Empty Notebooks

I love notebooks. Just the way they feel between palm and finger, the way a pen glides over and makes a mark, the way it fits into your bag with such ease.

The first notebooks I used were for school work – those were easy to fill. The daily ritual of writing down notes, math sums, definitions, Q&A, test answers, diagrams. The real difficulty arose afterwards, when I bought some blank notebooks, leather bound with a ribbon marker, little pockets on the inside cover, rounded corners. A proper moleskin. Afraid to make a mistake, I left it blank.

I have maybe 6 notebooks at the moment. One is from London – the cover a bright glittering purple. It says “Make Today Awesome” in light blue letters. Another is from Harry Potter World – a Slytherin one, green leather covers and rough brown pages. A smaller one, a gift from a friend. It says ‘Colourful Days’, and below that ‘Draw All Your Dreams’. Another I got recently – another gift. A blue, perhaps damask, cloth cover. The pages feel handmade. One from a Hong Kong street market, brown pages and a Chinese saying burned into the leather cover. My designated travel journal.

An old green moleskin, a gift as well, has a few pages with Korean sentences and song lyrics. I’ve put that one aside for my Korean. But once again – it’s a study notebook. It will be simple to fill.

But the others. How to fill the others… I’m still wondering.

One for accounts during college. Contacts? My phone would probably work better.

I could never maintain a daily journal, so that’s out. Maybe an art journal? It’s a lot of work though.

In wondering what to fill in all these notebooks enough time would have passed for me to have filled them – whether with my To-Do list, reminders, questions, information, notes, or whatever else in the world.

It’s a little amusing, to say the least.