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!

creativity, Journal, Links, Organization, Other People's Notebooks, record-keeping, Sketchbook, Travel Notebooks, Writing Notebooks

How To Keep a Notebook

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A WikiHow page on “How to Keep a Notebook:”

Step 1: Decide the purpose for your notebook. Will you write down your inventions? Will you write ideas for the screenplay, novel, poems you will someday write? Will you write down thoughts and ideas related to a particular project? Or do you simply want to have a place to jot your to-do list or shopping list?

Six more steps and additional tips will help guide and inspire the aspiring notebook user. I liked this photo from the WikiHow page too– this person could be a Notebook Addict of the Week!

Journal, Moleskine, My Collection, Organization, Personal

Thick or Thin?

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I’m a little more than half done with my current notebook and I’m already starting to wonder what I’ll use next. Partly this is because I have such a large stack of unused notebooks to choose from… but it’s also due to a bit of restlessness. Since I’ve started using Moleskines, I’ve been quite good about finishing notebooks, without leaving any unused pages. In the past, I’ve often found that I’d get bored with the notebook I was using. Before I could get too far into it, I’d always find a new notebook and want to start using that instead.

One of the notebooks I’m considering using next is a Moleskine Volant. These are quite slim compared to the regular Moleskines. For my typical daily use, it might not last me more than a month or two. These seem a little flimsy to me to be something I’d actually keep a journal in, as opposed to just daily jottings, so that might stretch out the Volant’s lifespan a bit, if I went back to using a separate notebook for my journal entries.

All this got me to thinking about whether a thick notebook is preferable to a thin one. Each have their pros and cons:

A thick notebook will last longer. But it may last so long you’ll get bored with it.

A thick notebook has a nice chunky shape. But it won’t fit comfortably in many pockets.

A thick notebook will hold lots of information. But it may be harder to go back and find what you’re looking for.

A thick notebook will develop that nice, broken-in feeling from a long period of use. But it may get so broken in that it falls apart before you’re done with it.

With a thin notebook, it’s easier to carry more than one if you choose to use separate ones for different purposes.

If you lose a thin notebook, you won’t lose as many notes.

If you get bored with a thin notebook and want to start a new one, you won’t have as many wasted pages to feel guilty about.

It’s quite a dilemma! Which do you prefer?

Moleskine, My Collection, Sketchbook

Notebooks Received as Gifts

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Happy New Year! I am glad to report that during my holiday hiatus, I received several new notebooks as Christmas gifts:

From my mom: a Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook, a Cachet Sketch Book, and a small Strathmore Drawing Pad (along with some nice drawing pencils).

From a friend: a Moleskine Japanese Album and a Moleskine Weekly Planner & Notebook. I’ve never owned one of the Japanese albums, so I’m not sure yet how I’ll use it. I really wanted the Weekly Planner– it’s the nifty red one that includes several pages of stickers– I seem to have reverted to my 12-year old self in falling in love with these stickers that I mostly won’t use! I keep my calendar electronically, so it’s sort of silly for me to want this kind of Moleskine at all, but so far I am using it as a food and exercise journal, and using the notes page to record dreams. Perhaps I’ll uncover some interesting patterns of dreaming about certain things on days when I don’t eat meat, or something like that…

How about you, readers? New year, new notebook? Did you receive any notebooks as Christmas gifts?

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