This Notebook System Made Me a Pretentious Pen-and-Paper Notetaker and I Love It
How one notebook boosted my self-esteem and my personal library of inspiration.
I have been obsessively writing in notebooks for so long that I’m sure I was born penning a review of my time in the womb.
When I moved into my new apartment last week, I had to set up my bookshelves, and out of curiosity, I counted up my notebooks.
The amount I’d scribbled on a lemon-shaped sticky note looked like this:
Writing with drawings/sketchbooks — 9
Journaling/self-help/diaries — 13
Notebooks (misc.) — 39
Final count = 61
Yet I sat back in my desk chair and thought, You know, I actually don’t think that’s very many.
And I stand by that.
But that doesn’t mean I don't have a favorite out of my 61 pretty, bound stacks of paper.
Dear Diary,
For obvious reasons, I never told you about my notebook, with a cover as green as mansions long gone, which I use as a commonplace book, a phrase which here means “place where I have collected passages…