It might seem trivial, but to a writer hardly anything is more important than good notebooks. And it is not easy to please me in that sense: the lines should be exactly far enough apart, it should have a ring binder at its left side and the size can't be over 16,5 X 21 cm. For years I was carelessly happy with the grey notebooks I bought at the Dutch Hema store, that exactly fulfilled all my wishes. Until all of a sudden the grey ones were replaced by shiny blue and green ones. Desastrous, as this innovation also came with supposedly practical perforated lines in the margin in order to tear the pages out more easily, so easily in fact that they were coming off even while I was writing. A logistical nightmare for notes which are supposed to be kept for years. For over a year I've been looking for a proper replacement, finally finding it last Monday in an office stationer's at the Neude in my home town Utrecht. Notebooks from the French brand Clairefontaine: good quality paper, no perforations or other kinds of misery and a sturdy binder. So in an hour or so I'm getting on the plane to Mozambique with decent tools. Now I'm just praying that this collection will never be discontinued...
It might seem trivial, but to a writer hardly anything is more important than good notebooks. And it is not easy to please me in that sense: the lines should be exactly far enough apart, it should have a ring binder at its left side and the size can't be over 16,5 X 21 cm. For years I was carelessly happy with the grey notebooks I bought at the Dutch Hema store, that exactly fulfilled all my wishes. Until all of a sudden the grey ones were replaced by shiny blue and green ones. Desastrous, as this innovation also came with supposedly practical perforated lines in the margin in order to tear the pages out more easily, so easily in fact that they were coming off even while I was writing. A logistical nightmare for notes which are supposed to be kept for years. For over a year I've been looking for a proper replacement, finally finding it last Monday in an office stationer's at the Neude in my home town Utrecht. Notebooks from the French brand Clairefontaine: good quality paper, no perforations or other kinds of misery and a sturdy binder. So in an hour or so I'm getting on the plane to Mozambique with decent tools. Now I'm just praying that this collection will never be discontinued...
