Legendary notebooks in not-so-legendary hands

Posted on December 12th, 2006 by ephemere.
Categories: ink & paper, art & music.

The one bright spot* in my life right now: I have new Moleskines! They arrived yesterday afternoon.

*Okay, maybe it’s not the only one– fine, it’s not the only one. But allow me a little exaggeration. For artistic effect, you understand.

Though I do most of my writing on my laptop (I call her Fel, short for Felinity) I still do quite a bit of creative scribbling on paper. My reasons have less to do with the quality of writing and more to do with my vanity: I like looking at sheets of paper covered with my handwriting. It’s influenced by calligraphy, so it looks very scripty and romantic on the page; I have been told several times by fellow students and professors alike that my handwriting is better suited for declarations of undying love than for equations and lab recordings.

Because I like writing by hand so much, I have a lot of notebooks. Ideally each notebook has its own purpose: the hardbound ones are for writing, the spiral-bound ones for physics and note-taking, the logbooks for problem-solving. That doesn’t work in real life, though, since I end up using my “creative” notebooks for scratch and random equations and I don’t use my “in-class lecture” notebooks at all. The sole exception to this haphazard notebook abuse is my Moleskine, because I respect it so much I don’t let the slightest hint of crazy science touch it. After all, who wouldn’t be impressed by this:

Moleskine is the legendary notebook, used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin. (from the Moleskine history)

The paper is beautiful, too. Truth be told G has been talking about her Moleskine for as long as I’ve known her, six years or more. I didn’t exactly pay attention — a notebook is a notebook is a notebook — until my cousin brought me a Moleskine from Singapore a few months ago. It was love at first sight.

And now! My little Moleskine Cahier (hereafter known as Xai, pronounced “kai” and alternatively spelled as “chai”) has been joined by two large notebooks**: a Classic Plain notebook (Xhel) and a Classic Sketch notebook (Sai). Xhel will be the repository of my scribbles and draft sketches, while I’ll be doing a lot of experimentation with Sai, ink, watercolor pencils, and pastels. So happy.

**I was actually hoping a freebie 2007 organizer would be included in the package. Sssshhh. I’m going to try ordering again in a week or so.

moleskine1

moleskine-004.jpg

Xhel is the one bound by green and Sai the periwinkle one. Both were ordered from Moleskine PH and were delivered promptly (as in “next business day” promptly) in a lot of protective packaging — it was evident that Moleskine PH wanted the notebooks to be in perfect condition when they arrived. I’ll post writing and art from my Moleskines in ephy from time to time. If I’m not mistaken, several of us have Moleskines too, so it might be interesting to post excerpts from our Moleskines every so often.

Ah, and I have a question for the writer-types: how do you do your writing? Do you write by hand and then type the completed chunks? Is everything completely computer-based? What about your outlines — do you write them on paper (or type them in your text editor of choice) or just keep them in your head? I’d love to read about your approaches to the process of writing.


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12 comments.

inkstone

Comment on December 12th, 2006.

I tend to write my actual texts on either the computer or my Alphasmart Neo. My outlining and noodling, however, is done in notebooks. I should take a picture of my latest one. Unlike the very sophisticated Moleskines — well, I think they’re sophisticated anyway — mine is a riot of LSD-induced color. *laughs*

Cai

Comment on December 13th, 2006.

I went to a bookstore a while back, specifically to buy moleskines. I got the slim, pocket sized tan notebooks. The idea was that I’d carry them around and write blog posts while riding the subway. But then I got a new PDA so I write on that now.

ephemere

Comment on December 13th, 2006.

@inkstone: Hee. My first research notebook was very colorful too — it had to be to cheer me up. Take a pic! :D

@Cai: Oh, I want the slim tan ones. I don’t think Moleskine.ph supplies them though. The thing is, I’m not sure I’d use them very often if I did get them because I hold my Moleskines in awe (or something like it) and feel that random scribbling in them is sacrilege. Mm. It’s weird. But they’re pretty expensive, so…

Kyels

Comment on December 13th, 2006.

I’m still waiting to get my Moleskins and everytime I go to Borders, I’ll check them out … But somehow, they are really expensive over here; just for the small one. Anyway, I’ll probably save up for it. Hehe.

(:

Rikai

Comment on December 14th, 2006.

I should start that practice of making outlines before writing. haha. I prefer short bond for outlines (for lit) and thumbnails/layouts (for art) so that I can violently crumple it up when I don’t like what comes out. haha. I save the ones I do use. I’ve probably gone through a ream this past year.

for random ideas, I save them on my cel when I’m out, and sketch/wirte them down in a big college-ruled ring binder. lately I’ve been filling it with random sketches, like 3 pages a day.

all this buzz about Moleskines has gotten me all curious. it’d probably be a waste of cash in my case since I’d just burn through it.

skyfish

Comment on December 15th, 2006.

I read somewhere that Moleskines weren’t the ones the aforementioned people used. They just happened to be the same kind and the people behind the Moleskine company took advantage of that..

Garro

Comment on December 16th, 2006.

hahaha. that sounds entirely possible.

iunno… it feels kinda like a “I got a membership at a gym so I’m forced to exercise” sort of thing…

Beta Testings * Stellify

Pingback on December 17th, 2006.

[…] It’d be cool to have an electronic moleskine though. Geeky? K33Gier than ever! […]

G

Comment on December 19th, 2006.

Funny you should mention the Moleskine lately. i think i told you that Moleskine is an institution in many of the art colleges here in the States; trendy even. But, sadly, Hannah and I bought new Moleskines the last week only to find quality had gone down. It was such a huge upset that Hannah and I couldn’t stop talking about it or… sighing.

However, that didn’t stop Hannah from scanning in some pages of her trip back to Korea.

As for writing, I posted something about that at MHT, but didn’t touch the actual manual process. For me, it depends on what I’m doing and what I have to owrk with. I have written poems and ideas on receipts, napkins, envelopes, paper bags and sticky notes. Outlines and plotting often show up in my Moleskines. Purely intuitive writing usually gets typed straight into Euphorbia.

J

Comment on December 31st, 2006.

Death Note. Yum.

zeroimpact

Comment on January 1st, 2007.

I think I am too used to lugging the laptop around and the only notes I do are work related and in words. I think I need to start a writing habit soon coz remembering and typing just can’t beat writing

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Comment on February 6th, 2007.

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