Anyway, enough of my high-falutin’ psychobabble. Here are two reviews of HOW TO SHARPEN PENCILS:

From the EDMONTON JOURNAL:

By the time Rees is actually supplying meticulous instructions for the use of various sharpening devices, the reader will feel psyched, not only from reading such vividly conveyed preparations but also via Rees’s intoxicating use of terminology, e.g., “planer orifice,” terms that function as entry points into another world.

From the NEW YORK TIMES:

David Rees credits a 1940 shipfitters’ manual as inspiration for “How to Sharpen Pencils,” his stupefyingly exhaustive guide to the art, science and artisanal pleasures of manually shaping a thin graphite column encased in a 6.75-inch-long wooden tube to a satisfactorily sharp point for writing, drawing, doodling or inserting up a nostril. Shipfitters must have a high boredom threshold.