It is about paper notebooks and not computers.
It makes me write and it keeps me writing.
Starting this month April 2022, I am using a Moleskine notebook(almost A5 size). In the last three months, I used Giornale Notebook by Unicorn. As I get older, I prefer a more classic version of a notebook like Moleskine. The story has it that the famous writer Hemingway used the Moleskine notebook during his travels in Africa and Paris.
More than ten years ago, someone held a competition for Moleskine users to write something on why they chose to write using a Moleskine notebook. I sent the caption: It makes me write and it keeps me writing. After two weeks, I got a reply and won the prize- a Moleskine notebook. From that day onwards, I kept on buying Moleskines notebook to write my personal journal. My love affairs with the Moleskine notebook began in 2006 but after a decade, I have to change for two reasons. The first was the price has gone up by more than 50% and the quality was getting worse. I bought one copy last year because of the 70% discount on retail price.
The notebook on its own has no power. But when I started to download my thoughts and feelings into words every day, it becomes like a friend listening to me but saying nothing in return. The notebook is my Personal Journal. It contains my memory of that day that I may have forgotten after a few years and even a few weeks. As I get older into the ’60s, my memory starts to fade away and when I want to refer to something for any particular year, I can always go back to my old notebook and read the story again. When I first write my thoughts and feelings, it was me telling myself what to write. And now, when I go back to read, the written words are talking to me of the past. How I wish it can reads also my future.
I plan to write about twenty-four personal essays this year and convert them into a book. These old notebooks will provide a lot of information and personal stories of my past.
Since October 2021, I began to take a serious interest in sketching and watercolour colours. So, in the last six months, I bought a few sketching notebooks and watercolour notebooks. For pen sketching only, I can use 100 to 150gsm paper. However, if I want to add watercolours, I need 200gsm paper at least. It is recommended to use 300gsm paper for watercolouring. This 300gsm paper is very expensive for amateur artists like me. So, I use 200gsm paper.
My third use of a notebook is for writing business notes and stories. The notebook is usually 100gsm paper and I have a few sizes for different purposes.
Even in this age of high powered personal computers and smartphones, notebooks are still functional and relevenant. By the way, I wrote my first book long hand last year and got it published last month.
