Notebook Stories

I bought a set of Moleskine Volant notebooks recently. I had ordered something else from Amazon and needed to tack something on to get that free shipping, so I figured what the heck! But now I’m not sure what to do with them!

They’re nice notebooks– much more substantial than the Cahiers: sturdier, smoother cover and a proper spine, even if they’re lacking a pocket in the back. The colored ones are rather attractive, but as usual, I just went for black. They remind me of a passport or an old bank book. I wonder how the cover will stand up to use, given there’s no elastic– until they’re broken in, I think opening the cover and folding it flat will leave it sticking up open afterwards.

But back to the usage dilemma. I’m currently using two Moleskines and a HandBook sketchbook:

• one softcover squared Moleskine for daily jottings, lists, etc.
• a regular unlined Moleskine as a journal
• HandBook sketchbook for drawings

I previously was using a Moleskine sketchbook as the journal, but I decided it was a waste of the thicker paper so I moved to the regular plain paper. Once I’m done with the softcover Moleskine, which should be soon, I will just use the one plain hardcover notebook for all the lists and notes, in addition to the journal entries. I feel a little weird about mixing the two types of uses, but we’ll see how it goes. I do kind of like the idea of having one notebook that captures absolutely everything that is going on in my life other than the drawings.

Given all this, I’m thinking I could use the Volants for narrower topics. Perhaps one could capture all my notes relating to my job, which I don’t really need to mix with personal stuff. Another use might be to dedicate one to my French lessons, for jotting down vocabulary. I also had an idea about binding the Volants together to make some sort of multi-section Moleskine, but that seems like a waste– I’d rather use Cahiers for that.

Anyone else out there using Volants? How do you like them compared to the Cahiers?