Bob Sassone was curious to know more about the notebooks I use. So here is a rundown—of interest, maybe, to readers who love to write by hand (I suspect there's a significant overlap with typewriter lovers).
My notebooks fall into two groups.
There are the academic notebooks, which I've used since college for class notes (as a student, then as a teacher) and notes from conferences, lectures, etc. These are usually around 8.5" x 11". I am currently on my 41st volume.
Then there are the personal journals, which are smaller, usually 6"x8" or so. I started these in high school and I'm currently on my 19th.
UC Berkeley had a little room where you could buy books to support the library. They were discards or unwanted donations. I found quite a few bizarre oddities here, as well as a few ledger-style notebooks—the kind Bob Sassone says "look like something Scrooge would have used for his business." They had a few scientific notes, written in a fluid and confusing hand with a thick fountain pen. These must date from the 1950s or earlier.
I filled them with course notes (and doodles).
Once the "Scrooge" volumes were full, I turned to unruled artist's sketchbooks, which leave me free to organize text (and doodles) as I like.
For many years I preferred plain, black-bound sketchbooks. There were some exceptions, such as these beautiful volumes. My mother-in-law bought the green one for me in Egypt; I bought the other in Montalcino, Italy.
More recently, I've been using colorful (even a bit garish) blank notebooks produced by Flame Tree. Half Price Books sells these for only $10 apiece.
For the personal journals, I started out in high school with a little, paperbound, lined notebook. All the rest have been nicer, blank journals from various sources. I've gotten several from Epica, which imports beautiful Italian leather-bound journals. Pricey, but worth it.
Moleskine and Leuchtturm 1917 also make good journals, but I've gotten some with thin paper that allows too much ink to show through; in those cases I've written only on the recto (right-side pages).
My preferred handwriting tool is a Pilot Namiki vanishing-point fountain pen. Every year or so, I drop mine on its nib and have to replace it. I'm a klutz.
What if I really want to write something by typewriter? This happens pretty often when I'm preparing for class. I type it up and tape it into a notebook.
There is a lot of satisfaction in working with ink and paper, and filling a shelf with your writing.
What are your favorite ways to write by hand?
I like the Pilot stub nib Metropolitan with their blue ink, in a dot grid notebook. Thank you for this interesting look into your notebook history!
ReplyDeleteThose are some handsome volumes there! The tactile joy of filling them must be very satisfying. (:
ReplyDeleteWhat an impressive collection of journals!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I began keeping a daily journal, it was as a young grad student around 1991 or so. I had just come into a small windfall and used it to order a beautiful, custom leatherbound journal similar to your Epica ones. The vendor of mine has long since been forgotten. Since then, I have almost exclusively used Paperblanks journals in Ultra size (7"x 9" sized, usually about 144 lined pages. Each one lasts me about 6 months, so in the past decade, I've filled dozens.) I also love fountain pens, but have never been a dedicated collector. Among my small selection is a beloved Mont Blanc Meisterstuck I bought just after grad school. This now is not allowed to leave the house. Away from home, I alternate between a new-ish Parker DuoFold and a Lamy Dialog (a retractable fountain pen? Amazing! And it really works well.) And I can probably boast central Alabama's largest collection of Noodler's ink. I'm well supplied with a variety that will last several lifetimes.
Have you given thought to what will happen to your journals after you are gone? It's a question that has pestered me for a few years. Not having children or family to leave them to, but wanting them to perhaps gain some value by being preserved long enough to gain historical significance, I recently arranged for the historical library of my local university to take them. For several reasons, it's an appropriate bequest. Perhaps in a few hundred years, what I've written may be of interest to some historian.
ReplyDeleteI'm torn between offering them to some library archive (as if I'm worth remembering) and burning the things!
DeleteGreat collection of notebooks, and very nicely kept.
ReplyDeleteHi Richard,
ReplyDeleteThat's a mighty & magnificent collection of notebooks!
In answer to your question, I'm a pencil person. My writing life has been transformed by the Blackwing pencil. For paper I use index cards and notebooks, usually small-ish ones that go in a backpack. Moleskine never fails.