Notebooks

I love office supplies. When I was a kid and my parents used to offer us a treat of anything we wanted, I always picked a pen or paper. I remember that I did this because I knew we did not have much money and one could usually find a nice, but cheap pen. But, I suspect it is really because I loved pens and paper even then. I had dolls but could never really figure out how to play with them but could always find activities that involved pens and paper.

I have a large collection of notebooks but am partial to Moleskines. The size is great, I tend to use the larger size, the pocket in the back is handy (I like to carry grid index cards with me), and the elastic keeps the notebook together. I mostly use them now for school (I am in an online Library Science program at Drexel University) but I always carry at least one notebook with me. I do often carry a second with me for miscellaneous jottings. For example, now that I work in a library, I use visits to book stores as a way of gathering information on the books that I want to read next, but get them from the library.

There is a Staples in the outdoor shopping center where we do most of our book shopping and we visit that at least once a week. They have just started a great new line of journals of all types: some are pocket-sized, others are faux Moleskines and there are also wonderful casebound notebooks (I am left-handed so spiral notebooks are not ideal for me). I was so excited to see this new display with so many choices so reasonably priced.

There is something glorious about a new notebook--it is an opportunity to start fresh. With a new notebook, a good pen is essential and I have lately been using the Pilot V7 retractable gel pens. It is a needle point pen and the point is just perfect for me and it dries quickly which is very important for a left-hander.

I suppose it is a benign addiction although I worry that I collect so many that our house will resemble a jumble shop. My favorite TV episode ever was one on Homicide: Life on the Street. A man fought another man for a pen; the detectives could not imagine this as a motive for murder but when they went to the house of the alleged murdered, there were pens all over---on the walls, the lamps, the tables and even strung on string and ribbon between the walls. The murder part was inconceivable and as an addiction, it was gloriously strange, but more believable to us office supply junkies that addictions to some other things.