with comfort and accuracy in mind. It comes with a sturdy ergonomic grip similar too, but not as comfy as, the Dr. Grip. The pen is also made out of plastic making the weight (and cost) much less than a traditional fountain pen.

The Lamy weighs in at a meager $20 with ink costing about $2 to $5 dollars a bottle. The Safari is also frugal on ink; it runs a much smaller and tighter line than many pens meaning that the ink dries faster on the page, but do beware using ink from a different pen in the Lamy can clog it. You can see the ink cartridge at all times because a small part of the casing has been hollowed out.

Finally, the refillable cartridge snaps into place in the pen and is refillable through the pen’s stylus hence you don’t have to take everything apart when you want to refill (you do have to unscrew the top of the pen to get to the cart’s screw, but not the bottom) and also eliminating that first air bubble you get when placing traditional carts back in the pen. The plunger is operated by a screw action on the top making it easy to hold the pen in place while you refill it. It is also available as a left-handed version.

Lamy also sells other pens with a similar design and grip if you’re looking for a more expensive or stylish pen, but despite the Safari’s minor flaws (I had major problems the first day getting it to write consistently until I watered down my ink) it’s quickly replaced my old Picasso pen for everyday scribbling. I now own two Lamys, using one for correcting tests and the other for everyday writing. The over-sized clip is also a bonus as it’s less likely to get bent out of shape by clinging to pockets, belts, etc. —Andrew Jones

Best everyday pen

Pilot G2 Gel Pen

Gel inks flow smoother than ballpoints, lay heavier ink on a fine line than roller balls, yet are less fussy than fountain pens. Once exotic, gel pens are now my everyday carry. I rely on Pilot G2 retrackable gel pens. They have never leaked over 10 years of carrying them in my pockets and backpack, don’t smear, are lightweight and cheap. The 07 has a pretty crisp fine line for writing or drawing. I now find other pens insufficient and will always take the trouble to locate one of these. I buy them by the dozen.— KK

World’s thinnest line pen

UniBall Signo Bit 0.18mm Pens

World’s thinnest ballpoint pen…thinnest possible lines you could ever write. It’s quite fine. It has some sort of special ink for reducing friction so it won’t clog. It’s not super-flowy like a normal gel pen but it allows you to make sharp and precise short lines, which is what I suspect it was designed to do (i.e. for writing Japanese characters (see circle in picture with writing between lines of text), or alternatively adding fine details into drawings). I think it’s pretty cool. — Tim Hong

Quality fountain pen ink made in the USA

Noodler’s Inks

I’ve been using Noodler’s inks in my fountain pens for at least six years. The basic Black is my favorite ink of all time, dries fast, and is utterly impervious to water or erasure once dried on paper. The Fox Red is also a favorite. Expensive, but very cheap in comparison to disposable ballpoints, and much better for the environment. —David Derbes

Though I am only a recent convert to the world of fountain pens, I have been really impressed with the Noodler’s Bulletproof Black Ink. When I first got started I tried a number of inks including some from Lamy and Parker only to find my writing would fade and wash away with the slightest hint of moisture. I decided I needed something more permanent.

My research paid off when I discovered Noodler’s Inks. Noodler’s ink is all made in the USA. I’ve been impressed with the amount of information they provide regarding the various qualities and properties of their ink. As far as their ink goes, it’s great. The black ink that I use isn’t as richly black as others, but it certainly holds up to the bulletproof claim when faced with the elements (water, sun, etc). In terms of ink flow, I have found the Noodler’s to be perfect for my needs (although the ink is only one half of the equation, the nib being the other). I use a fine nib, and have never had a problem. I will point out, though, that this is variable from ink to ink (and nib to nib) even from the same manufacturer.

Noodler’s Ink is sold in larger volumes (88 ml vs 50 ml, in most cases) but at a lower cost per unit volume when compared to other brands. The one bottle of Bulletproof Black I bought doesn’t look like it will be running out anytime soon in the next few years.

Finally, Noodler’s produces a range of specialty inks with different classifications including fluorescence, forgery resistance, and archival fade-resistance to name but a few. I highly recommend poking around their website to learn more. — Oliver Hulland

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

Reading Maps plots the routes characters travel in novels and films — you can trace the Pequod’s ocean path as it chases Moby Dick, or Victor Frankenstein’s pursuit of his monster from Geneva to the Arctic. Hundreds of journeys are mapped so far, sortable by setting (Sea, Overland, River, Rail, Survival, and more), and each one breaks the story into stops you can follow one at a time: where a ship or train left from, and what happened there. Since the stops follow the plot, the site will happily spoil the ending if you haven’t finished the book. — MF

Track days since things

I use the Countdown Days Since & Until app to track how long it’s been since health and beauty appointments so I know when it’s time to reschedule — I’m really bad at remembering to get my hair cut. I also use it to count down to vacations and anniversaries, occasionally opening the app to see how many weeks or days or even hours are left, and it’s nice to get a little surge of anticipation as the time between things shortens. After using the free version for years I finally paid $4.99 to unlock extras like adding photo backgrounds to certain events. Unfortunately, this particular app seems to be iOS‑only, but any simple “important dates” tracker would be useful. — CD

Wikipedia entry nearby

I find it entertaining to see what is listed in Wikipedia nearby to wherever I am. On any device that knows where it is (like a phone), load this NearbyWiki page, and it will show on a map all the nearby items that have a Wikipedia entry. Most are places, but occasionally it gives you something unexpected. — KK

My fountain pen paper and ink

Some of you have asked what paper and ink I’ve been using with the fountain pen I wrote about last week. Both were recommended by the woman working at my local art supply store: a Leuchtturm 1917 120gsm notebook and Noodler’s Nightshade ink. The heavy paper handles wet ink — no bleed-through, no ghosting, and the nib glides. The ink is a purple-blue that shades nicely on the page. One warning she gave me: Noodler’s bottles come filled almost to the brim, so open it over the sink. I took her advice and I’m glad I did — it was full to the top. — MF

Coders using AI

All my friends who years ago stopped writing code themselves are now using Anthropic’s Claude to write code for them. This 20 minute tutorial put out by Anthropic is basically the course they use to train their own coders on how to use Claude (to make future versions of Claude). It’s the best tricks they know on how to tell an AI to code for you (aimed at those who already know how to code). — KK

Better than my Instagram feed

We’ve recommended the Seek app before, but lately I’ve been spending more time on the Observations page of the iNaturalist website, which shows a live stream of sightings from the full iNaturalist community rather than just my own Seek scans. You can filter the stream by species, location, and date, and it feels like a photo feed curated by the living world instead of an algorithm. It’s more interesting to scroll than my Instagram, but this view doesn’t exist in any of the apps, so for now I just keep the page bookmarked. — CD

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How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World argues that you can live the life you want without changing the world or even changing a single other person — you just have to stop falling into the mental traps that keep you unfree.

Core Principles

1. You Have Far More Control Than You Think

Your lack of freedom has two causes: you’re not aware of the alternatives open to you, and you’ve accepted assumptions that restrict your freedom without questioning them. Because you’ve accepted certain assumptions, you haven’t even considered that there might be alternatives. Freedom is the opportunity to live your life as you want to live it — and that is possible, even if others remain as they are.

2. Trying to Change Others Is a Trap

You have tremendous control over your own life, but you give it up when you try to control others. Direct alternatives —actions that require only yourself to get a desired result — are almost always more effective than indirect alternatives that depend on changing someone else’s behavior. Stop waiting for others to change.

3. Get Out of Your Boxes

A “box” is any unpleasant situation that restricts your freedom — a bad relationship, job, location, or friendship. You stay in boxes because you’re afraid of the work required to get out. But the cost of staying is often higher than the cost of leaving. The question isn’t whether escape is difficult; it’s whether staying is worse.

4. Make Positive Decisions, Not Negative Ones

A free person spends most of their time making positive decisions — choosing among attractive alternatives. Most people spend their time making negative decisions — choosing the least unpleasant alternative, trying to keep things from getting worse. If you’re constantly choosing the lesser evil, you’ve structured your life wrong.

Try It Now

1. Identify one assumption you’ve never questioned that limits your choices. What if it weren’t true? What alternatives would open up?
2. Think of a situation where you’re waiting for someone else to change. What direct alternative — requiring only your own action — could get you what you want?
3. Name one “box” you’re in — a situation you’d leave if leaving weren’t so hard. Calculate the real cost of staying another year. Is it actually lower than leaving?
4. Review your recent decisions. Were you choosing among attractive options, or choosing the least bad one? What would have to change for you to have better choices?

Quote

“Freedom is the opportunity to live your life as you want to live it. And that is possible, even if others remain as they are.”

Book Freak is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run Recomendo, the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, and Book Freak.