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These 3 notebooks are give a first impression of sleekness, somehow. The covers are smooth, and they are relatively thin and flexible. They range in size from about 5 13/16″ x 8 1/4″ to 7 1/8″ x 10″. For Japanese notebooks, these actually have less odd English verbiage on them than usual! One of them says it contains “MIO Paper,” and that this stands for “Mobile Ideal Original writing paper,” but that’s about as weird as it gets. The notebooks all have a very clean, minimal design.

First we have a Maruman notebook, with a wire-o binding and plastic front and back covers. The plastic has a slight ridged texture to it. Inside, you have smooth lined paper with a micro-perforated edge for easy removal.

Next, a Kikuyo Campus notebook, again with wire-o binding and a plastic front cover. This one has a very unusual page design– it’s lined, but there are dots along the lines, so it’s kind of a hybrid between lined and dot grid and squared. You can use it for writing or as you’d use graph paper, and the cover has a sticker on it that suggests a sort of geometrical figure being drawn using the dots. The pages also feature a space for numbering and a date at the top. They are not perforated. The back cover is a light, smooth cardboard.

And here’s another Kokuyo Campus notebook, this time with a metallic silver taped binding. The pages seem to be glued in. This one also has the number and date space at the top of each page, with regular, un-dotted lines below. The notebook has a wonderfully supple feel– the pages are smooth, the notebook opens very flat, and it’s very flexible, easily bending almost into a tube, and returning to perfect flatness afterwards. But the price you pay for this kind of flexibility is that the paper is quite thin. I tested a variety of pens and found that it’s wonderful to write on, with a very smooth, “hard” surface. I turned the page and at first was shocked that there was no show-through– but then I realized I’d actually turned more than one page because they’re so thin! When you’re actually looking at the back of the page, there’s quite a bit of show-through, and really penetrating markers like my Sharpies even bled through and made spots on the next facing page.

So if you like the aesthetic and tactile qualities of a basic yet refined notebook, you’ll love these– the paper feels just heavenly with a fine rollerball pen. But they may not be a top choice if show-through really bothers you. Check out these and a variety of other journals and notebooks offered at JetPens… or you can try your luck at winning the two samples I’m giving away!

I’ll select two random winners from entries submitted as follows:

On Twitter, tweet something containing “JetPens” and follow “@jetpens” and “@NotebookStories.”

On Facebook, “like” the  Notebook Stories page and the JetPens page, and post something containing the words “JetPens” on my wall.

On your blog, post something containing the words “JetPens” and “NotebookStories” and link back to this post.

The deadline for entry is Friday Jan. 27 at 11:59PM, EST. Good luck everyone!

One Notebook or Many? Part 1: The case for one notebook

One book is cooler. A volume covering all of ones life, being read by descendants long after my death, like the journals of Leonardo da Vinci, makes a nice day dream.

It’s fun to read through a diverse journal with sketches and notes on all kinds of things. Paging through an old journal and coming across doodles my daughter made is a treat. Sketches of things I was planning to build or of other things reminds me of the diversity of my life, which is often handy when I’ve become too focused on one narrow aspect….

One Notebook or Many? Part 2: The case for many notebooks.

A single subject notebook increases focus. When I’m writing in a single subject notebook, I feel a discipline to focus on that subject. It’s a reminder of what I’m doing, and there’s no risk that while I’m paging through old entries I’ll end up on some trip down memory lane. Instead, paging through the book reminds me of other aspects of the subject, helps the focus, and can even help with writer’s block…

One Notebook or Many? Part 3: The case for loose sheets

Blank sheets are versatile and adaptable. Since it’s not part of a book, it doesn’t have a dedicated purpose. The paper can be used for anything – I can write a letter, leave a note, give it to my daughters to draw on, or fold it into an airplane. This is especially useful when traveling, because it means I carry less…

One Notebook or Many? Part 4: What’s been working for me

Separate book vs. in the journal. I’ve found that unless the new book has a very strong purpose (like the NumberQuotes notebook) or has a specific place in my life and routine (weekly planner), it’s at risk of being abandoned. The food journal hasn’t quite become a reliable partner yet, but the birds book has. The weekly planner has become very important, and I record some things there that could be in my journal. Despite many attempts to find an electronic replacement for my weight records, pen and paper have proven to be the best and most reliable.

If the work has a lot of structure, and clear boundaries, a separate book seems to work best. If the work is somewhat amorphous, a separate book just doesn’t feel right. For example, I just used the large Leuchtturm1917 Jottbook I received to start a web-focused notebook, only ideas and thoughts related to my various websites that don’t have books of their own, or for ideas (like selling ad space) that are common to all sites. That lasted a short while before the book become refocused on this blog. So far, it’s been earning its keep.

So many things in these posts resonated for me. I’ve tried various approaches, and like Steve have ended up with a hybrid solution: one main notebook for most things, plus a few satellite notebooks for specific topics or uses that require a different format. But the other solution that I was surprised Steve didn’t mention was to use a Filofax or similar binder– you can incorporate different page formats, devote a few pages in a section to different topics, and carry over pages you want to keep for reference while filing away others. I used small looseleaf notebooks for years and loved them… but then electronic devices replaced the calendar and address book sections of those notebooks… and for what was left, a stack of bound journals did just seem cooler than a box full of rubber-banded looseleaf pages. But I keep feeling like I should give it a try again.

How about you? One or many? Join in the discussion here or at Recording Thoughts.

There is no such thing as too many notebooks, after all. =)

Here’s a few from her collection:

Read more at journals & notebooks « MarlaViray~ marvels, musings and meanderings.

Here’s the intro to the article about the exhibition, which I found rather chilling.

In Peter Carey’s award-winning novel True History of the Kelly Gang, the novelist metamorphosed into an archivist, claiming to be publishing 13 parcels of soiled and rust-stained papers supposedly written by Ned Kelly in the unmistakeable grammar and syntax we recognise from the bushranger’s famous Jerilderie Letter.

Kelly’s papers might have been damp and ripped, according to Carey’s artful deceit. But at least they could have endured feasibly for more than a century without seeming preposterous.

Compare that to Carey’s own manuscript. The Booker prize-winning author composed his novel on a laptop that is a prized item in the State Library of Victoria’s collection.

You can see the laptop. But what you cannot see, contemplate or critique is Carey’s manuscript – his revisions, different drafts, the substitution of one word for another, perhaps an entire passage angrily crossed out. All that compositional magic lies mouldering inside the machine, too delicate to access in case it is changed or lost.

Fortunately, the exhibition in Canberra is all about paper, with no laptops on display!

[Dr. Rachel Buchanan, a historian] believes no present writers or scientists could be included in an equivalent exhibition in 2112. ”We are on an abyss now. It’s a real turning point in the discussion about what archives are, and what can actually be kept.”

Let’s hope some writers are still printing out drafts!

Read more: Writer’s craft is now a ghost in the machine.

See more at A Rare Look at Samuel Beckett’s Doodle-Filled Notebooks | Brain Pickings.

So here it is another new year, and here I am once again, picking up and cleaning up, getting rid of the old to make way for the new, editing and shredding, filing and piling, giving away and throwing away – all in an effort to tidy up the past to make room for the future.

It’s a daunting task.

I am not a collector, but you live long enough and you end up collecting things. Handprints your kids made when they really were kids. Greeting cards that go back 50 years….

… And notebooks. Dozens and dozens of notebooks.

I started with the notebooks, because boxes full of them are crowding my office: white reporter notebooks, which I have been using for 35 years.

They live in cardboard boxes, 2006 mixed in with 1985 and 1992 and 2001.

The wheat from the chaff. That was my goal. That’s all I had to do. Look inside these notebooks, give them a cursory read and decide what to keep and file, and what to throw way.

But it’s all daunting. Cleaning up and organizing, staying focused and on task – impossible, because here’s the thing. You cannot look through notebooks or greeting cards or books or records or even a drawer full of scarves without losing your direction.

You may be aiming for the future, eyes on a clutter-free tomorrow, heart in the right direction, but then you stumble upon a sentence, or a signature, or remember a song and where you were and who you were when you first heard it. Or you hold a knitted scarf in your hands and see the sweet 11-year-old who knitted it for you, her first real scarf, and all of a sudden you’re not looking at the future anymore, you’re not even in the present. You’ve been hijacked to Memory Lane.

via Is there room for the past in the future? – The Boston Globe.

Do you keep a journal now?

I’m pretty bad about it. I have a certain embarrassment over my own writing. It’s odd, because it’s the thing that no one will ever see. There’s something about putting down my thoughts and feelings in a journal. I immediately self-edit, which sort of defeats the purpose. So I’ll give it a go and then put it down for six weeks.

I’m an obsessive notebook collector, though. Notebooks and pens. It’s my idea of a clean start. Whenever I want to work on anything—whether it’s a to-do list or a journal or a new songs—I’ll go to Office Max. That’s really my nirvana. That first page is a blank slate. There always seems to be some control in that, like, “I can do better with this notebook.” As a result, I have a house full of thousands of notebooks, and each one has four pages of shit in it.

Those nice Moleskine notebooks are especially good at inducing that optimism.

Yeah, the exterior is nice and significant and has weight, and therefore the stuff that goes in it should match it—and has the potential to! And then you get started and you think, God, this is not worthy of its cover. I have a pretty expensive closest full of nice notebooks.

Read more at An Interview With Country Singer Hayes Carll – After Hours Blog (washingtonian.com).

“[The book] offers exactly 365 people, places, object, and ideas on blank, lined pages where people can write their responses. My writing partner and I created it as a different way to jumpstart our brains every day before we start work (or begin a new creative side project). We recommend spending 10-15 minutes a day writing whatever comes to your mind about one of the prompts. It could be a poem, a short story, a list, description, or silly rant. Regardless of what is written, it helps people in various walks of life to boost their brain power, generate new ideas, and connect with their inner creativity for a few minutes each day.”

Sounds like a great creativity booster! It’s available on Amazon.

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Melissa needs help finding her perfect notebook:

I was hoping you might be able to help me find the right notebook for me. I’m trying to find a hard bound notebook or journal with white (not off-white like moleskin) blank pages that is in portrait format and bigger than 11×14. If you could even suggest a brand to try that would be very helpful.

The tricky thing here is finding something larger than 11×14″. The Cachet Classic Black Cover Sketchbook would be just right, but 11 x 14″ is the largest size. The Moleskine A3 sketchbbok is slightly larger at about 11 3/4 x 16″, but the paper won’t be the bright white she’s looking for.

Dick Blick Art Materials has a good selection of other sketchbooks, but the only ones I saw that were larger than 11 x 14″ were wire-bound.  The other solution might be to buy some extra-large paper and bind your own book! Does anyone else have any ideas?

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Sandra found a cool notebook and wants your help in finding more:

A couple of days ago, I found this sketchbook at Marshall’s Department store for $4.95.  It’s approximately 9 in x 13 in, a thin ivory cardstock with red trim and a beautifully marbled cover.  It has a staple binding, but it’s very sturdy.  The wording ‘Valentina, Made in Italy’ is printed on the inside back cover.   I love the quality of the paper, but find the size a bit difficult to manage and would love to find out if the sketchbook can be found in any other size.  I searched Google and Bing but was unable to find any information.  The Marshalls’ website failed to offer any listing. Would you know of any other store that might carry this sketchbook?  Or shall I just starting haunting any Marshall’s I can find, in the hopes of discovering more of these gems?

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Nestor asks “Do you know of any small safe that can be used to store your journal/diary so that no one else reads it?”
I have never stored my notebooks in anything more secure than a shoe box, but I do have one of these:

I use it for storing my passport, social security card, and important financial papers, but it could easily be used for notebooks as well. However, it’s very heavy and not that roomy inside because of the thick, fireproof walls. You could also use a more basic fireproof box like this:

These options might not be very sophisticated in terms of the lock mechanism, as they seem more designed for fire survival than theft prevention, but there are lots of other options for safes and security boxes here.

I’ll catch up with some more questions and submissions from readers soon. Thanks for all your emails!

Another thing that makes my notebook unique and interesting is the open access to its pages. While diaries are revered as the fiefdom of one man’s innermost thoughts and deep, dark secrets, my notebook is like a scrapbook that anyone can browse. When I began using my notebook, I vowed to be discreet and to put only wholesome things in it because I didn’t want to be lampooned over a controversial or intriguing entry. Letting other people take a glimpse at the contents of my notebook gives them the opportunity to share their views about the stuff that I have written, drawn or collected. In doing so, creative exchanges follow, varying and engaging perspectives are ignited and we get a chance to acquire more wisdom and inspiration.

(From My notebook | Inquirer Opinion.)

I think most of us who keep notebooks tend to do so privately. It may not always be as secretive as the lock-and-key diary we may have had as kids, but a notebook is usually something personal that’s not volunteered for others to read, either because it’s too mundane, too sensitive, or just not in a finished enough state for the writer to want feedback on it. Sketchbooks might be more public, especially if they’re used for an art class, but sometimes artists even want to keep their drawings private. (It might depend on who’s acting as their nude model!)

So the quote above seemed quite revolutionary to me. I tried to imagine what it would be like to keep a notebook that would be completely open to others– it’s a nice idea as described above, as a way to share ideas and opinions. It would be sort of like keeping a blog or one’s Facebook page between the covers of a journal. But I guess that’s also part of the problem for me– the friends who I’d want to read my notebook are spread too far and wide for me to be able to easily hand it to them, so the internet makes more sense for that kind of communication. My notebooks remain intensely private, aside from a page here and there that I might show to someone (or post on this blog!).

How about you? Do you keep your notebooks to yourself or share them freely with others?