New Notebook

I use notebooks at work. I subscribe to the philosophy that if you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen. Since 2000, I’ve been using National Brand 5×5 Quad Paper with Eye Ease® paper. I love these notebooks and have taken a decade to go through the box that I bought way back then.

5x5 Quadrille Green paper notebook

We are now coming to the end of an era; I’m almost out of these notebooks. I still have a few at home that are dedicated to specific things, but the one at work is currently being scribed on page 145 of 160. Not too many days remain until notebook number 12 will be christened (there’s actually been more than that, but I restarted my numbering in 2004). Because I’m having to purchase a new notebook, I’m going to try something a bit different. Whitelines!

Whitelines / Quadrille Comparison
I am heartily entertained by the “Carbon Free” notation. If you don’t read the fine print, it implies that this was made with no carbon, rather than as a zero carbon footprint product, although I’m curious how they can produce something from raw materials in such a manner that they produce no carbon footprint. That’s counterintuitive to me. I’ll have to go look it up, later.

This is the Whitelines wirebound A4 notebook. The wirebound was very important to me because I use both sides of my notebook paper and need to be able to fold it back without shattering the spine of the notebook. A4, of course, is one of those crazy non-American thingies dealing with paper size but it’s generally equivalent to 8.5″ x 11″, i.e. American Letter size.

The quadrille nature of the paper is also important to me because it’s nice to have the lines keeping me in square. I’m not the worlds best free hand artist and I can use the squares to help keep me in scale.

IMAG0275.jpg

The argument by the manufacturer is that the white lines on the paper shown above are better to use that the dark lines on more common graph paper. At first glimpse, I’m unconvinced that this will make a big difference to me when I’m working. It may make a difference when I go to photo copy the page, but that doesn’t happen very often.

Stack 'O Notebooks from work. Latest edition will be Whitelines

Honestly, I just wanted to try something new for a change. I’ve spent a lot of time with that other notebook.

Other remarks: the Whitelines book feels a bit floppier than the quad books I’ve been using. I’m also a bit worried that it’s not going to stand up to the abuse I give these notebooks (being thrown around, crushed into bags, stacked under books, generally treated poorly).

Comments

5 responses to “New Notebook”

  1. annie Avatar
    annie

    A4 is more like 8.5″ by approximately 11.33″. Doesn’t seem like a big difference until you get one student turn in a paper printed on A4 paper in a stack of papers printed in standard 8.5″ x 11″.

  2. Bill Ruhsam Avatar

    When I worked for Amphenol, we used to get faxes from England that originated on A4 paper but got printed on our letter size, which ended up cutting off important technical data. Ah, the days of common pre-electronic correspondence.

  3. […] while back, I decided to try a new notebook: Whitelines. My initial evaluation is in that previous blog […]

  4. […] evaluated the Whitelines, both at the beginning, and in the middle. At the end of it’s life, I’ll say that I like the paper, I think […]

  5. […] veteran notebook serves me well and I have a stack of them in my drawer that I’ve filled over the years. Just this […]

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