Below is a corner of my office where I was going through boxes of notebooks and had stashed some used ones that needed to be put away. There are a few months of daily notebooks, notebooks already reviewed, notebooks to be reviewed, and some childhood notebooks. (All of these have now been put back in a closet– I try to keep the notebook clutter under control!)

A close-up of some of the daily notebooks. I write the dates they cover on the bottom.

On top of my file cabinet: some stray samples to be given away someday, and some stuff already reviewed, and a small looseleaf binder I used many years ago that I’ll do a post on at some point.

Here’s the shelves in one of my closets: shoeboxes full of small notebooks, and stacks of larger journals and sketchbooks.

Here on a bookshelf are my Moleskine City Notebooks (though I’ve since bought more). Amsterdam is the only one in this stack that I haven’t used yet. The others are New York, London, Paris, Istanbul and Lisbon.

And finally, this is the stack of notebooks-in-waiting I keep in my desk. These are all notebooks that have made the cut as ones I like enough to use as daily notebooks or sketchbooks at some point (mostly Moleskines, HandBook Journals, Piccadillies, and a couple of others). I’m not worried about running out at the moment… but only because I have an additional stack of spares elsewhere!

There are close to 100 notebooks visible in these photos, not counting the ones in the unopened shoeboxes and additional notebooks I have stored elsewhere. Welcome to my world!

It doesn’t seem like all that big a stack… I try not to go crazy but if it gets much smaller, it will need to be replenished!

The notebook I just finished had a rather tight elastic, and I ended up keeping it tucked around the back cover most of the time– I realized I like being able to just open the notebook up without fiddling with it. I’d like to keep doing it, but alas, the red Moleskine I just started has a looser elastic, so it doesn’t wrap around the cover as tidily.

I’m a bit uncertain about using a red notebook after years of just using black ones. I certainly have plenty of non-black notebooks in my collection and have used many of them over the years, but more recently, I’ve found it so satisfying to have a row of uniform black-covered notebooks. I did use a red Moleskine diary a couple of years ago, but I didn’t carry it with me every day. The shade of red is rather glaring, I’m really hoping it gets dirty soon! (In case you’re wondering why I bought a red one in the first place, it was because I happened to stumble across a sale where it was only $3.00!)

As for the other notebooks, I sometimes carry the extra Moleskine sketchbook with me to use if I want to do a more elaborate drawing or painting that wouldn’t work well in the squared notebook. And I keep the HandBook journal at home, where I’ve been using it for collages and drawings on the weekends. The sketchbooks always take me much longer to fill.

The other notebooks I’m using now, less actively, are a large Piccadilly that I paste recipes in, and a small lined Piccadilly where I’ve been recording all the books I read. I also have a pocket size Moleskine Volant that I use for notes in my French class.

So that’s 6 notebooks going at once… I should probably come up with reasons to start a few more!

I’ve been writing about taking trips and mini-vacations. Well, now I want you to consider taking one away from your favorite paper. Or away from the paper you normally use, which isn’t your favorite, to one which you don’t believe you “deserve.”

For everyone this trip will look different. For some, who make their own books and use exactly the papers they want to use, it will mean taking up a book filled with cheaper paper, or making a book with paper that isn’t one of their favorites, or purchasing a book (like a Moleskine, or a Hand•book…).

For others, who buy commercially made journals this will mean buying a different brand, or “gasp,” making one of your own (and don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be an elaborate structure—just a pamphlet structure is fine—it’s about the paper not the structure).

Which ever way you go, use that new paper for at least a week, and if you can stand it, use it for a month. Pick a paper that will allow you to use your favorite medium (for me that’s pen and ink). But go into this project knowing that if things go badly with the paper you might be using pencil, or a different pen—and that’s OK, because it’s about exploring. And it’s about sitting with something that might be ever so uncomfortable and working anyway!

A page from one of Roz’s journals:

Read more at The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Changing the Paper on which You Journal – Roz Wound Up.

Gorgeous!

The Piccadilly is on top of the stack in the photo.

Below it, the red notebook is one of the monthly booklets from the Moleskine Color-a-Month Daily Planner. I have to say, I’ve been ambivalent about using this planner since almost the day I started. It’s nice to have a very slim booklet to carry around rather than the bulk of a full year page a day planner, but I’m still bothered by all that frontmatter, and there’s no bookmark to help you keep your place– I’ve been using the small binder clip you see in the photo. In the first few days of January, I didn’t think I’d be able to stick with this planner for a full year, so I ran out and bought a softcover page per day Moleskine planner. Now I’m on the fence about which one to continue with– the further I go in the Color-a-Month,  the more it seems like a waste not continue… but it also seems like a waste not to use the other planner. I wish I could do a drawing a day (like these) but I think that’s a little over-ambitious!

But I do manage to draw more intermittently, and that’s what the bottom two notebooks in the photo are for: two Hand-Book Journals, one of which I used for sketches on a recent trip, and another that’s been used for drawings at home. I didn’t fill the travel journal completely, so I’ll either continue it on a future trip, or use the rest of it once I’ve finished the home sketchbook.

Not included in this photo are a couple other notebooks I use occasionally: a 2001 Moleskine Daily Planner that I’ve been using to jot down dreams, and a small lined Piccadilly notebook where I’ve been keeping track of books I read. And a Kikkerland WritersBlok notebook that I use for my French class.

So that comes to 7 or 8 notebooks with some degree of active usage right now. It almost doesn’t seem like enough to make me a true notebook addict… maybe I should start a few more!

Hand Book Artist Journal Value Packs

For someone crafty, how about the Stitchable Journal: Personalized Journal & Decorative Keepsake Box– it comes in a kit with yarn and needles that allow you to create a design on the cover in actual needlepoint!

For an artist: Hand Book Artist Journals are my favorite notebooks for sketching with a variety of media– pencils, pens, markers and even watercolors all work well on the 130 gsm paper. They come in beautiful colors and a few different formats, including the rather unique 5.5×5.5″ square!

For someone who loves to travel: the Nomad Travel Journal w/ Leather Case is a nice way to document every trip, with formatted pages to help you record all the important details of your trip.

For a sports fan: How about the Moleskine City Notebook London? Even if they’re not attending the 2012 Olympics, they can at least follow along vicariously and jot down ideas for a future visit! Or you could get them a Rite in the Rain notebook– if it’s waterproof, it must also be sweat-proof! Perfect for gym workout logging, or note-taking on soccer field sidelines.

As for everyone else on your list, if you want to give an inexpensive gift that anyone can appreciate, stop by your local Borders store and grab some Piccadilly notebooks. Happy stocking-stuffing!

The photo was taken at the 13th annual D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival® (Sept 25 to Sept 27, 2009), which I actually attended, but I didn’t see these! Wish I had!

James Cospito’s Moleskine Stash, Brooklyn Art Project HQ / Dumbo Arts Center: Art Under the Bridge Festival 2009 / 20090926.10D.54637.P1.L2.C23 / SML on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.