Treat Yourself 2011: Scribble, scribble, scribble

The short answer for where I write my book-related thoughts is "Everywhere." I used to keep a proper reading journal with a page for each book, and then I fell behind on it for some reason, and then I started blogging more... and I never picked the habit back up.

If you want to get into the habit of writing things down again, either about books or on a broader range of topics, here are some writing materials I like:

Any paper notebook can be a reading journal and there are a lot out there, but I liked the craftsmanship of and recommendations in Nancy Pearl's Book Lust Journal ($12.95, Sasquatch) Pearl is a librarian and overall reading booster, and I believe wrote a book called BOOK LUST to those ends... this is a handsome little piece though. She also sells a journal for kids called Book Crush in case you, I don't know, can't find a PG way of explaining what lust is to your kids, or something. 

As far as Moleskines go, I am the stereotype. I love them and tell myself that if I use them, it's okay to pay slightly too much for notebooks that are good but don't actually make me write any better. (But I'm using a spiral notebook right now, for throwback value.) My substitute obsession are the Moleskine knockoffs at Staples, in black leather, brown leather or even a sort of nifty plaid. They're listed on the website at $12.99 but usually I see them on sale for $6-$8, probably because there's a tiny scuff mark on them rendering them Business Unsuitable (don't care).

The environmentally friendly alternative to both of those are the Ecosystem notebooks, which I remember Borders plugging fairly heavily just before its demise (RIP). They're marked out by "architect" (gridded), "artist" (blank) or "author" (lined) and they're quite pretty, although in line with Moleskine pricing at $14.95 for a medium.

An idea that's been around for centuries but resurfaced in 2011 is that of writing shorter entries but maintaining consistency. Credited for bringing this back: Gretchen Rubin, author of the blockbuster THE HAPPINESS PROJECT (a book I liked! and even own) who committed to writing a sentence a day in her journal to remember those things that would otherwise go unnoticed. She has since come out with a HAPPINESS PROJECT-branded one-sentence journal designed to take you through 5 years, though there are others on the market already. It's a cute idea as long as you're not prone to losing things (ahem).

But if you really really want to start writing on paper again, my advice would be to keep the stakes low. Buy a plain notebook or even one of those two-column steno books and save the fancy stuff for later. All you have to do is start.