Kikkerland, Moleskine, My Collection, new products, Notebook Reviews, Places to Buy Notebooks, Writersblok, Writing Notebooks

Kikkerland WritersBlok Notebooks Now Available

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I’ve been wanting to check these out for a while, and it seems they are finally more widely available. I picked up a set of 3 small dotted notebooks at Paper Presentation on West 18th St. in NYC. They also had the large size, and ruled and plain paper versions in both sizes. I’ve read that they are also being sold at the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store and Exit 9, a fun gift shop with locations in Manhattan and on Smith Street in Brooklyn.

My 3-pack cost $5.95 before tax– cheaper than Moleskine cahiers. But are they a good alternative to Moleskine? Let’s dive right in and find out!

First impressions: the 3-pack comes shrink-wrapped, and within that the 3 notebooks are wrapped in a single paper band. They have a plain paper cover with a stitched spine, very similar to the Cahiers. (Not smooth like the Moleskine Volants, one of which is shown here for comparison. The Volant is also slightly wider.) I like the colors they come in, a variety of muted shades– mine were a dark red, blue, and black. I saw other styles that came in lighter grey and green shades.

The front cover has an embossed rectangle– for some reason, I really liked this. It made me think of some old red-bordered labels I had as a kid, and I thought how nice something like that would look pasted into that rectangle… more on that later, though.

The back cover has the WritersBlok name on it, in the way most other notebook brands label themselves these days.

When you open up the notebook, you’re right into the paper– no cover page asking for your name and address. Inside the back cover, there is a pocket. There’s a little info sheet tucked in front of it, noting that some of the proceeds from these notebooks support literacy programs such as 826NYC, which cleverly disguises itself as the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store. And it includes a nice message:

Writing is good exercise. It’s good for your mind in the same way that riding a bike is good for your legs. It’s a way to communicate, capture a thought, grow an idea. It helps you think, be more creative, and….it’s fun. And these are things we think are good and good for you…

The insert also helpfully points out that Kikkerland Design is located on “WETS” 127th Street in New York… hmm, wonder where that is?

I was also mystified by this little piece of paper in the back pocket. I thought, well, the pocket is kind of tightly glued down at the edges, maybe they’re afraid people won’t notice it’s there if they don’t stick this little thingie in it? The little thingie was tacked down lightly with a tiny bit of adhesive, but it was easy to remove.

How about the paper? I was so pleased with the first impression of the exterior of these notebooks that I almost forgot to try writing in one! Unfortunately, this started to burst the bubble a bit. The paper is pretty thin. It just doesn’t have as nice and smooth a feeling when you write in it, and the pens I tried showed through quite a bit, and the Uniball Vision Micro feathered somewhat.

I also noticed that the dot pattern on one of my notebooks was somewhat askew– if you look at the photos above, you may notice that the paper band was askew around the set, which was no big deal, but I started to notice even more asymmetry. One notebook’s spine stitching was a teensy bit crooked, and all of them seemed to curl up a bit at the lower right corner, I guess due to the way the pocket is attached.

And here’s the final bit of crookedness that really bothered me: you know that little slip of paper in the pocket? I finally noticed that the paper band mentioned an “optional use label” and realized that’s what it was! It took me forever to actually be able to pick the backing off this flimsy little sticker to place in in the embossed rectangle on the front cover… and when I did, I was really disappointed, especially after my nostalgia for my nice old labels! On these, the edges aren’t square, and frankly, it looks like I stuck a piece of masking tape on there.

The downside to these notebooks is definitely the quality. The edges had some uneven cutting, the details mentioned above were crooked, and the paper feels thin. But I like the colors and design, and it’s great to have a dotted paper option. For a very inexpensive, made-in-China, we’re-donating-proceeds kind of item, I guess I shouldn’t complain but I must confess I was hoping for something that would excite me more. Oh well– I’m sure other opinions will differ. Has anyone else tried these yet? What are your thoughts?

Filofax, Journal, Links, Moleskine, Organization, Personal, productivity, record-keeping

What’s Your System?

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Do you have a “system” for using a notebook? A lot of people talk about using notebooks for GTD– the method of organizing tasks promoted by David Allen’s best-selling productivity book Getting Things Done. I’ve had a few different methods of tracking tasks in notebooks and on a computer and PDA, but here’s my current system, which is somewhat similar to GTD, as I understand it:

The notebook I’m currently using is a pocket-sized Moleskine with plain unlined pages. The first page is an index where I reference pages relating to several key ongoing categories:

  • Books
  • Movies
  • Travel
  • Recipes
  • Ideas for this blog
  • Ideas for another blog
  • Ideas for blog #3

The pages in the notebook are filled with a variety of things– journal entries, lists, drawings, pasted-in clippings. I keep the ribbon marker at the next empty page available.

For the books, movies, and travel lists, I have a red line running around the border of the page, to make them easier to find and flag them as long-term lists that I’d want to move to a new notebook when this one is finished.

For a few key items, I use colored post-it flags to mark active lists. Two of the blog lists are marked with yellow and blue post-its. My active to-do list for general day-to-day tasks is marked with a red post-it. A shopping list is marked with an orange post-it. I sometimes use a green post-it for another key list, such as when I was keeping track of Christmas gifts I’d bought or wanted to buy.
When I fill up a to-do page, I start a new one. If there are lots of not-yet-done items on the page, I leave the post-it flag on it. If most of the items were crossed off as being completed, I’ll just re-write the not-yet-done items on a new page and remove the post-it from the old page.
For the blogging lists, I tend to have several pages with post-its on them indicating still active items. For the to-do and shopping lists, I limit myself to one page of active items, and always find that I complete most of the items before I fill up the page. I re-write the to-do list on a new page fairly frequently, about twice a week.

I keep my work tasks separate, on my computer at work, with new ones jotted on a printout of my Outlook task list. I keep a few other long-term lists on my computer, which is handy– I may experiment with pasting printouts of them into a notebook, but for certain things, I kind of enjoy maintaining them with just pen and paper, and having all those crossed-out completed tasks to go back to.

I like using a Moleskine-type notebook for all this because it has a nice permanence to it, and because the combination of the paper and a nice smooth pen makes writing things down so pleasurable. But using a looseleaf Filofax-type notebook would in some ways be more practical.

Do you have similar systems and habits for how you use notebooks?

My Collection, Nostalgia, Personal

A Chinese Diary, 1980

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When I was about 8 years old, my grandmother took me to visit the office where she had formerly worked. One of her friends there took a liking to me, and for several years afterwards, we kept in touch through short cards and letters. A few years ago, the friend, whose name was Lucy, returned some of my letters to her, which were really fun to read. I don’t think I still have any of Lucy’s letters to me, but I do still have some stamps from Hong Kong that she gave me, and this diary:

Lucy was Chinese, and at the time, it seemed very cool and exotic to get a diary that was MADE IN CHINA! I mean, who else had something that was actually MADE IN CHINA!?!?! I felt special! (Actually, it was made in Hong Kong, which was still a British colony at the time.) I found this design of this diary slightly goofy with the red cover and paintings and religious quotes, but it was definitely a unique addition to my notebook collection.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything very interesting to say during the brief time that I actually used it:

My Collection, Nostalgia, Paper King, Personal

Paper King Memo Book, late 1970s or early 1980s

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Here’s a gem from the late ’70s/early ’80s. I love the simple cover design with the 25 cent price at the bottom. I wonder what ever happened to the Eastern Tablet company of Albany, NY. When you google it, not much comes up other than the obituaries of people who worked there at one time. I think notebooks are a perfect example of the decline of American manufacturing– they used to be made by a variety of small local companies, as recently as the 1980s, but then factories started shutting down and companies consolidated and shipped their business off to China. Now we have lots of varieties of fancy journals, but when it comes to simple notebooks like this, you get one or two generic brands that are offered by Staples and that’s about it.

But back to the appreciation of this old beauty– I also love the double wire binding– not “spiral,” exactly. This kind doubles back on itself and allows the notebook to fold over while still keeping the top and bottom edges of the pages aligned, which I have always appreciated.

And 25 cents! What a bargain. I loved this notebook so much I would have bought ten of them at once, except that my weekly allowance at the time was only about 50 cents, and I also had to budget for candy.

At this age, many of my notebooks were focused on spying and clubs– or to combine the two, a secret spy club!

It’s also another amusing example of self-referential notebook use. If I didn’t have anything better to write about, I’d write about how much I liked the notebook and draw a picture of it! It’s as if I was preordained to become a notebook blogger, well before anyone had heard of the internet, or, for that matter, a “personal computer!”

Hopefully the commentary I’m providing on this site 30-odd years later is more insightful!

Moleskine, Personal, productivity, record-keeping

Notebooks at Work

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I’ve been thinking a lot about how people use notebooks at work. Yesterday’s post showed a few of Obama’s staff with notebooks among the tools of their trade. Certain professions use notebooks as a matter of course: reporters, for one. If you look at the Alwych website, they describe their notebooks as being used by “the Police, tanker and delivery drivers, milkmen, etc.” Maybe some of these occupations now have computerized ways of recording information, but not everything has to go high tech– I believe scientists also have to record their findings in notebooks that are dated and carbon-copied, so they can prove they haven’t faked their results.

My own office job is nowhere near as interesting as any of that, but it definitely requires note-taking. At meetings with my colleagues, I look around the room and notice a variety of notebooks. More and more are Moleskines lately. Some people use other brands of journals. Then there are many people who use the standard boring spiral notebooks that are available from the supply room for free.

I tend to use a combination of things for taking notes– if there is a handout at a meeting, I write in the margins and on the backs of pages. Sometimes I recycle the backs of old printouts of reports. Sometimes I use plain paper in a 3-ring binder. But occasionally, I use whatever notebook I currently have going for my own personal stuff. It’s my favorite thing to write in, and I also tend to doodle a lot in meetings, so it’s nice to keep those little drawings. But in a way, I feel like it’s a waste to use a nice Moleskine on work stuff. And Moleskines aren’t cheap– why should I spend my own money on something I use for work? (Though since I itemize my tax deductions, I can at least claim them as an unreimbursed business expense!)

How about you? What do you use for notetaking at your job? Do you mix business and personal when it comes to notebooks?

Links, Other People's Notebooks

Obama’s People’s Notebooks

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In yesterday’s New York Times Magazine, there was a photo essay called “Obama’s People,” with portraits of the President-elect’s various cabinet members and staff. I couldn’t help noticing that a few of them were photographed with their notebooks!

Here’s Eugene Kang, 24, Special Assistant to the President. His notebook is the highlight of the photo! It sort of looks like a Moleskine Cahier, but I don’t think it is– wrong color, and it looks like it has more of a pocket in the back. Can anyone identify this notebook?

This is Mark W. Lippert, 35, National Security Council Chief of Staff. His notebooks– 2 of them– look kind of like the larger-size Moleskines, but again, wrong color. I think they must be some other brand.

Here we have Peter R. Orszag, 40, Office of Management and Budget Director-Designate. It’s a little harder to tell, but he seems to have a small notebook or two in his shirt pocket. They could be the same type as Eugene Kang’s above.

Will notebooks have a prominent place in the new administration? Perhaps Barack Obama will start carrying a Moleskine if he’s forced to give up his trusty Blackberry!

creativity, HandBook, Links, Moleskine, Other People's Notebooks, Sketchbook

HandBook vs. Moleskine

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I did my own comparison of a few sketchbooks including the HandBook and Moleskine. I use both brands regularly and like them both very much, for different reasons. But here’s a review from someone who HATES the HandBook!

I’d had some issues with coloring the pages, since they don’t lie as flat as the Moleskine pages and so are hard to color with ink pads–they kind of pucker at the stitching. But I muddled through that one and bought some smaller raised felt pads at Stamp Antonio, so I figured I could deal with that. But then. Then! When I stamped letters, I noticed they feathered. Just ever so slightly, but y’all know me: I hated it.
And then. Then! The pages started sucking the ink out of my pens. The pens–Pigma Microns–started skipping because the pages are just too absorbent. And a little rough. Grrrrrr.

Oh well– everyone has different needs for notebooks!
But here’s my favorite part of the review:

So here I am, 4 days into a brand new journal, all the pages carefully colored, etc., etc., etc. And I HATE it. Whereas (whereas!) I loved the Moleskine in September and couldn’t wait to sit down and play in it every chance I got, I find myself avoiding this one like an new boyfriend you’ve discovered has bad breath and shoulder hair, plus really bad taste in music. It’s just not going to work out, and I don’t know how to break up (a problem I never had with actual boyfriends). Plus I don’t want to break up before the end of the month–I mean, really: we’ve already made plans and bought tickets. But I don’t know if I can stand the pain for 26 more days–I’m not good at masochism. Maybe it’ll be The Substitute: you know, the one you call on for a date to your niece’s Bat Mitzvah or the neighbor’s Tupperware party, where you wouldn’t want to take your Real Boyfriend, lest he run screaming down the street. I could paste in some photos, make some lists, scribble a little and call it done.
We’ll see.

Have you ever started a new notebook that didn’t work out? Did you dump it? Or did you stick with it for the sake of the children?!?

Journal, Links, Other People's Notebooks, record-keeping

Mike Singletary On Using Notebooks

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I love finding articles where people from all walks of life talk about using notebooks. It’s way too easy to find writers talking about using notebooks– that gets really boring after a while, so I was happy to come across this article, an interview with Lowell Cohn of the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, CA, in which Mike Singletary, currently the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, talks about how he uses a notebook :

Mike Singletary carries a notebook around with him and records in it every significant event of every day as it occurs. Call it a life notebook. He spoke to me about it Wednesday afternoon.

Cohn: How often do you make an entry in your notebook?

Singletary: It depends on how many events I have throughout the day; at least three or four times. Every time I meet with a player, every time I have an interview, every time I speak to the team, every time I speak to a coach, every time I have a thought, experience something, learn something.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

Filofax, Links

Are Notebooks Green?

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The Recording Thoughts blog asks “Are Fountain Pens Green?” This made me think about whether or not notebooks are green. There are plenty of notebooks out there made of recycled paper, which helps, but otherwise, those of us who consume a lot of notebooks are also killing a few trees. A Filofax-type notebook might be slightly more environmentally friendly than single-use notebooks like Moleskines. An electronic notebook such as a Palm PDA is probably the most green of all, though of course use of paper isn’t the only factor– there may be chemicals, etc, that go into the manufacture of electronics that are not good for the environment, and since people often replace their electronic devices after a year or two, a lot of them are ending up in landfills. It’s a mystery… but I’m going to try not to lose any sleep over killing the planet in this particular way, as I really don’t think I can stop using notebooks!

Notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, diaries: in search of the perfect page…