I'm A Sad, Pathetic Stationery Junkie.

[txomsy]

15 hours ago, Gloucesterman said:

the answer to that question is "Yes".

The true question is, "Is that how you want to use your time?"

And mazel tov on your new books, they are beautiful - JMO, of course. (Just my opinion...

 

"Free" time is not an option when one has a family. You are absolutely right in the "how one uses time" observation, but, for me, family always comes first, so -in my personal case- nowadays actual free time ends being reduced to a few odd minutes every now and then.

 

One of my lifetime tenets (after I learnt Evolutive Psychology at Medical School) was that one needs to change relationships with descendants as they grow. At the beginning they require your attention, but do your bidding. As they grow, they become independent, you have to order less... and more to worry about. Guidance becomes ever more difficult and time-consuming for one can no longer command, only persuade and that demands more persistence, more attention, more talking, more care... in a word, more time. That one becomes free when children grow up is a myth.

 

That said, I started yesterday Genesis in both a Christian and the Hebrew Bible I got, and must say I'm enjoying re-reading it and the small differences (which I assume are due to the different translators' points of view and backgrounds): these differences are truly interesting, and truly thought provoking when one considers that both texts come from a common origin. I'm starting to think I should add King James' Bible to the comparison as well.

[ParramattaPaul]

58 minutes ago, txomsy said:

Well, there were many without stickers, but I normally prefer to avoid hassles in the payment line, and didn't want to peel them off before taking the picture so one could also get a feeling for the actual price, which I find spot-on right.

 

In general, it is not the sticker that matters to me, but the glue it is attached with, which can be a PITA if bad or meaningless if good.

That which makes a sticker stick is the worst part.

[txomsy]

😀

[Gloucesterman]

4 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

In general, it is not the sticker that matters to me, but the glue it is attached with, which can be a PITA if bad or meaningless if good.

One of my "many life skills" is peeling stickers (pricing, promotional, informational, etc.) cleanly off of packaging. At this point in life, it's a skill that helps me to recycle more efficiently and, in its own way, is relaxing and satisfying. 

 

Yes, I know, it's weird and that's okay. Who really wants to be "Normal"?

[Karmachanic]

On 7/1/2023 at 1:57 AM, Misfit said:

Those look like premium notebooks. What is the size?  Do you like the paper?

 

 

143 pages of them:

https://www.smythson.com/uk/diaries-and-books/notebooks/all-notebooks

[Stompie]

On 7/3/2023 at 10:13 AM, txomsy said:

Maybe one should look for the circumstances first and the stationary afterwards.

 

I say, 'cos I just returned tonight from Israel, had a three hour sleep and off to work, so no time to take pictures or note down details. In Jerusalem, I stayed at the Me'a Shearim neighborhood (not that I am religious at all, it just so happened), where I found most amazingly welcoming people. And, in Me'a Shearim St. itself and its whereabouts, a significant number of books, arts and stationary stores.

 

After much inner fight, yesterday I finally gave in and got four hard-bound notebooks, one of them personalized with a manual engraving as a present for a friend, a second one engraved for my son, and two for me, one of them with an enclosing cardboard box and painted page edges. At the tact all of them seem of good quality paper (haven't had time  to test any yet), and are lined (some with fringe and space for page numbers). I'll post pictures later when I return home if I can stay awake (didn't take any on site out of respect). I also got some books, of course (it seems that June was the month of the book and they had a large sale). Many shops also had fountain pens (mostly Parker). And I saw also many Arts stores with arts materials both in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

 

The store I most liked (among the many) was -I think, but consider the lack of sleep- Or Hajaim (Manny's book store?), in the corner of Me'a Shearim St. with Khavakuk St., in Jerusalem. Well worth a visit if you are in Jerusalem. They have a large collection of religious books, but also novels, children books, and other topics, most of them in Hebrew, but also sections in other languages (English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish...), some judaica and a lot of taste and cozy ambiance. If you do, further into the neighborhood, in Me'a Sharim St. as well, there's a great, small place to have a natural juice, milk or yogurt shake, sweets and bread.

 

Just be respectful to the neighbors and their customs and traditions, and adapt to them, for they dearly hold their sacred beliefs, and -so it was my experience- you'll find yourself welcome in a warm, friendly neighborhood. Which, IMMHO, makes them even more worthy of respect yet.

 

Only inform yourself first before visiting -like any other place- for the cultural contrast may lead to unwanted misunderstandings that would otherwise be trivial to avoid.

 

But the point is, these are notebooks specially thought to hold one's own comments to Holy readings. Therefore, one would expect them to be good quality and lasting. I've also found well-built notebooks with nice paper in stores for accountants, lawyers, and other bookkeeping professions, as well as in Arts stores all over the World.

 

OK, not all places have all kinds of stores and not all stores have all kinds of notebooks, but everywhere I could find one or another.

 

So, maybe, instead of worrying so much about which trade mark is better and where can one find it, it is better to think what properties one desires, who else will be on the lookout for them and where these other customers will expect to find and look for them.

 

Or maybe I was just lucky, as I have always been able to find nice paper in Ye Olde Goode Worlde (including Asia and Africa). Or maybe I'm just an olde not-so-goode junkie that after so many years instinctively knows where to find the things I want.

 

Whatever the reason, a notebook can be much, much more than just a notebook, and widening one's scope can lead to pleasant surprises.

Great sentiments and very good looking notebooks!

[Misfit]

I got this Rhodia cover and notepad today. The pad is a No. 12 size. It’s a little pad, but should have uses. 
 

[Penguincollector]

I found some stationery that coordinates with the folders @Misfitsent me. Enigma Stationery is wonderful if you like kawaii things. I also found the Ink-A-Pets booth!

[inkstainedruth]

I'm clearly WAY behind in this thread.  I'm just now at the point where Karmachanic and taimdala were discussing the availability of the Miquelrius 300 sheet (600 page) journals -- roughly a year and a HALF ago.  While I still have some, I tend to go through more than two of them per year, JUST with the morning pages stuff.  When I first started using them, I was able to order DIRECTLY from them (I think I ordered 16 to begin with); the next round of ordering I was directed to some different website; the most recent time (a few years ago) someone (I forget who on FPN it was now) tipped me off to a stationary store in southern NYS that was IIRC a third party vendor on Amazon, and I bought out ALL they had in stock (didn't care what color cover I got at that point -- I was willing to take whatever was still available, and I seem to recall they were already low, if not completely out, of either the red or the green covered ones).  The current morning pages journal is red, and I'm now hoarding the blue ones till the bitter end....

I did buy a couple of smaller page capacity journals with lined pages a couple of months ago at an estate sale (both of which are I think roughly A5 size paper.  

One is apparently made in China for Walmart (the trademark on the cardboard sleeve over the front cover says "Pen+Gear™ -- hardcover, 112 sheets, with an elastic band to hold it closed and what looks like a grosgrain ribbon for a bookmark, attached to the spine binding.

The other is from Eccolo (also made in China, apparently).  It's got a (presumably fake) leather cover, and has a fold-over magnetic closure that makes it look sort of like an envelope on its side.  But I've already had to tear a couple of pages out that were written on by the former owner, and just now discovered a couple more (and at very odd intervals at that...).

I also somehow ended up with a third one (slightly bigger than A5, since the cardboard sleeves over the front and back cover give the brand name -- Artist's Loft; and the size -- 6" x 8").   The packaging says it's 249 pages; like the Walmart one, it's got an elastic band to hold it closed, and it has a couple of grosgrain ribbons for page markers (also, like the Walmart one, attached to the spine.  

Have not tried any of the three yet, since for journalling, I still have several of the Miquelrius 600 page ones (although the current one will be used up in a month or two, I suspect).  

As for "writing" (poetry and fiction) I find that I prefer "college-ruled" composition books (for which I should start keeping an eye out for "back to school sales at places like Target, Walmart, or Staples, when I can often get them as cheaply as three for $1 US or even -- if I hit the sales just right -- I think I once paid a buck for FIVE of them).  I'm not out of those yet either, but one never knows -- I might even take another stab at NaNoWriMo at some point....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[inkstainedruth]

On 3/29/2022 at 3:56 AM, A Smug Dill said:

After reading just the first part of Sönke Ahrens's book (referenced in this other thread), and feeling that its core idea resounded with me† and is something I wish I'd come across 25 years ago, I went and bought four more 200-piece packs of ruled index cards (JAN: 4 984355 711292) from Daiso, after checking that the paper's performance with fountain pen inks is quite acceptable, as well as two plastic boxes to serve as ‘slip-boxes’.

 

I only bought four packs, even though there were more on the shelf, because it appears they came from two different production batches; the other packs were not as white, and the pinkish-red line near the top of each card is noticeably thicker than on the packs I bought.

 

 

† I was just asking my wife, while we were at her “writer's retreat” in the mountains a couple of weeks ago, how she organises her notes and ideas for what she writes, since I'm struggling with getting on with the ‘book’ I intend to write. Not getting what I deem useful-for-me ideas from me, I came to the conclusion I may need index cards in order to easily re-sort ideas, and that's why I bought the first pack last week from Daiso to give it a go; and then the Ahrens book, which I'd placed on reserve many weeks ago, finally came in. Very odd that everything just aligns!

Somehow I missed that other thread before now.  Without actually reading the book cited, it sounds a bit like what I learned in my AP English class for the 20 page paper I had to write for the class.  The teacher for the second half of the year was actually the department chairman (the teacher for the first half of the year was out for some sort of major surgery).  And he arranged for a car trip up to the SUNY New Paltz campus to access a better library than the school one OR the local one).  

What I remember is that you took notes on 3 x 5 cards, and organized them by having ones that had the information about the source (title, author, publication info).  Then took notes on subsequent 3x5 cards, referencing the work being cited (as well as chapter info), and then stapled/rubberbanded them together.  I suspect that having colored 3 x 5 cards for the source material citation would probably help, but back then (late 1970s) I have no idea if such things existed, and IIRC just used highlighters on the title section of each "title" card so they'd be easier to spot in the stack.

Of course I ALSO remember that my paper was basically a compendium of very large numbers of quotes from the various sources....   How I actually got an "A" for that paper, is -- in retrospect -- completely beyond me....  Ironically, NONE of the papers I had to write in college were anything LIKE that long; but the 3 x5 card notes concept was amazingly useful for IIRC a psych class paper I literally wrote the night before it was due (then ended up walking into class 40 minutes late because I fell asleep before typing up the bibliography and notes....   Somehow I managed to get an A for THAT class, too....  Which is astounding -- especially given that it was six or seven pages of complete and utter BS on a complete and utter BS of a topic....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[TitoThePencilPimp]

Just purchased my yearly ritual of 32 Rhodia a4+ wirebound from Appelboom. Surprised at how many notebooks you get for $112 (tax included). It really makes me hard for to spend $20- 30 on a notebook. So my experiences with other types of papers is very limited. I am a cheapskate.

[inkstainedruth]

Yeah, I am too -- which is one of the reasons I really liked the Miquelrius 600 page journals.  Not horribly expensive for the price (I think around $20 US apiece the last batch I bought from the place on Amazon), pretty nice paper -- unless you have a really wet pen/ink combo or an ink that's drippy -- and that many pages lasts a while....  Even at 3 pages per day of writing.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[N1003U]

On 7/7/2023 at 4:03 AM, Misfit said:

I got this Rhodia cover and notepad today. The pad is a No. 12 size. It’s a little pad, but should have uses. 
 

I like the little Rhodia notepad covers. I tend to haul my small pads in and out of my pocket a lot, and these covers really keep down the bent edges and also keep the pad neatly closed when I am not using it.

[N1003U]

11 hours ago, TitoThePencilPimp said:

Just purchased my yearly ritual of 32 Rhodia a4+ wirebound from Appelboom. Surprised at how many notebooks you get for $112 (tax included). It really makes me hard for to spend $20- 30 on a notebook. So my experiences with other types of papers is very limited. I am a cheapskate.

I find Rhodia to be a nice trade of price and performance for fountain pen use. Though curiously I typically have to cross into France to find it easily. Clairefontaine school notebooks seem fairly popular in SW Germany. Rhodia pads, not so much.

[AmandaW]

I just placed an order for a single notebook and cover for about that or more... AU $50+

 

Whatever. I wanted it.

 

It's a Hobonichi cover featuring part of the Hokusai Great Wave picture and a blue interior. The picture resonates for me, not least because I painted part of it along with Monet's waterlillies in a mashup we called a Hog Hair Marriage. A long time ago. Good memory.

 

I'm getting a Stalogy 365 to go in it.

 

Someone posted a few days ago about needing to write frequent notes because their short term memory wasn't working well. I'm struggling with that too and it's driving me nuts. And then I saw this notebook cover on Amazon. And kept going back as the quantity in stock went down.

 

So it wasn't cheap, even if it was discounted. I don't care. I'll also be needing to choose a pen to go in the pen loops...

 

Thanks to Smug for finding the Stalogy too. And supervising so I didn't end up crazy-overpaying or getting something that wouldn't fit. There were only two covers left when I hit the Order button.

 

[A Smug Dill]

Ordered five A5 notebook covers today.

 

One from Amazon AU, because Amanda said she enjoyed using hers so much that she bought more of the same model for gifts. (So, that one is naturally not an animal product.)

 

And four pieces of dead cow from AliExpress, because a new sales promotion just started six hours ago, and it took the sum of that many items to trigger all the discount offers I wanted to stack, in order to get to the price (or overall discount level) I feel is a compelling value proposition. There are comparable notebook covers made of synthetic material that interest me, but getting one or two of those in the combined order would make for a lesser discount; and I personally find it difficult to bring myself to pay more for a synthetic product than for a leather product of equivalent functionality and (in the absence of any data corroborating the contrary) presumably comparable quality.

 

I might still yet one of the Kaco branded (fabric) ones on AliExpress, if I can figure out how to game the system hard enough to make it cost me less than a leather notebook cover. Unfair comparison, I know; the Kaco ones are packaged with a notebook and a gel pen each; but I do not have the option of just getting and paying for the cover alone.

[Misfit]

On 7/9/2023 at 12:07 AM, Penguincollector said:

I found some stationery that coordinates with the folders @Misfitsent me. Enigma Stationery is wonderful if you like kawaii things. I also found the Ink-A-Pets booth!

Those items match the ones I sent so well. Are they Midori too?

[Penguincollector]

14 minutes ago, Misfit said:

Those items match the ones I sent so well. Are they Midori too?

 
The to do list on the bottom left and the baby penguin letter set on the stand are Midori. The sticky notes are Moshi Moshi, the sticker sheet is Mind Wave, and the sticker pouch is World Craft.

[AmandaW]

Can anyone recommend a pen to fit in the pen loops of a Hobonichi A6 cover? I think it will need to be blue and have a clip so it doesn't fall out.

 

[A Smug Dill]

23 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

I think it will need to be blue and have a clip so it doesn't fall out.

 

Any number of pens would suit. Maybe a Sailor Shikiori Hisakata Uchimizu or Tsukuyo-no-minamo Shimoyo? Or a Sailor Profit Jr. in transparent blue, or Platinum Balance Crystal Blue (on which the cap doesn't seal quite as well as the Sailor models). Or Asvine V126 in (see-through, slightly frosted) blue; I think that'd be the best match visually.

 

That's just off the top of my head… and what I have sitting new-in-box in a drawer. The Tsukuyo-no-minamo Shimoyo and the Balance Crystal Blue were recent acquisitions from Amazon Japan by way of Amazon.com.au.

 

Maybe a Pilot Custom 74 in see-through blue? I don't have one of those. 😉