My last update was in May 2018, when I shocked everyone by not having any Moleskine notebook in my daily carry. Let’s see how things have changed since then!
I am still using the Leda Sketchbook shown in the May 2018 post. I’m almost done with it and am planning to replace it with a Bindewerk Linen journal with plain pages. The Leda was great for sketching and held up very well — I used it a lot for a couple of months when I was drawing every day, and then still kept it in my bag even when I was not drawing as much. The Bindewerk will be interesting to try for sketching. The paper is quite different and a bit more refined than what I usually use for sketching. If it doesn’t seem conducive to drawing, I may switch back to a Moleskine sketchbook and save the Bindewerk notebooks for journaling.
I am still using my beloved Nolty 2018 diary and am excited to be upgrading to the leather covered Nolty Gold for 2019. Full review to come. (I bought it via Rakuten, which had a better price than Kinokuniya’s online store. I haven’t seen 2019 Nolty diaries in the NYC store at all.)
For my journal and catch-all notebook, I went from the Bindewerk dotted notebook I was using in May back to a squared Moleskine, which I finished recently. I then did something unusual. Instead of starting a fresh notebook, I re-purposed a Moleskine with plain pages that I’d had on my desk for the last couple of years. I started it as a doodle notebook– I used to spend a lot of time on telephone calls for work and would be doodling constantly. I decided to try to channel those doodles into a single notebook rather than messing up all my work papers. I generated a few pages of dense doodles but then didn’t keep up the habit, mainly since my work changed and I wasn’t on long calls anymore. I then used some pages for handwriting practice with fountain pens, using only one side of each page since the Moleskine paper, as we know, tends to bleed. This all left me with a notebook about 1/4 used and it seemed silly to just leave it that way, so I started using it for my diary entries, lists and other jottings.
Other notebooks in regular use that aren’t daily carries:
An old Moleskine Volant used for French class notes. I’m almost done with this one and am not sure what I’ll replace it with. I’ve always used slim notebooks for my class notes, and right now, all my slim notebooks are either buried in a storage unit, or in my to-be-reviewed pile. I guess I’d better get cracking on some reviews, or I’ll have to write my French vocab elsewhere!
A Michael Roger Decomposition Book This has become my catch-all for notes and sketches relating to a home renovation project. A very complicated home renovation project. That is going to take months. And cost a ton of money. This notebook contains a lot of angst!
I also still have a couple of other notebooks that get occasional use: a Pentalic watercolor sketchbook, an old Hobonichi Techo for handwriting practice, and a white Conceptum notebook with some notes and lists relating to this past year’s move and renovation plans.
And I have so many other notebooks waiting in the wings to be used! At least two or three things in my to-be-reviewed pile seem like they could have daily usage potential, including a couple of unusual Asian brands. Stay tuned for reviews over the next couple of months!
Rocketbook’s Everlast promises to combine modern tech with old-school pen and paper. Will it pass Steven Poole’s chicken test?
