I LOVE NOTEBOOKS. They’re awesome. I love brand new ones; fresh, clean, and blank with smooth, crisp pages and tight spines. I love old ones that are well-worn, well-loved, filled cover to cover with lead and ink and stuffed fulls of spare pages everywhere –those ones that look like they’ll disintegrate or explode if you breath on them. Moleskin, leather bound, handmade, pocket-size, jotters, spiral bound, composition, notepads. I love them empty and I love them full. I love them as an object and also as an art. I love writing in them, sketching, doodling, dreaming, making collages, making lists. They help me be happier, vent anger, express creativity, define myself.
I love notebooks and to share the love, I’ve decided to do a series highlighting my love of notebooks, and by extension, writing (and probably paper, handwriting, and record keeping). I keep many notebooks and think everyone should do the same (or at least one), but I’ve noticed so many ways that people get hung up on the whole thing. I’ve heard countless varieties of the goal “keep a journal” make its appearance on so many resolutions lists, and heard people express dismay at their own lack of commitment with it and I’ve wondered why. It’s never been something I had to work on or resolve to do–it’s always just burst forth out of me. Less like a chore and more like a need and a joy.
So, you may not be there yet, but I want to inspire you all to keep notebooks. Not in a make-you-feel-guilty-if-you-don’t kind of way, but just a space to share tips, ideas, encouragement, inspiration and pretty pictures. If you have an awesome notebook/notebook type project idea/an insanely awesome 200 year old notebook from your great great ancestor/thoughts on the subject, I’d love for you to share! (email me danachristine8@gmail.com)
Look for my notebook love posts in weeks to come (tuesdays? yes, tuesdays I think)
Click HERE to access the whole archive of Notebook Love posts, or check out the list of posts:
The blogging dilema: how to navigate between handwritten and digital record keeping
Scribble & jot 