What I’m Using Now

I haven’t updated my “using now” photo in a while– the photo that’s been there was of a Piccadilly graph notebook. After that, I went through a Moleskine graph notebook within a couple of months– this was one of the ones I got for 50 cents and it definitely had some quality issues– some of the pages had some ink smears on them and the black oilcloth covering was kind of loose and wrinkly around the spine. So I couldn’t wait to get through it and try out another Piccadilly, which is what I’m now using again as my main daily notebook. I’m already more than halfway through it and I’m just as happy with it as I was with the last one.

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!

3 thoughts on “What I’m Using Now”

  1. It’s even harder for someone who, like me, is just getting started with notebooks. I want to try every one, and I want to do it NOW!

    Nifty, I couldn’t find an email link for you, so I’ll ask you in this comment: take a look at me young notebook blog, Note Booker, Esq., and if you like it, please link to it sometime!

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