A fetish, satisfied

[elfs]

This will be work-safe. I'm pimping a product.

Today, I walked down to the office-supply store a couple of blocks away. It was just a whim; I was going down to see if they had a notebook to replace the one I'd filled up a couple of days ago. Yeah, they buy me super-cheapies at work, some Avery "national brand" line college-ruled crap, but I hate those things. I had a quad-ruled "laboratory notebook" from the UW bookstore that I was using for a while, there, but like I said it was full now.

I went over to the spiral-bound notebooks and noticed they had the Clairefontaine 11x17cm notebooks. I cast my eyes over the collection, but didn't see what I was looking for. I looked down at the full-size spiral-bounds and there, in a box on the floor, were Clairefontaine Mosai-bound Multi-Subject quad-ruled 5/cm notebooks, 21x30cm, 90g/m^2. I grabbed the one off the top and clutched it to my chest. I paid for it and ran back to the office.

It's the paper. Clairefontaine papers have always been just sheer pleasure to write on. It heavy stuff, durable, blissfully smooth and easy to write on. Ink never bleeds and pencil marks stay where they are put. When I fill up one of these notebooks, my development process grinds to a halt until I decide I can suffer with cheap variants. There's just nothing quite like them.

It's irrational, but I'm just irrepressably happy right now. I can write longhand again-- and enjoy it. I can take notes once more-- and not resent the medium. Writing with a pen again becomes the pleasurable, enjoyable experience it's meant to be.

Comments

[ysabel.livejournal.com]

You know, writing with a pen/pencil always makes my hand hurt. And it's so slow... Even at my illegible fastest it's not a quarter of the speed I can type.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Do you also have a preferred style of pen? Or is it just the paper?

You sound like me raving about my preferred calligraphy paper. :-)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I wish I did have a favorite pen, but not really. I tend to use ordinary microballs, 0.5mm or smaller. Because of what it takes to make a decent ball-point pen, I suspect that going from "good" to "excellent" is a small increment while the price of doing so, the quality control for ink and metal, is a much larger increment that it's almost not worth it. I've never found fountain pens to be useable; too much work for the benefit. Whereas there's a material cost to making better paper, so the benefit of buying pricey stuff is noticeable.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

I wrote with a fountain pen for a while, because it was the only way I could get purple ink at the time. I wouldn't even begin to know where the pen is, these days.

I did notice that the parent company of your favorite notebook mfr is also the parent company for Brause, the makers of my favorite calligraphy nibs.

[jenk]

I love rollerballs, myself...you've reminded me I need to pick up refills for the Mont Blanc...

[amber-starcat.livejournal.com]

Favorite notebooks are good good things. Pens as well.

My favorite spiral bound are from Miquelrius. I think the size is 5x8. I don't currently have one next to me. Grrrr. But they are divided into six colored sections. Lined, of course.

My favorite rollerball is the Zeb-Roller 2000 by Zebra! Nice fit in the hand! Just the right size but that's IMHO! And you can pretty much buy them anywhere! ;-P

[sarabande7.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so happy for you. I understand completely

(from one who still writes on manuscript, and copies all but the large-ensemble scores IN INK -- to the bafflement of people who don't understand when I tell them that notation software "cramps my style".)

Good paper is very hard to find indeed. Particularly when you pretty much have to use a fountain pen on it.

Now, is this so enjoyable that you'll reorder online?

[lethael.livejournal.com]

I've got the same fetish with my notebooks and sketchbooks. I picked up a Clairefontaine once for my journal while I was in Japan and if I found another one again I'd probably have the same reaction as you did with yours. Currently, though, I'm swooning over a Paperblank Hand Stitched Tao Series journal with smooth, weighty lined paper in this aged-paper color and a Chinese watercolor on the front. Bliss.