Comments on: Are Notebooks Good Gifts?

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:44:31 +0000

I can’t think of a better gift, actually. Most journals aren’t that expensive, so they don’t set the giver back, and for me, they usually reflect something of the giver in the way they look. My favorite one is one my sister gave me as a birthday present a few years ago from the Air and Space Museum since she knows that is my favorite part of the Smithsonian. She wrote a little note in it and I have yet to use it but I will someday.

By: Toni

Toni — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:01:42 +0000

Oh wow, great post. This resonated a lot with me.

I LOVE notebooks. I LOVE journals. My friends know that and some have gifted me with both. But honestly, I haven’t used much of them.

It’s because of that “THING” as you said:

“…it never quite works out because they just don’t have that THING, whatever it is that makes a notebook click for you. ”

I have a personal relationship with my notebooks. It’s like I have a connection with some and none at all with others. That’s why no matter how gorgeous those gifts were, I just couldn’t use them. Not yet anyway.

But I still want to keep receiving them as presents.

By: p.w.

p.w. — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:32:53 +0000

when i was a kid, my mom always bought notebooks for me to give to friends as birthday gifts.

i love getting notebooks as gifts. i am pretty indiscriminate about notebooks; i can write in anything, as long as it is approximately a5 in size and bounded.

By: Lanzman

Lanzman — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:37:46 +0000

I gave my wife a lovely leather journal from Aspinal of London for her birthday. Since she’s fairly senior at her office, I figured she could use it for work . . . meeting notes, tasks, appointments, the usual stuff.
She said it was nice of me but too big for that and she wasn’t a notebook person anyway.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:04:08 +0000

If you’re given a notebook that doesn’t have that special “thing” that makes you want to write in it – just change it until it does. Cover it in a paper or fabric that appeals to you…paint it your favourite colour….stick ribbons all over it……whatever will turn it into YOUR notebook.
I’ve been given journals that really didn’t appeal (haven’t we all?), but once you’ve given them “the treatment”, they really are different animals.
The one with the horrible (spooky) pierrot people on the cover was painted white and covered in flowers. It is now a mine of information and musings on the white garden that I will have – one day………
The one with a ghastly photo of an inlaid table top has had those sticky things that airlines put on your passport and luggage tags stuck all over it. It’s my travel journal! It looks a bit how I feel when I get off an aeroplane, but I love it!
Use your creativity on the surfaces of unappealing notebooks as a way to invite your inner thoughts to join in………..