How to keep a reading journal

We've recently added the Leuchtturm 1917 Reading Journal to our website, but you might be wondering, what am I actually meant to do with this? How is it different to a normal notebook?

Let us try and help...

 


Reading Journals are great places to record a variety of things when reading a book. What your initial impressions of the book were and how they changed throughout the course of reading? The emotions that the book made you feel, or maybe didn't and the questions it made you ask.

It's fascinating to keep a record of things like this, as who could honestly say they can remember exactly what they thought and felt about a book, years down the line. Or even after the book you read is long gone you still have that record of evidence to look back on, a little bit of personal history.

  


These Reading Journals Feature



- Fields for title, author, genre, etc.
- Enough space for comments, remarks or quotes and particularly interesting passages.
- Note part with separate area for more books to read, for gifts and books borrowed or loaned, and a free gestalltbare Category
- Alphabetical index for easy retrieval of books read
- 252 pages with space for 156 books read
- A5


So there's more than enough room to get down everything you need to about your favourite literature.

Hitting the right note with stationery...

As a musician myself it has to be said we are a picky bunch, when it comes to our instruments at least. But when it comes to the implements with which we might pen a score or record a set list, does the average muso care? Lets be honest your average metal head isn't going to be too worried about what paper their using - beer mat will probably suffice, or what pen to use when signing that first record deal...

But there are some of us who like a sense of order and substance to everything from our instruments to the paraphernalia we use.

Here's some handy tools for noteworthy musicians...and believe me there are far more useful things than an "I've been 'Chopin' "..Notepad...whoever thought that was a good idea...



The Slim Master is one of the few notebooks that Leuchtturm do with manuscript paper, but it's good it's this one. An impression silhouette of  a notebook, with 121 numbered pages, 8 perforated and detachable sheets, Expandable pocket for A4 sheets, Blank table of contents, Page marker, Elastic band fastener so none of that Brit Award winning music will go missing.

And here's a bonus....It's Superb for resting on a music stand due to the fact that all Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks are thread-bound, so open up flat first time around. Good times! 





So it's a bit cheesey, but it has got the Andy Warhol style which makes it cool in my book, its
based on Karl Josef Stieler's 1819 portrait and the musical notes are from Beethoven's 1801 Moonlight Sonata (Opus 27, no 2). Its pretty cheap too.


Ok onto a real pen now...

You probably have seen a nib going about in recent years called the 'music' nib, especially popular on the Sailor range of pens. Well what is it? Is it actually for writing music? Yes actually.

In a word, a music nib is a stub. But it’s not just any stub, it’s a special stub designed for a particular kind of usage. To write music, you need a pen that can make thin vertical strokes for the stems and flags of the notes, and fat horizontal ones — for their heads — and can do it very fast. A stub is the obvious candidate; but to make it write music, you need to hold it a little differently than you might hold a pen when you’re writing text. Note especially the high angle of elevation and the way the pen is rotated in the hand so that its narrow stroke is vertical relative to the paper. (see below what it looks like). You can see it on a lot of Sailor Pens here...