Random Giveaway! Today Only!

Just for the heck of it, I’m going to give away 3 totally random notebooks today, to 3 random people selected from comments on this post, which must complete the sentence “The best notebook I ever had was….”

No particular brand is being offered, I’m just going to pick a few from my stash and give away one notebook each to the 3 lucky winners. So if you like notebooks and surprises, leave a comment on this post completing the sentence  “The best notebook I ever had was….” to enter. The deadline for entry is 11:59PM EST tonight.

Good luck!

[now closed to new entries, thanks!]

89 thoughts on “Random Giveaway! Today Only!”

  1. The best notebook I ever had was a Moley. I still have it. I really like the A4 hardcover, plain paper notebooks. Durable and great to use.

  2. The best notebook I ever had was Moleskine daily notebook. Greetings from Spain!

  3. The best notebook I ever had was a Kokuyo hard back spiral bound A6 from MaiDo in San Francisco!

  4. The best notebook I ever had was the school-issued exercise book given to me for Science class when I was 13. Such smooth paper! Such perfectly-spaced lines! Such a magnificent new-notebook smell! Do they make them any more? No they do not!

  5. The best notebook I ever had was a small, college-ruled spiralbound notebook that I used to keep a journal my first year in college. It was a nice, albeit plain, notebook that was fun to write in (and smallish enough to carry around EVERYWHERE), but I suspect it ranks as my best because of what went in it and what it meant to me.

  6. The best notebook I ever had was a standard 6″ x 9″ college-ruled wirebound one. They were always available and the paper was always smooth and fine to write on. For years, I carried one in my purse or tote bag and wrote as the urge struck. This format is harder to find now, as the big-box office supply stores seem to focus on perfed, wide-ruled, flimsy-wired, floppy-covered, crap-paper notebooks in that size. Plus, it’s been well over a decade since I was lured away from the utilitarian and into the wonders of Moleskine and its offshoots.

  7. Cool contest. The best notebook I ever had was a beautiful brown leather bound journal from Roguejournals.com. I had my initials tooled onto the cover too.

    -Victoria D.

  8. The best notebook I ever had was, and still is, a fairly standard hardcover Clairefontaine one.

  9. The best notebook I ever had was…

    The Mead 3 subject spiralbound which was about 6 inches by 10 inches or so… (I don’t remember at the moment).

    It was the right size to stick in a bag and still be able to find it, and the spiral binding was big enough to hold a really fat pen or pencil with one of those pocket clip things.

  10. The best notebook I ever had was a small 3×5 pale blue moleskine-like notebook made by a company called Markings. I think I got it at Target ( it was a few years ago). It has the word “dream” in silver foil cursive on the cover and a matching pale blue ribbon to use as a kind of bookmark. I wrote a lot of random stuff in it, because I felt it was too small to use as my regular journal. I read through it a few weeks ago and remembered when I wrote certain things. It was a great little notebook .

  11. The best notebook I ever had was Moleskine London notebook. Very useful, especially sticky transparent sheets on the map.

  12. Excellent idea– mystery always enhances a giveaway :)

    The best notebook I ever had was… Wait! I refuse to be nostalgic. I always think that my NEXT notebook will be the best I ever have. (but as for past notebooks, I was partial to the exacompta basics sketchbook).

  13. The best notebook I ever had was a Moleskine Squared Reporter Notebook.
    I still have it, I use it as my notebook, my calendar/organizer and to write down my homework.
    I put a year-overview on the front four pages, then some timetables and tables to fill in my tests + results. Then the biggest section with one week on two pages. The last 24 sheets that are detachable I use for little games with my friends and random lists like lend/borrow, or to keep track of the lessons I missed.
    I also have general information about stuff I never can remember on the last few pages..

    It makes my school days a lot brighter and I think I will make a similar one for next year.

  14. The best notebook I ever had was a little green notebook I got in Kenya, about the size of a Field Notes notebook. I used it as a Personal Analog Assistant. Apart from being deceptively durable with rather wide lines to suit hasty writing, the strap line on the front *never* failed to please me when I pulled it out. It said: Wonderful Products for Wonderful People.

  15. Thanks for the chance to win a notebook. Love the Web site and have it on my RSS Reader.

    Right now I’ve been using Moleskines, but with Fountain pens I’m getting a lot of spidering and bleeding. Sure could use a new notebook alternative that works well with Fountain Pens.

  16. The best notebook I ever had was a basic 1-subject, Mead spiral, festooned with stickers and magazine clippings. The exterior is basic, the inside is not. In the 8th grade, my best friend and I shared this notebook and wrote each other letters in it. I recently found it and while the contents of most of the notes are utterly humiliating (and the way we sometimes taped in clippings to create ransom notes, and the way we dotted our i’s with hearts when we talked about our crushes), the memories are priceless. Thank goodness 13-year-old girls don’t think spending 8 hours a day together is enough to communicate everything that needs to be communicated.

    Oh, and she’s still my best friend.

  17. The best notebook I even had was a black-and-white speckled Composition Book in 57th grade that I filled with poetry and descriptions in one semester. And so began my obsession…

  18. The best notebook I ever had (and have) was a Moleskine pocket notebook because no matter what I did, it stayed in one piece and didn’t fall apart. After I filled it up I bought another.

  19. The best notebook I ever had was given to me by my friend on a rainy day while we were searching through her attic a few years back. She had a similar one, and we both spent the day coloring in the cartoons that the notebooks already had. It had quotes on some pages, nothing on others, and different kinds of drawings that I could never have imagined up. All for me to color in and divulge my deepest secrets into, which at that point was who liked who and who was “dating” who when dating barely consisted of talking to one another.

  20. The best notebook I ever had was a spiral bound Miquelrius that I used as a journal for four months in ninth grade. It isn’t necessarily the brand or design that makes the notebook special- it’s the feelings that it carries now that it’s full.

  21. The best notebook I ever had was a spiral bound Hilroy 5 subject notebook – it isn’t pretty but it really keeps me organized – at work and at home!

  22. The best notebook I ever had was a Rhino (brand name) journal. I actually used several of them, as my journal for a few years then I never found that brand again. They were awesome: cool covers, super-thick paper, and a tough spiral binding so I could fold it back on itself. The chipboard back meant I could write anywhere. Those were great. *Sigh*

    Thanks for doing this giveaway!

  23. The best notebook I ever had was a blue notebook tha I bought when I was 15. I used it to write my favourite quotes.

  24. The best notebook I ever had was a unlined, pocket-sized Quo Vadis Habana with a black cover. It is my current journal, and I absolutely love how well fine-point gel pens write on its smooth, off-white pages. The black cover and small size make it an unobtrusive, portable notebook that can be slipped easily into a backpack, bag, or desk drawer.

  25. The best notebook I ever had was a plain, el-cheapo notebook that dad gave to me when I was a child. It had a otter on the front cover and a the brazilian national anthem on the back cover. I remember really fondly of it…

  26. The best notebook I ever had was the second notebook I had for fiction. It was spiral-bound, three subjects, and had a blood-red cover and the best back cover in the history of the universe (the way a ballpoint wrote on that…gives me shivers thinking about it), and the paper was perfect. I did some of the best collages in it and it was just so comfortable I could write like crazy. The cover fell of last year on Spring Break, and it’s never been the same. Sigh.

  27. Best notebook I ever had was my first Black and Red notebook, because it was the first time I’d ever encountered really good paper, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

  28. The best notebook I ever had was a marble black and white composition book meant for my grade school daughter, and this is the exact reason I need to win one of these random choices from this mouth-watering site…

  29. The best notebook I ever had was a Moleskine pocket sketchbook that I took everywhere to make notes and doodles on it. Back then the paper seemed to handle better than the paper currently used in the sketchbooks available today.

  30. Best notebook I ever had was a “no name” from Target. It was spiral bound with hard covers, and about 6″ X 10″. At that time of life, I thought it was perfect! Unfortunately, I could never find a name on any of them, and Target quit carrying them. :(
    Now I use Circa rings and make my own, which is a close second.
    ~BG

  31. The best notebook I ever had was Field Notes. I’m on my 7th right now. They fit perfectly in your pocket, can take a beating, and are very handy. I never leave home without it.

  32. The best notebook I’ve ever used for general, all-purpose notebooking is the Mead Cambridge wire-bound notebook, item number 06704, 9 1/2 x 6 5/8 inches, thick ivory paper, college ruled, perforated sheets, maniia pocket in the front, heavy cardboard back, 100 sheets. Great size, great paper, sturdy. I used to be able to get them from big-box office supply stores, but no more. Fortunately I can still order them directly from Mead.

  33. The best notebook I ever had was a dark red Avery legal ledger with 200 ruled pages. The pages were light green, which eliminated glare when you were writing in it in sunlight. They were thick enough that ink didn’t bleed through to the other side when I used pens with heavy lines. I currently use black-colored composition books (with tables for metric conversion, multiplication charts, etc. inside the back cover) for my diaries, but when I turn 50 (in three years), it’ll be red Avery legal ledgers from then on–a visual point of demarcation on the shelves.

  34. The best notebook I ever had was the one I won from the Notebook addict on 6/30/10.

  35. The best notebook I’ve ever had is my Circa from Levenger. It takes on new forms whenever I get bored with it.

  36. The best notebook I’ve ever had was a moleskine from modofly with a laser-etched illustration of a man in a retro space helmet on the cover.

  37. The best notebook I ever had was/is the Muji Chronotebook… simple, cheap and totally useful. Couldn’t live without it.

  38. The best notebook I ever had was the first journal I began to update regularly. Its lines were too widely spaced, it didn’t lie flat, its paper was too thick for my taste, but the influence this notebook and the habit I developed have had over my life since then completely outweigh these flaws.

  39. The best notebook I ever received was a homemade one by my grandmother. She made them in her spare time, and embroidered each with our initials, and inside was an inscription.

    I never could get myself to use it, it stays on my shelf, so i never forget her.

  40. The best notebook I ever had was one without spirals. I hate those. I had it last year and used it up. Really need a new notebook now.

  41. My favorite notebook was a red one with three rings and it had pockets. I put Ron Jons, Surfing and Radio stickers all over it. Minus the Florida Gators sticker (I was obvious dillusional at the time – Seminole Fan) it’s still in good shape and found it in an old box and gave it to my seven year old. She loves it and walks around with it all the time.

  42. The best notebook I ever had was a Piccadilly large grided notebook. i used that notebook for drawing, sketching, class notes, and jotting down random ideas that came into my head. i used it throughout all of highschool and i still have it to remind me of all those great times i had.

  43. The best notebook I ever had was a marble composition notebook. It was an extra from the stack I had to buy for fifth grade, so I dubbed it the “nothing notebook” and I would doodle randomly in it when I was bored. Eventually, it evolved into the vessel in which I would put all my thoughts, dreams, and ideas. When that notebook was full, I bought another. I’ve kept notebooks ever since, and it all started with my black marble “nothing notebook.”

  44. The best notebook I ever had were these chap .79 spirals that i found at the bookstore at BGSU in the early 90s. The paper wasn’t too thin, and the back was stiff enough to write in them without needing an additional support. I can’t remember the brand. I probably bought 30 during the few years that they were available and have never seen them since. They had these lovely colored shiny overs in red, yellow, pale teal, pale orange..

  45. The best notebook I ever had was a Red and Black casebound lab notebook with a calculator built into the front cover. That thing took quite a beating and survived spills from a few rather nasty chemicals.

  46. The best notebook I ever had are the ones I have now – that you turned me onto! They are the Moleskine calendar notebooks that are a separate notebook for each month, and they came in a nice black “case” to hold the whole year together.

  47. The best notebook I have ever had was the one I grabbed one day in the drug store and started journaling in it. This is all sentimental, of course, but I remember that it called to me. I don’t remember the manufacturer, but it had a stiff blue poly cover and college ruled paper. I was still using ballpoints, so the paper itself didn’t register in my little grey cells.

    Thanks for doing these giveaways! They are fun even if you don’t win!

  48. The best notebook I ever had (and still have) is an A5 Asda Executive Notebook. It’s cheap (£3!), durable, looks like a Moleskine A5 notebook (but better), has 3 pockets in the back, and has great paper too. I used it for revision notes for my GCSEs.

    P.S. I’ve been reading your blog for a while now (I can’t remember how long), and I’d just like to say how great it is – I always look forward to reading any new posts each evening when I get home! :)

    Thanks,

    AJ

  49. The best notebook I ever had was one that my teacher made in kindergarten. The reason it was so special was because of what I wrote in it. It was all about how great my brothers were.

  50. The best notebook I ever had was the el cheapo ones I got while in the Navy, cannot remember names, but they were abundant and FREE!!! Should have stockpiled some!!

  51. The best notebook I ever had was–don’t laugh–one of those paper portfolios with fasteners! I filled it with notebook paper and used it as a journal when I was in junior high school. Yes, the left margins got folded over, but it was easy to use, easy to carry, and it was the keeper of my thoughts and feelings during those strange teenage years.

  52. The best notebook I ever had was a pink composition in the third grade given to me by my favorite teacher to this day ( and I’m now going into my senior year of college) :)

  53. The best notebook I ever had was a reporter style moleskine. I used it to jot down all of my ideas through out the day. I still mainly use moleskine, but it would be cool to try something new!

  54. The best notebook I ever had was a pocket reporter Moleskine, squared…..always love Moleskines for the creamy paper, and squared is structured enough to make me want to write, even if I am writing nonsense.

  55. The best notebook I ever had was a basic Clairefontaine composition book I got in Paris. At the time, I did not know that Clairefontaine was famous for its paper. I had homework to do and could not afford to go to the pay computer cafes.

  56. ….was a blank notebook with a shiny cover – because it held the promise of a beautiful future, any new blank notebook is the best to me! ;-) And when it is filled, I love it too!

  57. The best notebook I ever had was the first one i received for my tenth birthday, because of it i became a notebook addict!!!!

  58. The best notebook I ever had is my newest one because I love them all until they are full. I’d rather have a new notebook, than a new cell phone.

  59. The best notebook I ever had was just a run-of-the-mill Five Star one-subject spiral notebook. During high school me and a couple friends took turns taking it home every night and a writing in it. The notebook ended up in my custody, and I still go through it every now and then. It always reminds me that what’s inside of a notebook is more important than the notebook itself.

  60. The best notebook I ever had was filled with stories about six months in Europe, my courting and subsequent engagement to a woman who smelled like roses and ruminations on why I couldn’t figure out a way to never sleep so I could spend all hours of the day traveling, making love and sucking all I could out of life.

  61. The best notebook I ever had was stolen along with my leather messenger bag while visiting Memphis, TN in May of 1997.

  62. “The best notebook I ever had was….” my junior high journal because that would be the last journal that i actually finished. it was an assignment so i couldn’t switch to a new notebook. It was just a plain old spiral smothered with stickers :)

    Thanks for the chance.

  63. The best notebook I ever had was a plain marble-cover composition book I bought with my own allowance when I was 11. I pressed locust tree blossoms between the pages as I wrote that summer, and every time I opened it I got a whiff of that lovely fragrance, still my favorite smell in the world.

  64. I have just recently discovered three things within the last year. 1. I love notebooks, especially leather bound ones. Yet Moleskin remains my favorite. 2. I have a lot more of them than I realized. 3. Your blog; which I find entertaining and informative.
    Thanks for being here.

  65. The best notebook I ever had was the first journal I ever filled to the end. It was such an accomplishment. it was a tiny, cheap, heardcover notebook. it began my passion for journalling.

  66. The best notebook I ever had was a pink spiral notebook that my friends and I had a running conversation in. We’d pass it in the halls inbetween classes and while we were suposed to be taking notes we’d be passing notes instead. It got to the point where we were glueing baggies of our favorite conditioner in them and also little baggies of our favorite cereals. God I loved that notebook.

  67. “Best” depends on what you need them to do, but here’s an option: Marble 3.25″ x 4.5″ glue-bound notebooks are perfect for thought-remembering note-taking. No wire to get caught on things, and tearing the paper out leaves a tidy edge–no paper bits to pick up.

  68. The best notebook I ever had was an ancient composition book that had passed from my mother to me, after decades of being left blank. I saved it till I went on exchange to Italy, where I kept it as a scrapbook of all the bits and pieces I ate, found, did. I journalled each day too, only in Italian. To keep it together I tied ribbons tightly around it.

  69. The best notebook I ever had was a three subject recycled notebook with gray pages. I would write on it in blue ball point pen. I loved it. It was in middle school.

    The second best was a xonex ru notebook a friend gave me for Christmas two years ago.

  70. The best notebook I ever had was last year’s Moleskine journal… I filled it will old mementos that needed a place to live and occasionally some artwork when I was feeling inspired while I listened to Harry Potter audio books. It’s the fattest I’ve ever gotten a Moley to be, because they usually get mostly writing. All those things glued in there though, it was FAT.

  71. The best notebook I ever had and still get are those Norcom Inc. 1 subject spiral notebooks with the plain colored covers. They come in black, red, blue, and green and are great for note taking in class. I can color code with a folder for each of my classes and they hold up nicely to being thrown in a pile, across a room, and in and out of backpacks. They tolerate my pens of choice and are a great way to take notes and survive a semester. I love looking back at my margin notes and doodles.

  72. The best notebook I ever had was an A5 spiral bound book I used as my ‘telephone book’. The covers are black, with the words ‘blah blah blah’ all over it, and every time I look at it I smile. I used it to record the content and time of every phone call I made or received for my illustration business, and it came in very handy a few times, when a client tried to claim they’d given me different specifications than they actually had.

  73. The best notebook I ever had was a very cheap and ugly notebook from the dollarstore I had to fill for a class. I almost destroyed it, and I have been keeping notebooks ever since

  74. The best notebooks I ever had were the ones I had in high school, bought in a big dept. store that no longer exists. Wired, college ruled, and kind of squared, not the usual rectangle. Now, my favorite notebook, among the 100+ that I have and my current Moleskine, is a small, stapled, grid Clairefontaine that I got in Printemps during my first trip to Paris. Probably the notebook that started it all…

  75. The best notebook I ever had was an Exacompta Forum undated lined refill with a pretty turquoise cover that had real pressed flowers embedded in it. Excellent, fountain pen friendly paper and a beautiful cover! :-)

  76. The best notebook I ever had was my first moleskine. It was the pocket size blank one and I had the great, child like joy of bringing it with me everywhere. It fit great in my pocket and I really liked breaking it out when I heard a great quote or found a neat sticker or just wanted to doodle or jot down a great idea. By the end the pages were stuffed, it was almost falling apart but I totally loved it. It was sad when I got to the end. But then I bought a new one and resumed my journey. The new one felt good but never quite matched the joy of discovering that first cool little notebook.

  77. The best notebook I ever had was blue with red corners, and had strange grey-brown tinted paper. I don’t know what brand it was and I cannot find another one which is a shame since NOTHING bled through and it was very cute and retro.

    By the way I am in england, if that affects whether I can be in the draw or not.

  78. The best notebook i ever had is the one i am using now. it is a moleskine-like notebook. from Cangini Filippi. You can write on the paper with yor foutainpen and there is no bleeding on the backside of the paper
    Greetings from Holland

  79. the best notebook i ever had was a beautiful alice in wonderland themed one with lined, cream paper and various quotes and piccies from alice in wonderland and alice through the looking glass. beautiful and now, sadly, full :-)

  80. The best notebook I ever had was … whatever one I happen to be using at the time. Really, I love all of them. There’s no way to choose a favorite from among the stack. I do tend to favor the 6×9 grid notebooks right now but that doesn’t mean there’s not a new favorite out there on the horizon somewhere!

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