This week’s addict is chamo_san, an artist from Barcelona who I’ve been following on Instagram. A lot of the work he shares is done in sketchbooks, and they all look rather lovely piled up like this!
The work he’s creating inside them is quite stunning too! Here’s just a sampling:
You can see more here: @chamo_san
I was browsing eBay recently and came across a very odd Moleskine planner. I searched for it on Moleskine’s own site but found nothing. The only other listing I found was at Target:
Digging still further, I found another Target listing for a beige version, which was also listed on the website of Sandman Books.
This is so weird. To be honest, I thought at first that it was someone’s idea of a joke to Photoshop together a really stupid looking fake Moleskine product (which I am not above doing myself). But Target actually shows this product as being in stock in one of their stores, so I guess it’s real.
The product description says the covers are made with special paper (and yes, the typo is in the original):
FAVINI PAPER – SUSTAINABILIY AND INNOVATION
Made in Italy: the planner’s covers are made from innovative Crush and Remake paper by Favini. Based in northern Italy and tracing its history to 1736, Favini is a leading global producer of natural, fiber-based materials. Remake is made using up-cycled leather residues, while Crush is produced using residues from organic products.
I suppose I could imagine something uglier if I tried, but I don’t want to. The whole concept looks like a patchwork of features from other journals you’d find in Target, or a Hallmark store or the checkout lane at HomeGoods. Gold modern calligraphy? With a ring binding that looks like it’s made of cork? These things aren’t ugly per se, but it’s like they’ve been patched in from a different design universe, and the way this all comes together with Moleskine’s branding looks terrible, at least in my opinion.
Moleskine used to have a very particular brand identity and aesthetic, but they seem to be going far astray.
Shocking news from a publishing industry newsletter:
Sen. Ted Cruz Slams Blank Book Sales for ‘Potentially Offensive Content’
Sen. Ted Cruz (R.-Tex.) took his crusade against books he deems objectionable to a new level this week when he warned against the dangers of selling diaries, journals and other blank books to minors.
Just days after ranting about the threat posed by anti-racist literature at Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Senate confirmation hearing, Cruz turned his attention to the potential hazards inherent in blank books sold by retailers nationwide, from bookshops and stationery stores to big-box retailers like Walmart.
In a speech to constituents, Cruz said, “What many people don’t know is that absolutely anything could be written in those pages. We must protect our kids from their own thoughts.” To drive his point home, Cruz displayed a stack of personal diaries that his staff had discovered in their own children’s possession.
A spokesperson for the National Stationery Association commented: “Senator Cruz’s words speak for themselves. As has happened with other books and related items he’s criticized in the past, dramatically increased sales will be the result. We wholeheartedly support that outcome.” —Robert Gray
From Shelf Awareness
I loved it so much I had to repost the whole thing! Happy April Fools Day everyone!
I’m a fan of Paperblanks notebooks. I own several of them but I had never actually used one until quite recently, when I decided to bite the bullet and try using a Paperblanks Flexis notebook as a daily journal.
I’ve been coveting these notebooks for a while– there are some very cool cover designs, and I liked the idea of the flexi binding, which is a nice compromise between the sturdiness of a hardcover and the flexibility and lightness of a softcover. The current line of Flexis notebooks was introduced within the last few years, but I realized my oldest Paperblanks notebook, from their Old Leather collection, has a similar cover. Its cover slightly thinner, and seems to be and underlying board wrapped with a smooth paper on which the design is printed, unlike the new Flexis, which have a single or double layer cover on which the design is directly printed/debossed, from what I can see.
The Old Leather notebook is referred to as a “Back Pocket Flexi,” as it has a Moleskine-style expanding back pocket. The current Flexis just have a little paper tuck pocket that won’t hold very much beyond a couple of business cards. Otherwise the Flexis are pretty similar to most of my other Paperblanks notebooks– I love the marbled page edges and tightly rounded corners. (My older ones have plain white edges, and while the Old Leather has widely rounded corners, the Via Romana has squared corners.)
I have to just stop here and say that it took me a while to figure out whether these notebooks are Paperblanks Flexis, as in plural of Flexi, and thereby pronounced Flex-ees, or whether Flexis itself was the name of the product line, pronounced Flex-iss. My Old Leather said “Flexi” but beyond that, it took me a while to dig into their website far enough to find a reference to Flexi in the singular, so I guess it is one Flexi, two Flex-ees.
I bought my two Flex-ees at an independent bookstore in Delaware that always has a lovely display of Paperblanks, and even better, usually has a good representation of unlined notebooks in addition to the more common lined format. I chose the Tesla and Mystique designs, in the Mini size. I was excited to start using one, so it was only a month or two after I bought it that the Mystique entered my daily arsenal. And less than 2 months later, it exited.
I wish I could say it was because I had an incredibly productive and interesting time of life which resulted in me filling more pages than usual with all my fascinating thoughts. But it was actually because I found myself not enjoying the notebook. Rather than just switch to another one, I scrawled my way through it in larger than usual handwriting, often writing on only one side of the page.
I can only point to one particular disappointment with the quality of the notebook itself. Paperblanks uses different paper weights, and when I bought these notebooks, which have different page counts, I assumed their paper weights were 80 GSM and 120 GSM, the papers found on the Paperblanks Nova Stella Solis I reviewed, and the Paperblanks Reporter notebooks I reviewed. But what I didn’t realize was that Paperblanks use not just 2 levels of paper, but at least 3! You can only find the paper weights in the descriptions on their website, not on the product itself.
My Tesla Flexis notebook has the 80 GSM paper, but my Mystique Flexis has in-between 100 GSM paper that is not as fountain pen friendly as my 120 GSM Stella Novis. The difference between the 80 GSM Tesla’s paper and the 100 GSM Mystique was pretty negligible– maybe slightly less bleed-through and show-through in the Mystique, but about the same amount of feathering. And I think the inks I tested might look a little less splotchy on the lighter paper.
Of my other Paperblanks, the Via Romana is pretty good with fountain pens, and the Old Leather is only so-so. I’ve bought these over a period of several years, so I the paper weight may not be the only difference– they seem to have slightly different textures and may be from totally different paper manufacturers. Who knows. The Nova Stella’s 120 GSM paper is really great, so I hope they still use that in some of their other notebooks!
But to be honest, I’m not sure I would have lasted longer with the Paperblanks Flexis notebook even if it had been 100% fountain pen friendly. My attitude towards notebooks is sometimes like my attitude towards clothing: I admire certain styles that look great on other people, but they just aren’t comfortable for me. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with them, it’s just an idiosyncratic personal preference. I have always gravitated towards notebooks with plain covers, mostly black, so the Paperblanks just felt a little bling-y and ornate to me– a little fancy for everyday use. Also, I really like the 3.5 x5.5″ size proportions that have become standard for many other notebook brands, so this one being a hair shorter and slightly wider just felt a little off to me. The Paperblanks website says it is 3.75 x 5.5′, which is pretty accurate, but some of my older Moleskines are actually 3-1/2 x 5-9/16″.
I still think Paperblanks is a great brand. They are well-made notebooks and the heaviest paper should make fountain pen users very happy. But I think I’ll be able to restrain myself from buying more.
A nice little piece in the New York Times about keeping a commonplace book, by Charley Locke:
I’ve never been a journal person, though not for lack of trying. A monogrammed duffel bag in my parents’ basement holds many old diaries — a furry leopard-print one from elementary school, Moleskines with unbroken spines from college — each with an optimistic entry or two. But the habit has never stuck. That’s partly down to a lack of discipline, but I think it’s mostly self-consciousness. I can’t help reading whatever I’m writing as some future-me would, rolling her eyes, condescending from the other side of whatever dilemma I’m going through.
But there is one notebook I’ve kept up regularly for a decade: my commonplace book. The slim red book is filled with quotes, lines from books and songs and poems and conversations that stuck with me. Nothing is my original thought, but all of it struck me as meaningful when I wrote it down.
I’m just the opposite– I’ve always thought I should write down more quotes from my reading, but I usually forget. Or more often, I find books more interesting to think about as whole concepts, rather than being struck by individual quotes. But the article has me wishing I’d collected quotes more often, and kept them all together. It would be a very different record of the past than my own thoughts and logging of events. This is an interesting way to think about it:
Thrumming beneath the pages is a shifting self-image. When I read them, I recognize the past me who saw herself in these quotes, but I don’t roll my eyes at her. With others’ words as intermediaries, the harsh light of hindsight softens. If keeping a journal would be a way to look in the mirror and make an honest appraisal of myself, keeping a commonplace book is more like looking at myself out of the corner of my eye.
Read more: Commonplace Books Are Like a Diary Without the Risk of Annoying Yourself
A few months ago, I wrote about the launch of Plotter USA, but lamented that they were only selling larger sizes, not including the 6-ring “Mini” pocket size they sell in Japan. Happily, they are now introducing the Mini size Plotter notebook for the US market. And even more happily, I received a free sample from Plotter USA to review!
After salivating over the Plotter notebook from afar, it was pretty exciting to open the box they sent me. Their design aesthetic is so snazzy, and the packaging I received didn’t disappoint. The black Plotter-branded tissue paper! The orange and black box holding the binder! Everything just looks sharp and cool.
I received a binder in brown Pueblo leather. This leather has a slightly scuffed texture, and is very thick and substantial. It is similar in some ways to the leather of my Travelers Notebook, but a bit stiffer, at least at this point in its life. The Travelers Notebook has a softer exterior texture due to its nubuck finish. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what the Pueblo leather reminded me of, but I showed it to a friend who has done a lot of riding, and she said “it’s like a saddle. The smell reminds me of a saddle shop.” She’s exactly right– the leather has the toughness of Western riding gear, which gets smoother and shinier with use.
I can’t wait to see how the Plotter notebook’s Pueblo leather ages– in the brief time I’ve had it, I rubbed at part of the cover and could begin to see how skin oils will be absorbed, making the surface softer and a little shinier. This is the type of leather that will get better and better with time. In the short term, it’s going to feel a little stiff– the cover springs open now, but I’m sure it will lie closed once the leather relaxes a bit more. (I would imagine that in the larger size Plotter notebooks, the leather’s own weight would keep it closed, even before it’s totally broken in.)
The brown cover is complemented nicely by the distinctive Plotter-branded metal strip on the outside, in a matte gold color. (Other Plotter leather types are paired with different types of metal.) It’s nice that the metal strip is narrow and allows the binder to remain rounded on either side of it, rather than having a squared-off, wider spine. I’m not sure exactly how everything is held together underneath the metal strip– all you can see on the inside is the usual little tabs that grip the ring assembly at each end.
The rings, which are a gold color to match the spine, snap open and shut very solidly. The bundle I received included a leather protector to be slipped around the rings, to prevent them from making dents in the binder. This seems to only come in black– it would have been nice to have a brown option to match the binder.
I really like Plotter’s plastic ruler/protractor page, which has a tab that extends at the top so you can use it as a bookmark. The holes are open so it can be moved without opening the rings. I’m not sure how much people use the font size and line thickness guides on it, but it certainly looks cool!
I’m also not sure how I’ll use the Project Manager inserts, but I love the way they look. The idea is that you can use them to isolate a few pages that relate to a particular topic, and archive those pages in the folder when you take them out of the binder. The colors and texture of the folders are just gorgeous.
The other refills I received are a grid pad and to-do list pad. The tiny 2mm grid is very light and subtle. A fine red line runs along the top, and there’s a slash in the corner that you could use for page numbers or dates. They glue-bind the refill pads so it’s tempting to just use them as stand-alone notebooks! I’m torn (pun intended) as to whether to tear out refill sheets or just leave the booklet intact as is. I did rip out a couple pages of the to-do list refill to stick inside the project folder.
The paper is super smooth and lovely to write on. Everything about it seems so sharp and precise, I almost hated to defile it with my Super Sharpie. There were some teensy specks of bleed through in a couple spots with my fountain pens but spots where I bore down to flex the nib were fine. There was also some feathering with a few pens, including rollerball pens. On the whole, I would say the paper is very fountain pen friendly, and about average in terms of show-through. But it will depend on what your favorite pens are.
Plotter notebooks are expensive: $98-145 for the mini size binders. If you aren’t sure about committing to the leather binder, you might want to try the refills first. At 5″ high by 3 1/8″ wide, they will fit almost any standard 6-ring pocket size looseleaf notebook. My tiny DaVinci notebook, which has smaller rings than the Plotter, will hold the inserts, but the page edges stick out beyond the edge of the binder. Plotter may be one of the only options for fountain pen friendly inserts for refillable notebooks in this size– DaVinci/Raymay inserts are surprisingly not fountain pen friendly, in my limited experience. Nolty has some under their Bindex and Pagem brands, but I haven’t tested them to see if the paper is as good as what’s used in their planners. Filofax says some of their inserts are fountain pen friendly but I haven’t tried any Filofax paper made in the past decade, maybe even longer!
For me, the only drawbacks to this Plotter notebook relate to my personal preferences for slightly different proportions– I like a somewhat narrower binder size, and wish the Plotter didn’t have such a big overhang beyond the pages. If they made a “slim” Mini size, I’d be head over heels. Another matter of personal preference is how minimal the binder is. I love the simplicity, but sometimes it’s nice to have pockets. The Plotter notebook can’t be used as a wallet the way a Filofax can. (Unless you add some non-Plotter inserts.)
I still want to find a way to use my Plotter notebook, though. I may look into getting one of the inserts that adds an elastic that you can use to close the notebook, which would allow me to stuff more pages into it. I love the look of Plotter binders (and Travelers Notebooks) when they are broken in and fat with lots of inserts. I gave up on my Travelers Notebook before it got to that point, but maybe I can stick it out with the Plotter! A couple of Field Notes tucked in, and an elastic from a Smartwool socks package, and I’m already loving this chubby bundle!
Many thanks to the folks at Plotter USA for providing me with this sample to review!
I may tend to use a lot of Moleskines and similar pocket hardcover notebooks, but I’m still a sucker for a nice wire-o binding on a notebook, especially one with some interesting design details. I was very happy when Goldspot Pens gave me the opportunity to review a free sample of the Nebula Casual Note, made in Korea by Colorverse.
I chose the dotted paper with an orange cover. The color is great, and I love the subtle space motif: there’s a cute little astronaut on the label, and there are tiny stars stamped in silver foil on the cover. When you remove the labeled shrinkwrap, you’re left with a very minimalist design. Just those stars on the front, subtle branding and specs on the back cover, and the company web address on each page right near the rings.
Size is a pretty true A5, 145 x 208mm, with 120 pages (60 sheets). It’s about 8mm thick.
The pages inside are all perforated so they can be easily detached. (It’s nice that the brand name is left on the strip that remains with the rings.) The dots are all perfectly aligned on every page, which adds to the overall impression of attention to detail. The paper feels a little more toothy than I was expecting– it’s not the silky smoothness of a Clairefontaine or Rhodia, or the fine, thin Tomoe River paper. It didn’t feel especially thick either, though the packaging says it is 90gsm.
I worried that it might not do well with some of my pens… but I was very wrong! This paper has some of the best performance I’ve encountered in terms of avoiding bleed-through, and it’s better than average on show-through. Fountain pens worked great, with no feathering, and the bright white color allowed my colored inks to look vibrant.
I’m trying to find something not to like about this notebook, but there isn’t much! It would have been nice if they’d used a slightly heavier cardboard for the covers, to make the notebook a little sturdier and more durable. And it would be nice if they offered a broader range of sizes.
I’ll definitely be using this notebook on my desk for work notes. A wire-o binding that I can flip over works really well for that purpose, and while the size is a bit smaller than what I’ve tended to use for work notes in the past, I think it will work fine for me.
Goldspot Pens offers the Nebula Casual Note in lined, dotted and plain versions, in several colors. (They also sell hardcover Nebula notebooks with an elastic closure if you prefer that format. I haven’t tried one but it sounds like it has the same 90 gsm paper.) At $15, the Nebula Casual Note may be a little higher in price than some of the competition– Clairefontaine and Rhodia notebooks in this size can be quite a bit less. But if you prefer a more subtle design and a different paper texture, the Nebula Casual Note may be a great pick for you!
Thanks again to Goldspot Pens for offering this sample for review. I have not received any other compensation for this post and all opinions are my own.
I found this week’s addict via a link at The Cramped, and there’s just so much to love!
First, 96 notebooks all in a row! I am always impressed by this level of commitment to a single notebook type/brand.
Then there’s the red dots on the spines so you can see at a glance how many notebooks were used per year– great trick!
There are additional photos showing how the notebooks are stored and used. They’re even labeled using a vintage typewriter!
The post goes into a lot of detail about Dave’s system of life-logging and note-taking, talking about pens and pencils, as well as paper vs. digital note-taking and archiving. I could never attempt his level of detailed logging, let alone the way he transcribes things to an indexed, searchable digital archive, but I did find myself feeling inspired by his one-notebook capture system. There are some similarities to a minimalist bullet journaling structure, and it just seems so simple. Dave also has this very wise thought about journaling:
I think the journaling habit is more of an enabler of other activities than an actual end goal of its own. It can boost and support everything else you want to do.
Writing down good ideas boosts the generation of good ideas. Writing down goals and todos clears those from the mind so you don’t have to worry about them (for a while).
I need to remind myself of this more often– to focus less on filling notebooks just for the fun of using notebooks, and focus more on what goals my notebooks are being used to support.
Read more at Ratfactor.com/notes.
These Harvard Coop diaries mark the beginnings of my serious obsession with little black notebooks. I started using them at around the age of 9. Before that, I’d had some 3 x 5″ spiral notebooks, and I liked to get the little Hallmark month-to-a-page planners that drugstores would give out for free, but I barely knew how to write, let alone what to write in them. The Harvard coop notebooks came along at a point when I could control my own handwriting pretty well, so I could use them for more than just scribbling. But I think I would have fallen in love with them even if I had been younger– they awakened a deep love for little black notebooks which has evolved over the years, but never fundamentally changed.
I don’t remember the exact circumstances of getting my first “Coop book,” as I used to call them (one syllable and rhymes with “loop”). I had a childless great-aunt who worked for Harvard, and as a member of the Coop (the campus store for books, records, and other items, which still exists, though it is now operated by Barnes & Noble), she got these diaries for free every year. I guess she noticed my interest in notebooks and since she didn’t use the diaries, thought I might like to have one. I was so thrilled with this gift that she went looking through her desk drawers and found me another diary from a prior year. And then, over the next couple of years, she gave me the new ones as they came along.
I’m an aunt myself now, and can appreciate how much she must have enjoyed giving me these notebooks. I’m not sure I’ve ever succeeded in giving my own niece and nephew such an exciting gift, but I know how good it feels to make a kid happy with something simple. My great-aunt saw me using these notebooks constantly, and often carrying them in a little pocketbook she’d also given me. Everyone in my large extended family probably remembers me always having one of these Harvard Coop diaries in my hand at that age, and when I have pulled out other notebooks in more recent years, sometimes people say “you always liked little black notebooks…”
Like other promotional diaries, these notebooks have pages with for phone numbers and expense records, as well as other extra information in them. Rather than lists of city populations or area codes, the info pages relate to the academic calendar at Harvard and MIT, and the products and services of the Coop, which were extensive. The 1979-1980 diary is the first to mention “computers” as part of the office equipment category, which up to that point had only noted calculators and typewriters. Compact discs join records and tapes in 1985-1986. VCRs are first mentioned in 1986-1987. I underlined the departments I thought I’d like to shop in.
The Harvard Coop diaries run from July through July to accommodate academic schedules. It’s interesting to note the changes in how they were made– the 1973 version had a nice textured cover, and other variations in texture occurred in later years. In 1980, they started adding “The Coop” in a logo font on the cover. Until 1980-1981, the cover was removable, so you could tuck things in the pockets, but afterwards, the cover was glued on. The plastic covers on the oldest diaries are stuck on now, but they were obviously meant to have the notebook only tucked into the back pocket. I preferred to have the cover tucked on both sides, even if it obscured the yearly calendar.
I used the Harvard Coop diaries very intensely in the first few years, but by 1981-1982 the entries are more sporadic. I seem to have stopped using them in the fall of 1983 as everything after that point is blank. The last 3 diaries are completely unused. (I had started buying other slightly larger diaries in 1981 and was using those exclusively as of 1984.) I never use notebooks this small anymore, but I suppose it’s because I myself am bigger. The Coop books look tiny next to my pocket Moleskine and Nolty diary, but proportionally, I think they fit my childhood hands about the way my favorite 3.5 x 5.5″ size does now.
I love having these notebooks in my collection as they are the first true diaries I ever kept. I didn’t always write entries in each day, but I did during certain periods, and I’ve found things that I wouldn’t have remembered otherwise. In 1979, I noted that I was staying with my grandmother, and that my great aunt came and took me to play mini golf and go bowling, and that I went to stay at her apartment for a couple of days. At the end of the week, there is a note dated 1981, saying I couldn’t believe I hadn’t mentioned my grandmother’s illness during those days in 1979. My 2-years-older self noted that it had been very scary and that I felt bad being there while she was sick. She must have been feverish and delirious for a while, and I wrote that she’d told me about some weird dreams she’d been having, including something about a fish made of carrots!
Today, more than 40 years later, I vividly remember many details about the times I stayed at my grandmother’s house, so it was surprising to discover a memory I’d lost. With my Coop books, I was already learning to record my life; already revisiting and reflecting on what I had recorded, and what I hadn’t. These habits continue to this day.
I love it when my wishes come true! I was thrilled when the Nolty Daily Book was announced for 2020 to celebrate their 70th anniversary but then crushed when they decided not to add it to their regular line-up. But thanks to Instagram, I recently spotted a sneaky late addition to their new products: an undated Nolty Daily book! This is a great compromise for people who wanted a daily page layout, and I think some users will even prefer it to the original dated model (see my review of the original one here).
The new Daily Book aka Dailybook comes in two colors: black with black edges, and a sort of greige/taupe, with maroon edges. The taupe color didn’t look quite as nice in person as I’d hoped, but the edges are fun. I might swap a black cover onto the red-edged notebook to see how it looks! The exterior cover is plastic and removable, just like the previous daily book, though the fit seems somewhat looser. If this becomes a successful product, I can envision a secondary market of custom covers made of leather or other materials, for those who want something a little more exciting. I’m definitely tempted to see what else I could use for that purpose– I have a gutted Moleskine City Notebook that is a very close fit but not quite big enough, as I left its original endsheets and back pocket attached. Without those it would probably work.
Inside, you get one page of a planner list format, but other than that, it’s all the page-per-day layout of the original daily book, with a blank space to write the date. Day of the week abbreviations at the top of each page can be circled or checked. The original Dailybook had a yearly spread and a section of monthly spreads at the beginning, and at the back there were a a couple notes pages and assorted other info and subway maps, similar to what is in the Nolty Efficiency Notebook. All that has now been eliminated, so the notebook is about 13mm thick instead of 14mm. Some people might miss those extra pages, but to me, it’s fine. I didn’t use them when I had the original Daily Book anyway. And the undated Nolty Daily Book has 414 total pages, so there is some leeway if you need to jot some extra notes outside of keeping to a strict page per day.
When I bought the 2020 Nolty Daily Book, it was announced rather late, and then I dithered about how/where to order it and didn’t end up getting it until early February, so I wasn’t able to use the entire notebook. The undated notebook was also announced late in relation to the rest of Nolty’s 2022 line-up, but since it can be started on any day and doesn’t have to be used for every consecutive day, it doesn’t even matter! I still felt a little anxious to get one before the beginning of the year and was happy when mine shipped fairly quickly from Japan. I originally emailed JMAM an inquiry in mid-December. They responded quickly, I dithered for a few days after hearing how much shipping would cost, and then from the time I confirmed my payment on December 22, it seemed like an amazingly quick turnaround to having the notebooks in my hand on December 31.
The other advantage to the undated format is that you can buy several at once, which is exactly what I did to save on shipping. “Save” is relative here, as the minimum shipping cost from JMAM is about $45 USD! It used to be half that, but the global supply chain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic have made international shipping much more expensive. I bought 4 daily books, (1980 yen each, which is just over $17 USD) plus one other new Nolty product that I was curious about, and the total came to about $123 USD including shipping. But it is still a lot cheaper than the Hobonichi Techo, which is usually close to $40 not counting shipping. There is a lot to love about the Hobonichi Techo, but I prefer the size of the Nolty Dailybook.
There are a couple of downsides when you compare the undated Nolty Daily Book to the original. I kind of miss the big red color pops on Sundays and extra blocks of green with the month numbers, just as design elements. The “S” for Sundays in the header is still red but it’s so small you almost don’t notice. I also miss the slight extra thickness of the 2020 model, but maybe I just need to tuck or paste some tidbits into the notebook to bulk it up. And the cover does bother me a bit– there’s nothing on it to identify the year, obviously, and my usual method of writing dates on the page edges when I archived finished notebooks gets tricky because of the black color. I miss the embossed year on the spine of Nolty’s dated diaries. I’d really like to cover the undated Dailybook with something else and will continue to play around with other options.
So I had my Nolty Daily Book all ready to use starting January 1, 2022, but did I? Actually, no! I stared at it for a couple of days because I hadn’t yet decided how I want to use it, but on the 3rd, I decided to dive in. In 2020, I felt like I had too many notebooks going at once and couldn’t come up with a good way to separate what I was writing in each one. I love the idea of keeping a daily log, but I already use my Efficiency Notebook for a lot of that. Then I’m usually using a Moleskine or Bindewerk notebook for journaling. I need to think more about what I want to keep some of this separate in the Daily Book, or whether I’d want to try using the undated Nolty Daily Book as a journal– that would mean I’d often use more than one page per day, but that would be fine too. For now, I’m using it as a daily log and allowing myself to doodle it in with my fountain pens. We’ll see if that pattern changes, but I know I will use the 4 I bought in one way or another!
EDITED: as of 2024, the ordering information below is no longer valid. You can order directly from the JMAM website by using the Worldshopping tab that pops up automatically for overseas shoppers. This is a proxy service that buys and ships products to international addresses.
For those who want to order, at the moment it seems this item is available only directly via JMAM, not via Kinokuniya, which is where I have been ordering my other Nolty diaries. Hopefully that will change but in the meantime, here’s how to order, at least for US residents. (In the past, I believe they have not shipped to Europe but I don’t know the current details on where they do and don’t deliver.)
Gather the item numbers for products you want from the JMAM website (for the black Dailybook, it is NTBND1230. For the beige Dailybook is is NTBND1231.) then send an email to e-shop@jmam.co.jp with this information:
They will respond to you with a link where you can securely enter your credit card for payment. The shipping cost is 5250 yen for up to 2kg “within 60 cm.” I’m not sure exactly how they calculate the 60cm but presume it is a combination of the package length, width and height. The package is shipped by Yamato Transport. My delivery was then made by UPS.