Hodgepodge 355/365 - Notebooks

Two and a half years ago, I wrote about keeping a journal. I just reread what I wrote there, and yep, things are status quo. I could write that post today.

I have a couple of writing friends, Sherilyn and Kim, who journal—or rather, "do handwriting," it may not be journaling per se—every day. Sherilyn recently passed 1,000 days straight of writing in her notebooks. That amounts to forty volumes: she writes only on the recto side, leaving the verso for odd notes. And she writes large. So she goes through journals lickety-split.

Both of them use "Decomposition Books," something I'd never heard of until two years ago at a writing conference. They're basically your average composition notebook, but made out of recycled materials and printed in soy ink, gussied up with whimsical drawings. Some are spiral bound, others perfect bound. I had to buy one, of course, if I was going to hang with the cool kids.

Yesterday Sherilyn shared a picture with us of her newest Decomposition Book: it features manatees. Manatees having tea: manateas! Squee!

That of course made me want to see if there was a design that I had to have. Until I realized that the notebook I bought two years ago remains empty. As do the several notebooks I bought in Italy this year. As do . . . oh, maybe a dozen more. (They're mostly not nearly as large as a composition book, so stop looking at me like that.)

(And in my defense, I got another Decomposition Book last year at a different writing conference, and I started using it forthwith, and it is now this far from being full—and I write small and on every part of every page.)

Yeah, I'm a notebook junkie. A pen junkie, too. And it's time I started writing more by hand, dammit. That would be a good segue for when this wretched blog comes to an end. Right?

So, by way of incentive, I'm going to post here some of the many delightful Decomposition Book covers I might one day treat myself with, if I can whittle down my stack of journals—starting with my pristine Decomposition Book, which is covered with fluttering butterflies. Wish me luck.

I might have to go with this one. Love that sloth!

The inside covers are also very swell: