i love pens

highlighters can suck if you're marking a paperback book, because you're reading fast enough that you close the one page on the other and it smears, or because the pages are so thin that you see the highlighting through them. on the other hand, highlighters rock for journal articles (printed out on printer paper, which is how most people seem to read them). it takes forever to read a single page, giving the highlighter a good chance to dry before the page is turned, and the paper is thick enough to minimize the bleed-through.

have i mentioned that i went on a pen splurge before my crazy exam studying period? my favorites: the pen-style liquid accent highlighter (above) and my perennial favorite, the uni-ball gel impact RT. both of them practically bleed ink onto the page, which i love. you can see think ink sloshing around in the liquid accent highlighter, and it's only as thick as a pen so it's easier to hold. the mark that it makes is very saturated, almost as good as the big fat big fat highlighters, according to my comparison in the store. they aren't bright enough to use the yellow and be easily able to pick out the section you highlighted - i like the pink. it's got a chisel end that's pretty hard, which is nice for control. it's small enough that the most you can highlight at one time is one line. however, i did like using the thin end of a fat highlighter to mark a line - there was a nice minimalism to it. since i can't have it all, i'll have this for now!