Cherchant un cahier.
Chère Lazyweb: It’s time to stop keeping research notes on scratch paper (not to be confused with scrap paper) and in my tiny daily Moleskine journal. I’m looking for composition-book suggestions.
What I envision is a large-format (A4/letter/8×10, etc.) notebook with acid-free paper (it must stand up to both age and water-based inks with a minimum of bleed). It should either be inexpensive or have a nontrivial page count (so I won’t have to be constantly purchasing more). It is preferable, but not absolutely necessary, that it have page numbers (I can add these if I have to) and quadrille (I can suffer along with narrowly lined pages if I must). Deal-breakers: wire spirals.
Does such a beast exist? The Moleskine “cahier” line meets some of these criteria (quality paper, quadrille), but fails others (too expensive and too few pages). Clairefontaine makes some high-quality notebooks, as I recall, but they’re also quite pricey.
(Hopefully I have some writing- and pen-geeks in the house.)
10 Responses to “Cherchant un cahier.”
You’ve seen my Clairfontaine notebooks, I know you have. Those are available in quadrille (actually, being French, they’re probably half-centimeter grid) as well as lined or totally blank. Hardcover, sewn cloth hinge, or spiral bindings available. Very FP friendly, extremely bright paper, heavy enough to not bleed liquid inks through. The A4 noteooks are 96 sheets,
Expense might be something you just have to accept. Archival paper in particular is a tough criterion.
Oh, here’s a thought — ye olde green-cover hardback lab journal. You know what I mean, every lab scientist in the country has shelves of them, full of everything they’ve ever worked on. How expensive are those? See for example Eureka Standard.
comment posted at 1:01 pm on 28 Mar 2006
A friend told me once about his field journals. Water resistant, archival quality, etc I think. They’ll also do pages however you like them though, so you can do quadrille or half centimeter, whatevs. Maybe not big enough for your needs, but seems pretty cool otherwise!
comment posted at 5:21 pm on 28 Mar 2006
$23, is how expensive. Yow.
comment posted at 5:35 pm on 28 Mar 2006
mim: Those field journals look pretty cool, but their weatherproof pages might resist the water-based ink I frequently use (gel pens, fountain pens). In fact, they recommend that if you need a pen, you ought to use their special pressurized pens (Fisher space pen, anyone?). I don’t know if I can go back to pencil for everything; I’ve become addicted to color in my notes (the only example I have handy is a page of Game Theory notes I scanned last year).
comment posted at 5:48 pm on 28 Mar 2006
Eureka was intended as an example of what I meant. Quick googling suggests that, for example, Scientific Notebook Company is much more reasonable. For example, 160 numbered pages, A4 with 5mm grid, for $14 apiece. If you want US sizes, the standard 192-page quadrille lab notebook is $16.
comment posted at 7:07 pm on 28 Mar 2006
It’s called TexShop. Use it. Know it. Love it. Paper is so 2002.
comment posted at 8:46 am on 29 Mar 2006
Yeah, I have TeXShop open on one of my desktops, with a paper in progress. But a text editor (even a LaTeXy one) doesn’t help me when I’m taking notes on papers I’ve read, or sketching new ideas, etc.
comment posted at 10:09 am on 29 Mar 2006
In addition to Dan’s criteria, I’ve found increasing need for TrapperKeeper-esque looseleafs.
I love the idea of bound notebooks, but i find that as I move between projects during a day, my notebook gets all ABCABCABC instead of AAABBBCCC.
comment posted at 12:47 pm on 29 Mar 2006
Everyone at the lab I’m working at uses these (that’s the first link Google found; I know nothing about that seller). They’re not French, but they seem robust and have pleasant aesthetics.
comment posted at 1:53 pm on 29 Mar 2006
That’s when you keep an “A” notebook, a “B” notebook, and a “C” notebook.
comment posted at 4:55 pm on 29 Mar 2006