A Visit to the University of Minnesota Bookstore

I love a bookstore that has an insane amount of notebooks and pens. Welcome to the University of Minnesota Bookstore (Minneapolis).

On the right we have a long aisle of notebooks - all sizes and bindings.This is one of the few places where you can buy a left-handed notebook.

On the backside of the same aisle are even more notebooks and some folders! The selection doesn't get any better than this.

 

Notebooks are everywhere!

On the left we have an aisle of pens, pencils and markers. As a good pen store does, they have slips of paper available so that the pens can be sampled.

I must have spent two hours at the store. They do have quite a bit of other items for sale such as gift items, school clothing, etc. It's a wonderfully laid out store with a wide selection of items. Index cards, anyone?

They also had some name brand notebooks including Rhodia, Moleskin Clairefontaine, and Leuchtturm1917.

Where do you find the best selection of pens and notebooks for brick and mortar stores?

List Making

I am a habitual list maker, which gives some of my many notebooks purpose. In recent days I've come across other lists that have inspired me or given me a spark of joy to read and to contemplate. The list below is my reading list for January 2010.

1. Twenty Ways to Get Through Bad Days

2. 25 Holiday Ideas in 25 Days

3. List it Tuesday

4. Keeping a Writer's Journal: 21 Ideas to Keep You Writing

5. Journaling Benefits - A List of Choices

6. 10 Traditions that should make a comeback in 2011

7. Lists from the Happiness Project toolbox 

Do you have a favorite list to share?

Letters & Journals Magazine Update

The launch of the print version of Letters & Journals is scheduled for 2011. It's been a long time in research and planning and the challenge in 2010 has been to build a following of potential subscribers.

To date we have a list of 2,300 names of possible subscribers/buyers. Our goal is to get 5,000 names. Once we have a list of 5,000 names then we will begin approaching advertisers and following up with the ones who have already expressed interest (thank you!).

If you know some people or groups who would be interested, please encourage them to sign up for the website, the e-newsletter or just let me know to add them to my Magazine Updates Only list. None of the lists are being sold or shared and there is no obligation.

Thanks to the many loyal followers who offer their encouragement and share in the excitement of all the things that Letters & Journals represents; pens, paper, ink, pencils, notebooks, diaries, journals, note cards, stationery, mail art, pen pals, postcards, mail, stamps, letters, ephemera, etc.

My New Notebook

Lucky Me! Last week I received this ecosystem notebook in a contest from Racket magazine on twitter.

We got to choose our own color if we won. This orange is called clementine, although kiwi (lime green) was a close second. I had to say what I would use it for and at the time I thought tracking my new hobby of watching Japanese anime movies would be a good choice, but the book is too big for those few movies. So I'm still deciding.

My next post will be about the J. Herbin Orange Indien ink I received from Karen at Exaclair, Inc. Orange on orange. I love it!

Notebook Purchase

I bought this mini binder (8.5" x 7") at russell + hazel stationery shop in Mpls., MN a couple weeks ago. I haven't decided what purpose it will serve yet, but I loved the smaller size and the assortment of colorful filler paper and dividers. They had a wonderful selection of colors for the binder and I debated between orange and lime green, but ended up choosing brown since I already have other notebooks in orange and lime green.

Possible uses this notebook include:

Monthly Highlights Journal
Business Expense Tracker
Goal Setting Planner/Tracker 2010
Letter Organizer
Magazine Planner (keeper of ideas, references, articles, art for Letters & Journals)

Help with the Tagline

I'm looking for help in deciding the wording and order of the tagline you see in the Letters & Journals image to the right. Currently it reads:

Mail Art
Journals
Blogs
Handwritten Letters
Postcards
Notebooks
Diaries

Although there may may be an occasional feature on Mail Art, I don't think there will be a regular dept, so I'm thinking I will shorten that to Mail.

I also wonder if I should change Handwritten Letters to either Letters or else Correspondence?

And what do you think of the words Pen & Ink?

I am leaning towards the following. What do you think or suggest?

Pen & Ink
Letters
Mail
Postcards
Diaries
Notebooks
Journals
Blogs

Thanks for your help! Please forward this on to any you think may have an opinion.

Letters & Journals Magazine Update

Here is the first look at the design for Letters & Journals, a quarterly print magazine celebrating the art and history of letter writing and journal keeping. We are still working out the details of the tagline that currently says Mail Art, Journals, Blogs, Handwritten Letters, Postcards, Notebooks and Diaries. We are deciding on which words to use and in what order. Fun stuff, I'm telling you!

Letters & Journals will be dedicated to all areas of letters and journals such as:

Fan Mail Today
Famous People Journal Excerpts
Penpals
Keeping an Art, Travel, Life, Success etc. Journal
Letters to your future self, your child, your past self
Make your own stationery
Best stationery stores by City
Stationery Product Reviews
Blogs that write about pen, ink, paper, postcards, journals, doodles
Scrapbook Journaling

I've gotten some great suggestions to possible feature stories and regular departments on the survey that I've been conducting at Survey Monkey. If you haven't taken either of the very brief surveys, I welcome your feedback and contribution.

Pens & Notebooks

I love the internet! How else can a person so easily find others who share their same interest? I love pens and notebooks. The feel of a generously inked fine point pen over smooth paper...heaven. Pictured here is a stack of my current notebook/day planner stash.

And here are some blogs I've recently discovered who pontificate splendidly on the pleasures of ink and paper.

Future: Nostalgic, a pen lover from the UK, writes about a great pen find in this particular post. I found him on Twitter (@futurenostalgic).

Unposted was also found on Twitter (@nrepose) and also writes about pens, notebooks and other miscellany. Both of these blogs have wonderful links to many other like-minded blogs, some of which are listed below.

Pen Chronicles
Pen Addict
Pen Archives
Everyday Correspondence
Whatever
Viva Snailmail

What's wonderful is that each of these blogs list other blogs of likemindedness (is that a word? Well, I think it should be if it's not).