Moleskine Journals Around the House
Anyone investigating our home will find an extensive collection of journals. Mine are worn and tattered Moleskine Classic Notebooks of various sizes, all crammed with notes and passages written when ever time and fortune permit. Writing in journals is a habit I began as a teenager and have continued since. I found Moleskines not long before I started to ride the Vespa. They’re compact and durable and put up with a lot of abuse.
Little Black Book
There’s usually a journal in my topcase, under the seat or in my riding jacket pocket. I carry them in my shoulder bag and have them stashed at home and work to support my need to scrawl thoughts and ideas on paper — a reliable cure for the mind chaotic.
Collect My Thoughts Here
While walking dogs this morning I was perusing an old journal grabbed of a shelf. It’s unnerving to open them and bear witness to the disjointed ramblings, spelling errors, errors in dates as appears on this spread where I introduce an entry with the wrong year. I’m also reminded of how I abandoned cursive writing in second grade as a result of the system’s relentless desire to save me from a perpetual graphic and ink smeared left hand.
Had to read this entry since many, even blog posts or work related text can be, well, less than kind. Reminds me of the supreme rule in our home, “Thou shalt not read someone else’s journal”.
Never.
Ever.
Journals occupy a sacred place which Kim and I both respect. Meaning we can leave them around the house.
Do you journal? If not, perhaps you may want to give it a try. You may be amazed what’s piled up in your head.
“Reminds me of the supreme rule in our home, “Thou shalt not read someone else’s journal”.
Now, that, sir, is the mark of a tight relationship. Congratulations.
Meanwhile: being an itinerant scribbler – as opposed to scribe – I tried out a number of different journaling media, Moleskine included. I eventually settled on to Japanese-sourced journals, Mnemosyne being one of them: wonderful, fountain-pen-friendly paper (with little to no bleed-through), a bit larger than your regulation-size M’skine, and, yes, a good deal cheaper. Yeah, I know, $100+ pens and I go on about the price of journals…just don’t get me started about ink.
Over the years I’ve discussed our journaling and most people get nervous thinking about physical journals that someone pick up and read. Some go to great lengths hiding them or writing in code. The modern solution is to write in a Google doc with two-step authentication. For Kim and I it’s just one aspect of our relationship.
Finding the right notebook and pen can be dangerous ground for me because I can start looking for the perfect experience and get lost in the search and never write anything. The same risk exists with cameras, film, paper, developer, riding gear, walking sticks, potato chips… I started looking at the journals you referenced and suddenly had to stop. Can’t go there now. I remember the more innocent days when a cheap lined notebook from Woolwirths and a BIC pen were all I needed. The good old days.
The real trick is to write no matter what. Spelling, grammar, penmanship doesn’t count. I just spill it out on paper. Eventually something interesting shows up.
Agreed. Process does account for something to me, but getting it down trumps all. Thankfully, I wasn’t down the rabbit-hole too long before finding what worked.
Once again feeling compelled to respond to one of your posts – so drawn to the picture of the piled-up journals on the shelf, and the open book with the pen as well as the one with the different shades of blue-ink writings…
While I don’t keep a daily journal, I have journals/notebooks around my house as well, which all serve different purposes. My favorite “book” is one that I use as a kind of repository of other (famous or not) people’s thoughts, musings, quotes. Little humorous or sad stories, newspaper clippings, poems – whatever moves me or catches my interest at the time goes in there.
It is thrilling to revisit what appeared important to me just a few years ago, what still is and what has lost its appeal. Fortunately the older I get the fewer occurrences of the latter happen.
Notebooks and journals are my inner life put on paper. Could not do without them.
Your experience with journals as an essential component of an inner life mirrors my experience. It’s not an easy habit and demands attention. Away from home, on the road or other places I find it easy to write. At home I need solitude to write in a journal. I remember reading about Edward Weston’s Daybooks — he would rise at 4am to find the necessary space to write. My 4am days are far and few between…
Hi, Steve,
A very interesting posting today…I have on many, many occasions started journals through these past eons with the inevitable result being lost interest, or no thoughts, or whatever reason. I feel it a loss to my growth as a human being. But I do keep trying.
I also can understand your aversion to handwriting, which I share, since shortly after starting college and the necessary note taking I adopted a printing scheme that appears to me much clearer and faster than did the old Spencerian themed, grade school, curvilinear sort…and neater.
Regards.
I have certainly gone through dry spells but as you point out, the keep trying thing is important.
While I admire some of the lovely cursive writing I’ve seen I much prefer block letters. Not sure why. My wife’s writing is almost incomprehensible at times. She’s show me something and I can hardly read it. Probably why she doesn’t worry about me reading her journals…
Scrawls, jottings, indecipherable notes to oneself, in a printed or written form that no one else can understand. These are a few of my favourite confused comments.
Not always written in a neat orderly fashion, probably never. At one time I noted all the photos and and all the locations and all of the weather conditions when I took photographs (of which there are numerous). Now the camera usually recalls and the information can be recalled, most of the time. Find as time progresses, less and less of what is current matters; iti s the past experiences that now have relevance.
Mileskin I assume is an anachronism for something that near did come from a mole
(although maybe in the far distant past).
Those journals are your life Steve. When you expire they too shall become “your” history. As much as in a way your blog.
Handwritten notes gain power over time. I have a notebook in my darkroom indicating film developing details of almost all the rolls and sheets of film I’ve shot and processed from about 1994. I wish I had kept more details instead of just ” 4 rolls 35mm TX, 36 ex, D-76 1-1, 68F for 9.5 min, negs look good”. Oh well.
On departure from the mortal coil I wonder about the journals. Kim wants it in her will that I burn all of hers. That would be a big fire. Not sure what I want happening with mine. Or with Scooter in the Sticks. I’ll have to leave money with an attorney to keep up the hosting fees…
The writing in manuscript rather than cursive caught my eye immediately.
I used to require all my students to write in cursive in junior high, but finally threw in the towel when batches of them started coming through without ever having learned cursive.
Strangely, my own scrawlings these days are a combination of both styles.
With so many students using a keyboard now hand writing is a lost art. I do find satisfaction in writing though much of mine is done with a keyboard now. Letters particularly if I write one — fine papers, fountain pen, a waxed seal and a dirty look from the postmaster when I ask for a hand stamp…
We still need to get together sometime. I get up your way on the Vespa but it’s never planned…
I have piles of filled journals – most are in a back closet, not read in years. I will go get one & see what I was thinking in 1977.
Thank you for the inspiration.
Cool reading passages from old journals. Kim and I sometimes will compare notes — we’ll pick a date and read what was happening. Most times it’s like we were inhabiting different worlds…
I envy you your journaling habit. It’s a habit I never got into. I’m not sure why. I love the idea of it. I think I am just too all over the place to write in one on a regular basis. Not to mention remembering where I left it after I last wrote in the thing. I do own a similar book, which I probably bought thinking I might start journaling. It actually contains stamps and mailing addresses of fellow bloggers who enjoy receiving postcards. Not because they really care where I am/what I am going, but just because it’s fun to get real mail.
By the way, I had no idea “moleskine” was a real word. At first, I thought you meant moleskin. But, when a guy like you, with obvious writing skills, repeated uses a word like moleskine, chances are it is indeed an actual word.
And just so you know, my book is stamped with “Cactus,” so it’s a lookalike, wannabe.
Reading your comment I panicked that I spelled Moleskine wrong — so much so I had to look it up. I wish my journaling habit was stronger because it’s definitely weakened when I started blogging. Much of the stuff that shows up on Scooter in the Sticks would have been in my journal. There is a lot of stuff in the journal though that would never be on the blog…
Cactus or otherwise, any paper surface is a good place to write!
And thanks for the 29 in 29 push — I’m feeling the pressure.
Interesting selection of books on the shelf.
I’ve never been able to get myself in the journaling habit. I never like to write so that was challenge number one. And could never figure out the “why” myself…
Those books helped drive some thinking about our woodland garden and home though you would never know it by looking. Kim’s interests have rubbed off on me. I like seeing what people are reading.
“Why” questions are irritating aren’t they?
I wish i could adopt the journaling habit as a better routine. When i do it i find it much more therapeutic than typing on a computer. Probably because it is less distracting and seemingly more direct and requires more attention.
my handwriting has turned to complete crap since i seem to use it so infrequently. i, like Joe use a weird mix of cursive and print.
There are some excellent and artistic journaling accounts on Instagram. To see the inner workings of people’s minds is fascinating.
Even though you have a privacy rule at home – do you still semi-censor your writing? I do. I figure “someday” someone might find it and read it.
The therapeutic effect may be a result of the handwriting action gets us into a more natural rhythm that the breakneck speed many of us can type. It forces you to slow down to a pace where the hand and brain synchronize to good effect. At least it works that way for me. But when I start I am antsy and can hardly wait to look at my iPhone. Sick stuff. Probably why you need a Vespa instead of a KTM. Slow and steady clears the brain.
I always censor but the reasons are varied and not just because I don’t want someone to read it. The psychological workings of a person is at best a mess. Journaling is like winter riding — best know what you are getting into and be careful about who might see writings that could be part fiction, part fantasy, part true, part anger — out of context and read by someone insecure, well, you can imagine the problems.
Someday will come I guess. I don’t care anymore though. But I censor at a level that I don’t often let cruel, hateful crap flow onto paper. I handle that with chocolate and salt…
It’s a scary thought that in a generation or two, no one in Canada or the US will know how to write without a keyboard.
I had custody of the minute books for one of Canada’s very largest public companies, founded in the 1880’s. The minutes were handwritten until 1947. The amazing thing was the cursive writing. From 1880 through about 1910, even though the books were written by a succession of individuals, the calligraphy was beautiful, flawless, and almost indistinguishable from one writer to the next. From 1910 on, the handwriting began to degrade. By about 1930, while still easily legible, there were marked differences from writer to writer. By 1947 it was a wise decision to switch to typrewriters.
For myself, I was taught to write by nuns in the late 50’s. They tried very hard to teach us calligraphy. There was a time, under the watchful eyes of the nuns, when, in spite of my left-handedness, I could write really quite well. That was in grade 3.
Back in the mid nineties, I taught myself to type. I can type way, way faster than I can write. I can almost type as fast as I can think. Writing became painfully slow.
Lately, I had to write a bunch of thank you cards. I had to make a conscious effort to slow down and force myself to write legibly. The notes were basically all the same, so it was more an exercise in artful cursive writing, and less a process of getting thougths on paper.
My keyboards and bits and bytes are my go to weapons in my arsenal. My left-handedness is a handicap in cursive, but an asset when I type, because I understand that in the English language, there are more letters for the left hand with a Qwerty keyboard than for the right hand.
One last thought, my blog is my journal. I am conscious that I am leaving a legacy for friends family. Bob Leong’s daughter only read her dad’s blog after his passing.
Great post Steve. Thank you. On so many levels.
I have similar concerns David and I never know if they’re real or just old age making me afraid of change. We aren’t writing on cave walls anymore. Why write on paper maybe.
Like you, I can type far faster than I can write. And I tell myself it helps because I can keep up with my thoughts. But more often I think I’m deluding myself. Writing by hand, albeit slower, tames my chaotic mental state and the ideas unfold more clearly. But the keyboard is nice. For some years back in the 1970s and 80s I typed my journal pages with an old Woodstock manual typewriter. That was a trip. Loved the clacking of keys and sound of them hitting the paper — rap rap rap.
I like to think of Scooter in the Sticks as a journal of sorts and perhaps someday when I’m gone my granddaughter can learn a few things about her grandfather if she’s interested…
Thanks for the kind words about the post.
I was taught to write by my oldest brother, a lefty. I guess the other Bros taught ball play, etc. as I do everything except writing, right handed. About 5th grade the smearing of graphite became a problem. I noted a girl in a diner taking orders on a little 3×5 notepad and wondered how she supported her hand as she wrote. I tried it and developed a style where I kept my hand below the line. It kept the smearing to a minimum and put a healthy back slant to my letters. My teacher commented on the change and we agreed that it might be somewhat neater if not more legible. I too use a lot of block letters but in all caps if I want anyone else to be able to interpret my writing.
I don’t journal though I keep numerous pads and notebooks with lists, sketches, and calculations for projects, ideas, and designs. I’m an engineer so brain-sidedness is significant I suspect.
Keeping the books, oh, yeah. There are a multitude of bits and pieces in them worth keeping. If the cover or binding gets too rough I start a new one. One favorite style had lines on one side of the page and quadril on the other. Great for sketches.
I bought a Kawasaki 250 dual sport 2009 called a Super Sherpa. Not a fast bike but set up mostly for off road. I wanted it for gravel and dirt where the Burgman is too heavy and squirrely. Now I just need to learn to handle it. Think I’ll call it Ibex.
Sort of amazing the common experiences left-handers have when it comes to writing. We’re all part of the same family.
A Super Sherpa — sounds great. They sort of look like a more compact and lovely KLR. Good luck taming the dirt and gravel!
Dear Steve,
the first thing I noticed was exactly your uppercase writing; I didn’t even know you’re left-handed and it can actually be a problem if you write fast.
I started jotting notes on small notebooks when I was 30 because I’m a curious person and my mind continuously links ideas and there’s a point beyond which I just cannot keep everything in mind; then I start forgetting some element of the list and I spend the whole day (or days, sometimes) trying to remember exactly every single item.
It was a curse.
Then I started using notebooks to prevent overload. Jotting something on my notebook puts that fresh, sparkling idea in a safe bufer sitting in my pocket, waiting to be processed afterwards.
It’s a medicine.
I use small Rhodia pads in A7 size, then I started binding my own notebooks.
I keep one as sort of a todo list, another one for writing/artistic sparks and then, since a while, there are my sketchbooks for watercolor and urban sketching that I use in paralel with my cameras.
I couldn’t do without my notebooks, everyone should use a notebook.
I take a lot more notes on my phone or laptop using Evernote than I used to. Certainly for work. But hand writing in journal still has a special place for the “deeper” stuff I need to explore. And like you say, it’s a medicine for me as well.
I’ve used a few Rhodia pads but the Moleskines have been easier to get. I do wish I could draw and sketch but that continues to elude me…
Oh but everyone can sketch, believe me. It’s just a matter of doing the first step. Putting your pen on paper and drawing lines instead of letters. The first sketches may be awful, or not and surprise yourself. It doesn’t matter, actually, because it’s just a way to force yourself looking at things; If you challenge yourself in sketching visual notes, the sketch itself isn’t important at all. What’s important is that you’ll soon discover that you can remember details, moods, perfumes and sounds that you couldn’t imagine to be able to and then you’ll be hooked.
Rhodia pads are harder and harder to be found here in Italy as well, that’s why I started binding mine; I can choose size, paper, finish, everything. That makes me happy ^_^
On my list of things to do in life — learn to draw. Also speak Italian and German.