Pens, Paper, Office Supplies

[Lynn2000]

Don't be embarrassed if you love them! Okay, maybe a little embarrassed, if you're like me and have two shelves and a drawer full of blank notebooks, plus dozens more stashed under the bed...

My most recent spree was at Target. They carry a line called "Green Inspired," which has blank notebooks and journals in different sizes and types. I haven't written in any yet, but the paper quality seems remarkably good, especially considering the price.

Another good place to look is Michael's, the hobby store. The dollar bins upfront are good for small, cheap notebooks; and my store at least has an aisle farther back of matching party favors in different themes, which often include hardback journals.

Also, Barnes & Noble has a line of journals in a couple different sizes, which are quite substantial and good quality. They always have them in the bargain section and they're usually very reasonably priced. They haven't changed the designs in a while, though, so I think I have them all as of right now.

My new thing is softcover notebooks of roughly 8.5x11 or A4 size, which are fairly thin, like maybe 25 sheets/50 pages. About a year ago I found this store at a mall called Typo (Cotton On is the main brand, for clothing) and they had six packs of A4 notebooks like this on sale. I bought a couple packs (12 notebooks) and have since used 10 of them. Perhaps I should mention I write stories in all of these notebooks. The Typo notebooks are perfect for giving a story a substantial start, but without the intimidation factor of cracking open a 200 page bound journal. I cannot apparently find these exact same things anywhere, but I've been looking for similar items.

Pens: I like gel pens and rollerballs best. My very favorite is the G2, followed by the Pilot Precise V5 (capped has a slight edge over retractable as I like to watch the ink in the window). Pentel Energels are nice too. I don't like pens that get blobby, OR that take too long to use up! I need the positive reinforcement of emptying pens to keep me going.

[PastryGoddess]

I don't have quite that many empty journals, but I do tend to go through them pretty quickly.  I use them as my recipe books.  I like the G2's.  I have pretty bad writing, so I need journals that have college ruled pages rather than wide ruled pages.  I also can't use pens that are too fine.  my handwriting ends up looking like chicken scratch and then I can't read it.

I'll take pretty much any design as long as it isn't pink.  I despise the pink is for girls idea.

[Lynn2000]

Using them as recipe books is a cool idea! My mom has a composition notebook she uses for recipes she's made. She can either tape a printed copy of the recipe in it or write the ingredients down, and note any changes she made to it as well. It just goes by date, so it isn't perfectly organized, but she enjoys browsing through it.

As I said, I write stories in my journals/notebooks. My goal is always to type the stories later and throw the notebooks away (though I'm always woefully behind in typing). So, although I like having something nice to write in, ultimately I'm going to throw it away, so I don't want to spend a LOT of money on it.

Generally I like the fine-point pens, although I use a lot of mediums as well. Really fine needle-points can be novel for a while, but some kinds of paper just seem to swallow them up and the handwriting is hard to read because the lines are so fine. This seems to happen more on lower-quality paper, like your standard looseleaf filler. One of the many things I like about the G2's is that they seem to work well on a wide variety of papers--thick, thin, wide lines, small lines. Some of my friends don't like them, and gel pens in general, because they say they smear, but for whatever reason I don't seem to have much problem with that.

[PastryGoddess]

Yeah,

It's actually how I keep track of things.  All of my recipe books are different.  So I know just by looking which recipe is in which book. 

[Mel the Redcap]

Mmm, staaaationery.

I love the buffalo notebooks from Typo, the A5 size with an elastic band holding the cover shut. I have... er... several. *shifty eyes* They keep going on sale!

I also adore the Zequenz 360^o notebooks. They have the thin, strong, smooth paper I prefer (that doesn't let ink bleed through easily!) and are ruled or gridded with very narrow lines - I like 5mm lines (about 1/4") because I write small when I'm concentrating. You can also open them out flat or wrap the front around to the back without damaging the spine at all.

Moleskine notebooks are good too, but tend to be expensive! I got a bunch of A4 grid books on sale and have been using them to plan quilts.

Leuchtturm1917 are another brand I love but won't/can't buy at full price. Solid, hard-wearing hardcover notebooks in a bunch of different sizes and styles, with lovely paper, attached elastic band, and a ribbon bookmark sewn into the spine.

As for pens, I like very fine-tipped pens (goes with my teeny handwriting) with dark black ink. The Typo 'Spinout' pens are both good AND very cheap!

[Lynn2000]

I got some A5 Spinout notebooks from the Typo store, too! They were on sale for a dollar--not sure I would have paid the US$5 price on the sticker, as they're pretty small.

I've been getting into Moleskine a bit, too. They ARE expensive. I like the look and feel of them, but one issue so far is that the lines are almost too small for me--college-ruled is fine, but these really require that I make sure I have a fine-point pen and some concentration! My handwriting ranges all over the place in size, depending on how tired/relaxed I am--looking through a whole notebook it sometimes looks like several different people have been writing in it!

I put a Leuchtturm1917 large ruled notebook on my Amazon list just now! The real purpose of this thread emerges, mwhahaha... I don't get why "large" so often means what I consider less than full-sized, though. The "large" notebook here is about 6" x 8" whereas to me the largest size ought to be 8.5x11 or A4. Same with Moleskine--their "extra large" Cahier notebook is the biggest they have, and it's only 7.5x10, so almost what I would call standard size, but not quite.

[Ereine]

I keep buying blank notebooks in the hope that I'll turn into someone who keeps sketch journals but so far it hasn't happened. I like unlined pages even for writing, I don't mind if my lines end up crooked, I don't like the look of lined pages. I bought some cheap notebooks that have nice bamboo paper, very smooth. They also had nice brown paper covers so I can draw on them too.

Ikea launched their paper stuff recently, they had some nice looking and cheap things, I don't know about the quality.

I only like black Uniball micro pens for writing. The ink dries quickly and doesn't smear and it's pretty fine and I can't ruin the tip by pressing too hard. For drawing I like quite fine Neopiko pens (I've also quite many of their markers, which I never use).

[poundcake]

I have notebooks for classes, smaller ones for conferences, ones for story ideas and outlines, and, of course, ones for journaling. I stocked up on some of these last year, because they're awesome:

http://www.mymaido.com/236-kyokuto-guildford-edinburgh-cambridge-notebooks

Also, the only appropriate pens are medium-point blue. Those fine-tip ones are an abomination.

[Thipu1]

Are there any other lovers of paper clips among us? 

I have German, Italian, brass and scads of different plastic kinds.  The gem of my collection is one from 'Enron Gas Services'. 

[HGolightly]

I love this thread! I am a stationary addict and my vice is pens. Being a dyslexic leftie I am very particular a out pens. They have to be inky, archival pens with a very fine tip (otherwise I drag my hand through when I write smearing the ink). Last year our local discount store cleared out the sharpie fine line pens for fifty cents a pack! I bought all they had. This year I found the same pens at Target in purple and turquoise which kinda rock.

[atirial]

Hello, my name is atirial and I'm a stationary addict. I have piles of notebooks, mostly filled, but I can never find the note I need when I need it. There are three unopened boxes of Bic Biros on the desk behind me, and a pile of empty notebooks on my computer...

I think I need help.

[Lynn2000]

Hello, my name is atirial and I'm a stationary addict. I have piles of notebooks, mostly filled, but I can never find the note I need when I need it. There are three unopened boxes of Bic Biros on the desk behind me, and a pile of empty notebooks on my computer...

I think I need help.

You just need help getting organized! I like Post-it notes and tape flags for making quick bookmarks in a notebook. Both the regular paper Post-it notes and the more plastic-y flags come in various sizes, depending on what you need. They even have extra-stiff flags that are meant to replace the tabs on tabbed divider sheets.

Oh, paperclips... I had to stop buying them, and tell my mom to stop buying them for me, because I just wasn't using them fast enough. I like the plastic-coated ones in bright colors and patterns. One of the office supply stores around here has a station kind of like the Jelly Belly or colored M&Ms dispensers at candy stores--they have paperclips, pushpins, butterfly clips, etc. in half a dozen bright colors, each thing and color in its own bin, and empty containers of various sizes and shapes that you can fill with whatever you want. Seriously, it kind of makes me drool. But I have about three of those giant containers of colorful paperclips that I've never even opened, so I need to restrain myself.

Kyokuto notebooks... I checked out the link, how awesome! They don't seem to really have them at Amazon (my dealer of choice), but I might buy them from the Maido website. They seem reasonably priced, and free shipping over $25!

[Thipu1]

This thread IS great fun. 

A while back we were able to secure colored staples.  We had them in red, pink, blue, yellow and green.  When readers used the Ref desk stapler for their Photocopies they often did a double take. 

The library also had a vintage stapler.  It held a roll of wire that it would cut and fold into a staple. 

Wouldn't it be neat of there was an office supply museum somewhere?

[Sapphire23]

This thread IS great fun. 

A while back we were able to secure colored staples.  We had them in red, pink, blue, yellow and green.  When readers used the Ref desk stapler for their Photocopies they often did a double take. 

The library also had a vintage stapler.  It held a roll of wire that it would cut and fold into a staple. 

Wouldn't it be neat of there was an office supply museum somewhere?

You mean like this?  http://www.officemuseum.com/exhibits.htm

[cwm]

Yay, I'm not the only leftie with pen issues! The hardest part is trying to learn actual calligraphy. I've since pretty much given up, the leftie nibs are nearly three times as expensive as standard and I have to wait for things to dry fully before moving on to the next stroke, which ruins the whole flowing aspect of it.

I love notebooks and pens too. At work they provide us with steno notebooks, which are good enough for all the notes and random things at work. I'm much partial to large spiral notebooks (5 subject, usually) college rule. The multiple subjects are for the multiple things I need notebooks for. When I was in college, a 5 subject notebook lasted me for two classes because the other three subjects were journals, poetry, fiction, recipes, whatever else happened to fill it.

As far as pens go, I love the G2 pens. Also, Pilot B2P is really nice. I also really like Uni Ball 207s. I've actually got one of each I use every day (different colors) and they're by far my favorite pens. Now if only I could order ink cartridges in various colors for each of them, I'd be set. As it is I traded out the ink on my G2s, the black pen has red ink. Apparently it makes it much less likely that someone will steal the pen and keep it. I'm the only one in the office who's done that, so if mine goes missing and someone else has another black pen with red ink without a corresponding red pen and black ink, I'll know who to blame.