my favourite notebooks

For those that know me, know… that I have a bit a of a “love-hate”-relationship with notebooks. I love buying new ones, as that means I have a new project, but I hate seeing them, almost unused, in the corner of a room, looming over me, which means that I have abandoned yet another project.

I love notebooks. I love the tactile feel of taking a pen to notebook and writing down those thoughts we deem important (which years later you read back and see if they survived the test of time).

I love cheap notebooks, because eventually, it costs less to abandon a project then, but actually, I should treat myself to more expensive ones, as those… have survived the test of time and have been used more than those cheap ones. The reverse logic is not lost on me, as I grew up poor and putting money into something means that I have to keep at it, or it’s a waste of money, so here follow my recommendations for notebooks, if you want to start a new project.

Leuchtturm 1917

Yes, I admit. I jumped the bullet journal hype. Did I keep at it? Nope. Did I learn something valuable. Absolutely. I know that day in and out notebook keeping is not something for me, especially not for a diary or agenda. I can not write down tasks that I have to do. I never did in school. I was the kid that left their diary at the front desk for a whole year, borrowed a diary at the end of the year and copied everything at the end, so their diary was in order as well. I hated the 5 minutes each time that it took me to fill in my diary. I started good, it never did end well, so I stopped. I gave myself the leaway once I found this loophole for myself and never looked back. As long as the diary was filled in at the end of the year when we had to hand it in, all was good. So, I did it that way.

Bullet journal brought back those feelings, but I was there when it was first released (hipster!!). I saw the very first clip that was released and I loved the system. I fell in love with it adapted it a bit and eventually abandoned it. Not all of it. I do love the index in the notebooks and use that part. Which makes my notebooks more organized (those that are slightly used). And the notebooks they use for that system are Leuchtturm 1917’s and I have to admit, for the price of admission, they are top notch. Quality paper, I love it. You have them in all sizes, and they have art ones as well, so you can have the same qualities you love with the regular notebooks, but have them with art paper as well, as a sketchbook. I have to admit, that I am not confident enough in my artskills, but I love using that kind of paper.

Rhodia

If you ever want to feel a pen glide accross paper like silk around a beautiful person, you get that feeling on a rhodia notebook. It’s marvelous. I fell in love the moment I had my first Rhodia notebook. Great for art-lettering and just plain old writing, as my hand-writing sucks, but my ex girlfriend loved the hand-lettering she did, and that looked awesome. Rhodia paper is good for both. I love the fact that they have journalist style notebooks, where you can rip papers (yes, I feel your spine shivering), but they also offer a more quality experience like Moleskine or Leuchtturm, where you get a faux leather cover and can cover the pages with ideas and madness and call it yours, and look back at it… just me? ok.

As an extra

As an extra, you get my favourite pen. I have one pen, that I use in all these journals. A pen I discovered years ago. It’s a decade ago now. Must have been my first or second nanowrimo when I first started using these pens. They glide accross paper. I just love them. They are the Uniball Signo 0.7, for the pen nerds amongst us. If you want a pen that writes smoothly, in black, this is your pen. I always buy them in bulk, as with my adhd brain, I lose them all the time. Or I hook them up to a journal, which I will find back years later, with the pen still attached, or it’s in my bedroom, where I do most of my writing, and I don’t want to go to the living room (3 meters) to fetch a pen, so I have a small stash there, just so I don’t lose my will to write or my ideas. So you know what kind of pen nerd I am.

Reason why to buy a notebook

As an afterthought you get my reason why I buy notebooks, and why I don’t throw them out. I love writing, but I don’t love my written children. I have thrown out more words than I can count, and I can not tell you how much it means to me that I have been blogging for so long as I have been doing, and that I love that you, folks, love my writing. One of my favourite stories, which has been living in my mind, has been written down countless times, and has survived several thrown away writing sessions and papers. I have it on my google docs (I think), and I don’t think I have posted it on my blog here, as it’s not finished yet. It doesn’t end well. I have tried to make it end well, but it doesn’t work that way. I started writing that one when I was 18 and it has had so many revisions, I can’t count them anymore. I can not even tell you the kind of silly ideas I have tried giving it. I have thrown away whole notebooks as well, with writing, that just didn’t click for me. Nanowrimo projects that just didn’t go anywhere, which I couldn’t even read years later, but I have now a thing with notebooks that I can not throw them away, as it’s a kind of timecapsule for me now. I don’t have many pictures of myself, and never will. I am not someone that likes to be photographed, but I love writing, and it’s my dream to become a renowned writer and it’s cool to see other writer’s notebooks and how they struggled with things, and it would be a disservice to my future fans (which might never happen, I know) to throw away my pathway to my good novel. To throw away all the struggles that I had with writing, just so that you only see the diamonds, which never happens, but there is still that myth, that awesome writing just happens. That is why I don’t throw my notebooks away, even when I can not stand the sight of them or read them ever again.

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