We’ve got some great reviews to share with you today… and even a contest!
Happy Friday, everyone…
We’ve talked about office supplies; now it’s time to talk pens and paper… What’s on your stationery wishlist? I’d like another Pelikano since it’s a pen I find myself reaching for all the time, and a Duo Cover for my Space 17.
What about you?
I watched a documentary over the weekend that German filmmaker Werner Herzog made about his relationship with the actor Klaus Kinski. To call the relationship tempestuous would be an understatement, and it’s a remarkable thing to watch. (For a brief glimpse, check out the trailer on YouTube.)
Also remarkable was a scene with actress Claudia Cardinale, who recalled, among other things, the notebook Herzog carried with him while they filming Fitzcarraldo. Kinski was suspicious of it, because, as Cardinale pointed out, it didn’t concern him, and he never knew what Herzog was writing. Of course, neither did anybody else, because — talk about tiny writing! Just get a load of the screenshot above and try to decipher the text.
Image via twitchcraft
A couple of days ago, an intriguing suggestion came through via Twitter… “Notebooks with discreet page numbers.”
Do you like the idea? Should we try it?
Werner Herzog’s notebook, which I blogged about the other week, reminded me of a great post by John at Pencil Wrap. (I got to it via The Pen Addict and have been meaning to write about it ever since.)
As a mid-height chicken scrawler, I’m always awed by examples of small writing, which look so neat and coherent on the page. Of course, in Herzog’s case, as one of our commenters pointed out, you might go blind trying to read it.
How small (or big) is your handwriting?
I had to smile when I read Palimpsest’s recent post about handwriting:
There is pressure. G. Lalo invites me, nay demands of me, to perform not only my best handwriting but also to put down my best thoughts lest I defile with meaningless outpourings the ribbed writing surface, and what then? Erasure is of course impossible.
I, and I suspect many others, go through something similar every time I start using a new, non spiral-bound notebook… do I have a purpose for this notebook? Is this thought really worth recording? Once I’m a few pages in, the anxiety dies down, and I realize there are more important things than good handwriting and perfectly articulated ideas.
Do you have new notebook anxiety?
The Writer’s Bloc post I mentioned in last week’s review roundup got me thinking about multi-subject notebooks… I used them in high school and, to some extent, college, but I haven’t cracked one in years, in spite of the fact that Karen has sent me a few very handsome examples. Instead, I usually write in one of my catch-all idea notebooks, or dedicate an entire notebook to one particular project.
Still, it strikes me that there are plenty of ways to use multi-subject notebooks at work or play… Different tabs for different clients, say, or different aspects of a single project. Different journaling subjects. One tab could keep track of storylines, another characters, another background research, and so on.
Do you use multi-subject notebooks?
Image via Gourmet Pens
Lots of good stuff to share with you today:
Thanks again for taking the time to post such thoughtful pics and comments… keep em coming!
Eventually, we hope to see more people weigh in about the new ivory Habanas, but here are a few first impressions…
• A first look: The indefatigable Brian Goulet publishes detailed text and video reviews of the ivory Habanas over at Ink Nouveau.
• Beyond Moleskine: Kent Shaffer includes the Habana — along with Clairefontaine and Rhodia — in a post about non-Moleskine notebooks, sketchbooks, and journals at Church Relevance.
• Hardware and pens: This isn’t really a review, but I was so impressed by StyloBug33′s new wooden pen-storage chest (which she pictures with a Habana and a Moleskine to better demonstrate scale) that I thought I would feature it here.
Happy Friday!
Guest blogger Kate Marshall takes a trip down memory lane with a post on Mead’s iconic black-and-white composition books…
Regular readers may know that I’ve been journaling for a long time. I started out using Mead composition books and Parker Vector “cartridge” pens. After a few years I switched to all sorts of random books. A few weeks ago, though, I used a regular composition book for the first time in about 15 years. The paper was not that much fun to write on. Had it always been like this when I was an awkardly-dressed middle-schooler who clearly didn’t know better about paper quality? Or had copybook paper quality just deteriorated since the early ‘90s?
Well, I did some lazy experimenting and found: it’s a little of both. My current pens (“quality” stuff like Lamys and Pelikans) were not big fans of my 1993 and 1994 journals: feathering, bleeding, and the writing experience just felt scratchy. Then I found some Parker Vectors on eBay and tried them in a new copybook, along with the “fancy-pants” pens. Aaannd it was not great. It’s like writing on cheap copy paper: lots of show-through because the paper’s thin, some feathering, etc. It made me sad. When I was little, I never worried about how the ink interacted with the paper or the nib wasn’t playing nice with the ink. As much as I love using good tools now, I sometimes wonder if it’s possible to write twenty pages on a scratchy legal pad with a 99-cent ballpoint and not care.
Nah 
