---
title: "Nota bene"
url: https://campbell-online.com/blog/2006/08/09/note-bene/
description: "Let me tell you about these fabulous little notebooks I’ve just found. As a writer (one who works on technical subjects, not the Great American Novel) I make a point to."
published: 2006-08-09
updated: 2006-08-09
---

# Nota bene

Published 2006-08-09

August 9, 2006 · [Technical communications](https://campbell-online.com/blog/category/technical-communications/) · [Knowledge work](https://campbell-online.com/blog/category/knowledge-work/) · [Tools and techniques](https://campbell-online.com/blog/category/tools-and-techniques/)

Let me tell you about these fabulous little notebooks I’ve just found.

As a writer (one who works on technical subjects, not the Great American Novel) I make a point to never be without a notebook and a pen (a [Pilot G2](http://www.pilotpen.us/products/gel/), please.)

For years, I used cheap spiral-bound [reporter’s notebooks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporters) and went through them like Sherman through Atlanta.

They have a great form factor (essentially a half-width steno pad), are inexpensive, and each notebook holds a few working weeks worth of notes.

In 2004, I developed a [Moleskine](http://www.moleskineus.com/pocket.html) fetish.

In case you’ve been living on another planet for a while, Moleskines are pocket-sized bound notebooks with high-quality paper inside; that creamy, heavy paper combined with a gel pen or fountain pen makes handwriting an almost sensual pleasure.

They have a great form factor, are ridiculously expensive but worth it, and I rationalize all this by purchasing them in bulk and writing them off on my taxes every year. (They come in three flavors: plain paper, ruled paper, and “squared” — graph paper, in other words. Guess which one sets my propellor-beanie a-spinnin’.)

Since the development of my notebook fetish, my [man-purse](http://enrevanche.blogspot.com/2005/10/excellent-man-purse-now-with-extra.html) has always had the current, working Moleskine notebook in it, filled with furious scribbles and doodles and grocery lists and occasionally actual project notes and diagrams.

Well, now. Yesterday I saw the new [Moleskine Cahier](http://moleskine.stores.yahoo.net/moleskine-cahier-notebooks.html). I think I just met my new favorite auxiliary/travel/project-specific notebook.

The Moleskine Cahier, nerd-ruled

The Cahier is a slim, pamphlet-sized, cardboard-bound notebook holding 64 pages (with the last 16 perforated for easy detachment.) These little guys have, in fact, almost the exact same form factor in every dimension as a United States Passport… and I have a passport wallet at home.

I bought a dozen.

Do yourself a favor, and indulge yourself a little: buy a really nice notebook and pen, and record those stray million-dollar ideas that float through your consciousness every now and again.

[Moleskine Cahiers at the Moleskine US Store](http://moleskine.stores.yahoo.net/moleskine-cahier-notebooks.html)

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