I ♥ Notebooks

Honestly, I have more notebooks than I ever have or probably ever will use. My last count of current notebooks that I have readily on hand was in the range of 40. And then I bought a couple more and found some others I'd forgotten, so let's just say I have 40+ notebooks at the moment. And these are all kinds of notebooks! Tiny ones that are uncomfortable to use and large ones that are intimidating in their size. Compositions and spirals and bound and spineless. I have notebooks with beautiful covers, funny covers, and plain covers.

I've thought a lot about why I'm so obsessed with notebooks. Because I don't actually use my notebooks so often that I need nearly as many as I have. Over the years, I've tried to get better about actually using the notebooks I buy, but there is an undeniable part of me that almost loves an empty notebook as much as my fullest notebooks. Because an empty notebook is full of potential. It could still be used for anything! And that is, admittedly, also part of my problem. What if I start filling a notebook I love with a story I hate? I'm working on it. But in the meantime, I collect notebooks. And I've taken pictures of a few of my favorites!

Right now I'm in the midst of a whirlwind love affair with shiny, golden polka dots. The notebook on the far right is a purchase I made tonight because alone with being super cute, it also is one of those spineless notebooks that will lay completely flat when opened, which I love! The notebook on the left actually contains a handful of rough story ideas, character names, and a little playing around I'm doing with one of those stories. The other two? Blank!

These are just hella cute! The cupcake composition notebook was part of a set of 3 that I got at a back to school sale a year or two ago. The silver one is actually super duper sparkly, and I bought it in October last year. I remember because I have a gold version somewhere that I took to my interview for my current job. Both blank, but adorable!

The lighting is off on these, but this is one of my newer purchases as well! This is a soft cover Moleskine notebook with grid lines rather than your traditionally lined pages. I actually purchased this notebook and a few colored marker pens with the express intent to try bullet journaling! If I ever actually get around to setting that up, I'm sure a blog post about it will follow!

This is my convention journal! It is a super basic notebook that I picked up from Target. I think it may be a Five Star, but I don't actually remember. I've had it for a long time, though, and a couple of years ago I decided to try and keep my convention panel notes in one place rather than spread across whatever random notebook I pick up before leaving my house. This has been super helpful so far! I have about three conventions and one or two workshops worth of notes in this notebook, so it's been an awesome and easy to find resource.

And these are my most heavily used notebooks. The smaller of the two was one of my original convention notebooks that I misplaced before turning to the purple one above! Now they both hold stories. The larger notebook has more. A few short snippets of scenes with old characters that I'd like to one day expand on. It's probably my favorite just for the sheer about of material I actually have in it.

And there you have it! Here is a pile of some of my other favorites! It's no where near a full roll call of all my notebooks, and most of these are still blank. But they make me happy. Even though most of my notebooks are unused, I know that at any given time, if I want to devote lines upon lines towards a new story or a new project, I have them at my disposal. In a lot of ways, I think they represent everything I could eventually do or work on or want. And right now a lot of them are empty, but one day more of them may be filled up. I'm looking forward to getting there.

How many notebooks do you have? Or are they really not your thing? If not notebooks, what is it that you find yourself collecting?