Notebook Stories

I recently changed my “What I’m Using Now” photo after several months of its being out of date. I’ve gone through at least 2 or 3 daily notebooks since I last updated that image, a couple of Moleskines and a Piccadilly. I’ve been alternating between plain pages and squared– I keep coming back to squared [...]

The other day, I was getting on the subway to go to work in the morning when I spotted a guy who seemed like a walking stereotype. He was a big, tall guy, with the physique of a football player. He had a baseball cap on backwards, and was wearing a t-shirt, khaki shorts and [...]

This seemed like an appropriate notebook for today: Actually, the contents of this notebook are anything but romantic. My mother gave it to me in 1981 and asked me to keep a diary while she was away for a couple of weeks, helping her sister with a newborn baby. I dutifully chronicled everything I did, [...]

2011 is already a few days over and I’ve yet to 100% decide what I’m going to do for a diary. I say “diary” and not “planner,” since I tend to use a paper diary only to record past info on diet, exercise, health, and other little notes, as opposed to noting future events. In [...]

Here’s a few oldies-but-goodies from my collection, three Roaring Spring spiral notebooks that I bought in 1980 and used between then and 1982. I love the colors– the outside covers are slightly faded and scuffed compared to the inside front covers. The back covers are just plain cardboard. You can see below that I stapled [...]

Do you have a set of criteria for your perfect notebook? Or do you think you can’t know the perfect notebook until you find it? Or is it impossible to have just one kind of perfect notebook? Did you ever think you knew what the perfect notebook would be only to find out that it [...]

Here’s an oldie but goodie, which I used during my freshman year of college: It was made by the Vernon McMillan company, based in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The “Memo Book” typography is pretty cool… and check out that snazzy, wave-like VM logo! I love the mottled orange cover– I don’t know if there’s a name [...]

Have you ever had to deal with a problem like this? My boyfriend and I have been dating for 10 months, and we’ve grown extremely close to each other. He’s a wonderful guy, and we’ve talked seriously about marraige. However I have a small problem: he’s read my journal twice now. The first time he [...]

I just had a visit from my young niece and nephew. We were celebrating birthdays, and one of the presents I gave my niece was a diary with a little padlock, which also came with an invisible ink pen, viewable only with its built-in special light. She loved it and I caught my nephew giving [...]