Notebooks

I decided to gather all of my notebooks and put them in one place. New and used.  It turns out I have 27 of them.  most of them are Molskines, but those were bought recently.  I have some spiral type journals which i realize I don't like, but those are old. I have one Red & Black too.  Some of them are art journals and have paintings/drawings.

I have work in one of these from 1986. They are typed poems.  However, I didn't start the book until 1994.  I didn't always write in notebooks.  I stepped away from it for many years.  The main reason is that a lot of the stuff I was writing was very depressing.  I only started writing in them again recently. 2006 was when I went back to it. Although I still was not doing it daily.

I currently have 5 notebooks going at once.  One big one which I leave at home because it is too cumbersome to carry, one hard cover smaller one that I carry to work and a soft cover one which I also carry to work sometimes.  I have the little red one for taking notes in transit and a soft cover one for my dreams.  It sounds like I am ADD but I'm not. 

I have also put table of contents (on the last page, so is that an appendix?) So I can find things much easier. 

I don't think I'm an 'addict' but I do like them and will be using them probably for the remainder of my life.

Journals

I haven't been writing in my journals for a while.  I've taken some notes in Journal 5, but no real meanderings.  I decided to pull out some older volumes.  Volume 1 which I started in September 2008.  I've only completed 3 volumes (1, 2 and 4).  Volume 3 is not completed, it is a larger size book and harder to carry around, but I'm working on it again.  There is a volume 6 (not pictured) that is in process as well.

I found it interesting looking through them.  I like to cut out pictures and paste them in.  Sometimes I use them as research or food for thought.

 I was working on a story from the 70s and 80s.  Although I lived through the eras, I wanted to take notes on the fashions.

 This was a collage on something called "The Sylvia Plath Effect".  The Sylvia Plath effect is a term coined by psychologist James C. Kaufman in 2001 to refer to the phenomenon that poets are more susceptible to mental illness than other creative writers.  I suppose this would have been a dark time in my life.

 On the inside covers of some of my journals, I pasted pictures and/or quotes.  On volume 1, i posted a lot of angels and saints.  They make me smile.

 This was some research on Archangels. Gabriel mainly.  Was working on a story (still am) about them.  I zeroed in on Gabriel because she is my favorite angel.

 I did do writing in the journals too.  I also pasted some pictures that had nothing to do with a story, but I thought could lead to inspiration.

 I also am inspired by personal libraries.  And i really loved the pearl choker.  Again, no reason other than that it made me smile, and still does.

More research on fashions from the past.  Now we go back to 50s and 60s.  Can't really recall what I was thinking on writing.  There are notes on the pictures but no notes before or after this page. So it seems to be random.

I look through these books and sometimes I find random blurbs and wonder what the heck was I thinking.