Notebook Addict of the Week: Natalie Whipple
This week’s addict is a YA writer who considers herself obsessed with notebooks and displays this colorful selection:
These were the notebooks just within reaching distance from where I was sitting. And you’d think I’d feel bad about that, but rounding them up and taking a picture made me smile.
I’m pretty sure that makes me a notebook addict.
But I need them!
Read more at Between Fact and Fiction: Notebook Obsession.
Military Notebooks
More good notebook stuff at A Continuous Lean:
This is a currently available government-issue notebook used by the military. The comments on the post got into a lot of interesting discussion about the “cool” factor of military supplies, with actual service members seeming to find it amusing that the stuff that is just boring to them is so coveted by design-obsessed civilians!
Being a notebook-obsessed civilian myself, I of course had to go searching around for other examples of cool military notebooks. Check out this Etsy item:
I was heartbroken that it had already been sold. Using the federal supply service code number, I went searching for other examples, but look at today’s version sold here and here, but only to authorized government purchasers:
They kept the retro “Memoranda” logo, but it’s no longer a beautiful little hardcover notebook, just a thinner, flexi-bound one. Sad. But it’s nice to know that our military puts some thought into the notebooks they use… and as a taxpayer, I’m glad to see that they only cost about $10 per dozen!
Roaring Spring Spiral Notebooks, Early 1980s
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 all around the edges of one of the front covers. I don’t remember if this was intended to be decorative or to somehow reinforce the cover.
The notebook with the red cover shows off a rather handy modification that I sometimes performed on my spiral notebooks– I’d unwind the spiral, add more paper, and then rethread the spiral back through. I liked having the thickness of the pages be almost equal to the diameter of the wire spiral binding. On this one, I also added the front and back covers of another notebook in order to divide the pages into sections.
The notebook I added must have been a later incarnation of this brand as they added a barcode to the cover, thereby throwing off the pleasing symmetry of the earlier version.
The first page became an index for the 3 sections, but I never bothered to identify them in any particular way.
Throughout all 3 notebooks, I filled the pages with various jottings and doodles and a lot of lists. Below, I was listing tracks from an LP that I wanted to record on cassette tape. (Any ’80s music fans recognize what album this was? The tracks listed here were the more obscure ones, not the hits!)
It’s nice to have nothing more pressing to do than cut out maps and go to the pool! Though I guess I was doing some chores around the house, given the page below:
I also wrote a lot of notes about schoolwork. I like the page below, as you can see what my top school supply priority was!
These old notebooks are always a fun trip down memory lane….
Turn Your MacBook into a Composition Book!
Now this is a cool way to disguise your MacBook Air! The composition book cover is great, but the lined paper skin around the keyboard really completes it!
Via Cult of Mac.
Les Calepins de Lapin
Les Calepins de Lapin translates to “The Rabbit’s Notebooks.” They are full of wonderful sketches, all on lined notebook paper!
Moleskine Monday: Periodic Table Cahier
This is one of the coolest customized cahiers I’ve seen:
Via Make: Online : Designer Moleskines.
Notebook Addict of the Year: Carmen (Again)
Remember this Notebook Addict post about Carmen, who sent me a fabulous selection of European notebooks? I named her Notebook Addict of the Year back in April, a noble distinction that must now be reaffirmed based on this photo of her collection:
Here’s what Carmen has to say about that gorgeous tower:
Here is my collection as of [August 2010]. Last count 156, from the biggest- a Whiteline- to the smallest, a Rhodia. and no, they are not used at all. they are a collection… Every now and then someone asks for a notebook for a specific task, and I look and give it to them if I have it. The plan is for my niece to start inheriting them one by one when she learns to write this year… I have from your basic Composition notebook, to Exaclairs, Clairefontaines, Moleskines, Field Notes, Doane Paper, Miquelrius, Picadilly, etc, the latest addition are the notebooks that my sister recently brought me from her trip to China, that are absolutely gorgeous.
The variety! The colors! The perfectly graduated tower! And even I don’t have 156 unused notebooks!! (At least I’m pretty sure I don’t…) But I feel that this photo has given me permission to feel less guilty about the stockpile I do have!
Big thanks again to Carmen for sharing her love of notebooks– with me, with her niece, with other recipients of her notebook (and pen) gifts, and with everyone who reads this website!
Hunters Armed with Pens and Notebooks
Yet another use for notebooks: keeping a hunting journal!
It is surprising how easy it is to find hunters who keep journals to document their days afield. The formats are diverse — pocket-sized spiral-bound notebooks, hard-covered lined journals, even folders or binders with room for maps, regulation books, photos and old hunting licenses.
“I use a 5-inch by 7-inch spiral notebook with a hard cover my wife bought for me before I went to Alaska in 2008,” said Jared Lampton, a Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks fisheries technician in Libby. “I taped a picture of her helping me pack out a mule deer on the inside cover.”
Some hunters say they keep a journal because it is satisfying to know, for example, where they hunted opening day of the general big game season in 1989. Others record what they observed during the hunt….
Read more at Hunters go out, armed with pens, to document adventures | greatfallstribune.com | Great Falls Tribune.
I love finding stories like this, but I’m always disappointed when they don’t have photos! I want to see some of those hunting journals!
Giveaway: New Products from Daycraft
The nice folks at Daycraft recently sent me some more samples of new products from their latest catalog. (See here for my previous Daycraft review.)Â As usual, the designs are colorful and unusual– nothing plain and boring here! I think my favorite is the violin camouflage pattern.
I’m not doing a full review this time, just a giveaway. 3 lucky readers will each receive a 2011 diary and a notebook.
Here’s how to enter:
On Twitter, tweet something containing the words “Daycraft†and “@NotebookStories.â€
On Facebook, “like†the Notebook Stories page and post something containing the word “Daycraft†on my wall.
On your blog, post something containing the words “Daycraft†and “NotebookStories†and link back to this post.
The deadline for entry is Friday December 17 at 11:59PM, EST. Good luck everyone!