People, I love paper. I love paper. I can write that one sentence over again ad infinitum and you would not have an idea of the depth of my love for paper.
With this depraved love (which involves much fondling in public, as well as some stroking, accompanied by vaguely sexual sounds) comes my obsession with writing journals.
I have a journal for every mood. There is the one I use as a commonplace book. The writing improv journal. The book title jotter. The random bits of life, including some very amusing sketches (amusing due to my inability to draw) of current scenery. The whining about life stuff. The one I paste a poem I love for each entry. The one in which I write about God.
With the exception of the journal I kept throughout my adolescence (when I was so vastly inexperienced as to only keep one), I still have every embarrassing random bit of crap that floated through my mind that can be bound between two covers. Even the shit from my twenties, y'all. When I was single. And inappropriately in love. Reading through them is not something I do often. As the Husband will attest, I am not a nostalgia junkie. I like moving forward. My past is filled with crap I do not ever have to relive. But sometimes, it is interesting to note where I once was and how far I've come.
Through the years, I have probably spent as much on journals as I have on music (though never as much as I have on books). I have tried every kind, from plain $1 kiddie notebooks (touted by writing advocates everywhere as the cheapest way to keep the pen moving - I like any with fairies or dragons on them, go figure!) to moleskines (slightly overrated, but I love my reporter's notebook for jotting down book titles). My current favorite is the Apica Spiral - I love the paper quality, spiral binding makes it easy for my lefty self to get down, relatively inexpensive, easily modded. Oh yes, I mod my journals - stickers, postcards, what have you - mod podge it all together and call it art. Another favorite is the Clairfontaine, especially the square smaller notebooks - the paper quality is exceptional, though it does smear a bit with my new special pen (don't get me started on pens, please).
So imagine my delight to stumble across this site. They review notebooks and journals. As in, seriously! They look not only at paper quality, but binding, flatability (the ability of a notebook to lay flat - v. imp.), cover sturdiness. They understand me in ways even the Husband never can.
Ah, love.
Europa Missions
3 days ago
9 comments:
This is just uncanny. My apartment is littered with journals. Some several years old, others with extensive outlines and character sketches. A tiny one with graph paper (because I can't stand regulatly lined paper) that I keep in my purse just in case...I even have one where i started outlining an idea for a graphic novel -- bad stick figure drawings and all. At my mom's you will find even more with stories I did in middle school and high school.
There is something to be said about having something tangible in your hands as opposed to block letters on a white screen. There's nothing I love more than to see ink stains on my hands from outlining, brainstorming, and freewriting. It makes me feel like I have real evidence of having accomplished something.
Jesus H Christ, Clairefontaine was established in the < i> 1500s?!?!?!? < i>
My love of blank paper seems to stop there lately, as it, I love it...but it tends to stay blank. I have the driving need to scoop up journals, but the weird hidden phobia of writing down the insides of my soul on their paper. I used to have a ton, then one day..it a strange hissy fit not uncommon for me, I trashed them all. Poetry, deep thoughts, memories, bits of stories, the works.
I am putting in my vote for a Diana pen blog...
< i> *looks innocent* < i>
Yeah, I figured in the case of my readership, I was preaching to the choir!
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Sorry to lower the tone of the conversation but I recognise this website as one where I read a long conversation about Goren's Notebook.
I too am an addict. I have kept all my notebooks since the beginning of my own recorded time ... far longer than I care to remember. Upstairs in my attic I have suitcases full of letters written by my parents from times before they even met each other. I love the smell of the paper.
Members of my family know to distract me when we are walking past branches of Paperchase or even WH Smith.
Reading and responding to this post have made me forget that I was cooking supper, and I only just saved it from being charcoal.
Lozzie - so sorry about your dinner, but we addicts have to share or we may slip again...
I came cross a couple of my old teen diaries a few years ago. It's amazing how many times I was heartbroken and would never love anyone again!
In all honesty, the reason I got rid of mine was due to a very snoopy and possessive boyfriend, who read mine. I burned it and didn't keep another for over 4 years.
I have kept journals on and off since I was 12. I had several as well. I had one for my story ideas, one for 'music thoughts' and one for just my everyday, I want to whine about all the crap going on in my life. That one was popular when I was an adolescent. I had about five books filled with pages of someone who was in one huge hurry to grow up and move out and away from the confines of a rather conservative family and even from high school which was to be endured so I could get into college.
College was fun. Not as many entries in the daily stuff because the angst was gone. Just funny one liners about my observations and opinions. LOL
My blog is the first journal I've kept as a full grown adult person. Guess my grown up life has been pretty fun.
But I so relate to those books and despite my generally crappy handwriting, I do love journals. I am thinking of taking a Japanese class and having a journal so I can write in it in Japanese. I have all the things for calligraphy because I needed it once for an art project. But I would love to put it to use now. Sadly, I just have no idea how to write anything in Japanese except my Japanese name - Sumiko. Oh well, this has inspired me to try to better myself and get in touch with my roots a bit, so thanks!
So glad I could help! I do what I can, in my own small way.
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