So says our friend Inkophile in “My New Notebook Is Scary!“:
Ever been at a loss over how to utilize that terrific new notebook? Afraid you’ll make a mess of it? Relax. It’s your notebook and it will hang on your every word. Honest!
Read more at her blog, and check out the latest ink reviews too– subtle shades of grey!
Ellann writes in to ask for help identifying this mysterious notebook:
Two years ago, my mother gave me a notebook that I thought I would really hate, but turned out to love. The pictures are in the album linked to below. My guess would be that she bought it on sale somewhere like Staples or Walmart, but I have been very unsuccessful in my search for another one. There is no name on the notebook anywhere, no symbols, nothing. The only really distinguishing feature are the dots at the end of every other line on that paper. The cover is really stiff, no bending the book at all. The cover is also a little squishy and has some give between the outer leather-ish layer and the hard layer. Do you have any guesses on who manufactured this book or where I could find another one?
You can see more pictures here.
I’m sure I’ve seen journals like this with padded covers at various stationery shops, or perhaps Barnes & Noble or Borders, but this exact design isn’t ringing a bell, and I don’t recall ever seeing paper with dotted lines like that. Can anyone help Ellann?
Some wonderfully vibrant notebook art by Guilherme Dietrich, from Doodler’s Anonymous:
Looks like this was done in a Moleskine sketchbook.
I don’t know if this qualifies as an “Addict of the Week” post, but here’s some thoughts on notebook use from Surviving in Argentina:
The one with the wire coil is my old notebook, the one I used last year and was mostly dedicated to help with my book. I carried it around all day and made small notes of what I wanted to write down later that day, or ideas I thought I’d be missing form a certain chapter.
I found this to be incredibly useful. It also worked for everyday work such as writing down measures, making floor plan sketches, even writing down improvised signed receipts so as to keep track of work begin done and money paid.
The notebook ended up pretty messy, yet functional: If I wrote something down somewhere else I just glued it to one of the notebooks pages, if I need more space I’d use another larger page, fold it and glued it too. If I needed more space to continue a line of thought wrote somewhere, I just cut a couple more pages with my pocket knife and glued it where it was needed….
The other notebooks are a Moleskine, and a hand-made watercolor notebook.
I watched this movie the other night and was incredibly disappointed. I loved Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and thought Charlie Kaufman could do no wrong, but this movie was just a boring, overwrought, trying-too-hard downer as far as I was concerned.
But there were a couple of scenes where I couldn’t help perking up at glimpses of notebooks! You can see one image of torn out notebook pages here:
I don’t remember what he was writing on those pages… and frankly, I don’t care enough to watch the movie again to find out!
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Here’s a quote from one of the best books I’ve read recently, The Elegance of the Hedgehog
We went on to discuss the definition of intelligence and he asked me if he could write down my formula in his moleskine notebook: “It is not a sacred gift, it is a primate’s only weapon.”
That is not a capital-M Moleskine product placement. I suppose in France the term moleskine has been, and is still more commonly used as meaning a certain sort of generic notebook, though I suppose that may change if Moleskine’s trademark policy is aggressively policed! From the company website:
The trademark MOLESKINE® is more and more frequently used on the net in various ways. We are pleased and proud of this because this is the indication of the interest and passion that our trademark can create. However, people using this trademark must be aware of the fact that MOLESKINE ® is a trademark registered by Moleskine S.r.l. and that it cannot be used without following some precise rules.
MOLESKINE ® is a trademark registered worldwide by Moleskine S.r.l., located in Milan, Viale Stelvio No. 66, 20159 – Italy.
We would be happy to allow free use of the same to all those people who find in the name Moleskine a deep connection with their way of being and acting. However Moleskine’s story and characteristics, together with the tradition which has been accompanying it from many years, require a very careful evaluation of every single situation.
Through its trademark, Moleskine wants to guarantee the quality which distinguishes its products and the coherence with its values and philosophy. For this reason, we ask all those people who want to use the name and/or the trademark Moleskine in the net to send us their request. Each request will be valued carefully by us and will receive a reply.
Sound a bit heavy ! But given what they’ve done with the brand, I can’t say it’s the most outrageous example of protecting a trademark that I’ve seen…
One of my readers needs your help! She bought this notebook at Hobby Lobby, but she’s wondering if they can be purchased anywhere else. I’ve never seen this exact brand, and my own web searching has produced no leads. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but it looks similar to the Pen & Ink sketchbook I reviewed…
It is called “The Art of Watercolor†and there is also “The Art of Pen & Ink†version for dry media. They are in the sketchbook section and cost something like $12 for the large size. They are the same size as the Molekskine, have the back pocket, the ribbon bookmark, the elastic closure band, and a smooth black cover which has a more rubbery feel than the Moleskine cover. They also come in a pocket version that is the same size as the small Moleskine Sketchbook.
Read more of her review here, and let us know if you can help find these!
Welcome to everyone who came here looking for “notebook p 0 r n!” I promise you will find it! This site lovingly and obsessively drools over new and old notebooks of all brands, my notebooks, other people’s notebooks, with reviews, photos, ideas, tips, musings and questions, all about notebooks! You can subscribe to my feed here. You can also follow me on Twitter.
I am so flattered to have been noticed by one of the bigger blogs I follow! For regular Notebook Stories readers who don’t know it, The Unclutterer is a great source of inspiration for anyone who’s ever thought their life needs a little simplifying, and their “Unitasker Wednesday” series is always good for laughs! Of course, for many of us, notebooks and clutter are pretty much inseparable, but that’s all the more reason to check out The Unclutterer’s list of 35 Luxury Notebook brands. They even mentioned a few I hadn’t heard of… time to go shopping again! And as long as I keep my piles neat, it’s not clutter. Right?
Check out Drawing with a Squirrel, reviewing J. Herbin foutain pen inks in a Clairefontaine notebook:
