Did you start writing a diary this year? What book are you using? I struggled to choose my 2016 diary, because of two challenges; deciding the type of book I wanted to use and then finding a book that met my requirements.
Type of notebook
For the last few years I’ve used page a day diaries to encourage me to write every day. Before that I used plain notebooks that encouraged me to write more due to the lack of limitations. I wasn’t sure which way I wanted to go for this year. I enjoyed last year’s A6 diary as I didn’t have to write a lot to fill the page (and sometimes I wrote less than a page), but I think this brevity cut off my writing flow where in the past with a notebook I’ve written for pages triggered by something that happened during the day but leading in different directions. For this reason, I decided to use a notebook again.
Finding a notebook
It has proved difficult to find a notebook as I don’t think many are made that meet my requirements and websites are not set up to assist me. It may have been easier if I’d gone to the shops so could see the notebooks but suspect it would still have been frustrating and probably unsuccessful. So what tricky features do I want that are so difficult to find:
- A5
- narrow ruled
- colourful cover
It is easy to find A5 notebooks, but the other two are more difficult. If the details say what the pages are like the best details you can expect are plain, ruled or squared, it is unusual to have information about the size of the ruling. I personally prefer narrow ruled as it saves paper as you can fit more lines on a page and often more words on a line as the width of you writing reduces to fit the line height. If you do find a narrow ruled notebook it is almost a certainty that the cover will be black. Why? Do only professional people want narrow ruled and why can’t they have colour or pattern?
Notebook Options
In the end, I took a gamble on three notebooks from Amazon, hoping at least one would fit my needs.
Rexel Joy* – this is an impressive hardback with elastic closure and ribbon, and comes in three bright colours. But it is wide ruled at 8mm wide.
Give a hoot* – good first impression as it is fun and chunky (so it maybe possible to fit most of the year in one book) and has two ribbon markers. But inside it is not just wide ruled, but extra wide at 10mm.
EasyNote Pastel* – nice embossed pattern on the cover (comes in four colours) although I’d prefer it without NOTES, it has an elastic closure and ribbon marker. But again is wide ruled at 8 mm.
On 31st December I had almost decided on using the Rexel Joy when I remembered I got a notebook at the Nikon food photography workshop. It is made by Castelli, has an elastic closure, ribbon marker and lovely narrow 6mm ruled lines. Unfortunately, the downside is it is black, although a bit more interesting having the Nikon logo embossed into it. I’m hoping Castelli sell this book in other cover colours so I can buy one ready when I’ve filled the first notebook of the year.
What is your 2016 diary like? Did you find it easy or hard to find?