Editing The Pen Addict 189/transcript (section)

== Favorite Notebook ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' What's your favorite notebook at the moment, June?

'''June Thomas:''' Ooh. See, I have to say, right now, I'm loving the field notes. Gosh, I've forgotten the name. Snowdrift No. What's the fancy name?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Snowblind.

'''June Thomas:''' Snowblind. Thank you. I'm loving that. I really enjoy the cover. I never really go outside. So it's changed about once. But I love the...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mine have never changed color.

'''June Thomas:''' Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm an indoor girl. That's how I am. But I love the very light grid. But I'm also really big on Forest Choice notebooks. You know, the ones that you can get from pencils.com. Super cheap. I love those. I use those for my daily journaling. I'm a great believer in... Well, I shouldn't say I'm a great believer. I think a lot of us get intimidated by notebooks. You know, they're too nice. They're too precious. They're too special. And I really find that when... What helps me to write, which is kind of the purpose of all these notebooks, is having a notebook that I like and enjoy, but that I don't feel too precious about because I have another 266 of them sitting on a shelf. Or they're easy to find again. So I really love working in those notebooks because I think they take all kinds of pen very well. I have the small and the large. I'm doing a special project soon. And even though I use a lot of the same type of notebooks, I've actually also pulled out a... What's the name of that company from San Francisco, Brad? We talked about it years ago, that makes backpacks and also four wheels. I can see there. Rickshaw. Rickshaw.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Rickshaw. Ah, yes.

'''June Thomas:''' I bought a Rickshaw folio many years ago, used it once or twice, put it back in my drawer. I've pulled that out. I've got my notebooks in there for that project. So it's like, it's all about what's right for a particular project or a particular pen that you're into right then. So long answer, but there's mine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Do you have a daily process for writing? I mean, a lot of your job involves writing and note taking. Exactly. You know, you're into all kinds of stuff. I mean, I don't watch much TV, but between you and Christina Warren, I'm up on like every TV show. That there is. I mean, do you have any kind of process?

'''June Thomas:''' I do. I have so many. It's ridiculous because, you know, I live in a New York apartment. I should be super efficient. And in many ways, I am efficient. I feel like as somebody about getting my work done, I'm super efficient. But when it comes to stationary, I'm a little like, I like to use all my books. You know, it's like they say on the Anderson Pen Podcast, use your pens. So one way of using your pens is to have a lot of notebooks going. So I basically have like a big pad that I keep at the side of me that's actually a Cambridge wire bound legal pad that I kind of keep my daily to do list on a weekly basis. So like, let's just say a page for each week. So I keep that by me. I always have a field notes in my pocket. I usually have a Marizen B5 notebook that I find are great for just kind of making notes if I'm writing something. It's a weird thing, you know, if I'm writing a piece. It kind of depends on how big I think the piece will be, what notebook I use. Because I want to have enough space for what I, you know, for all the notes that I need for the piece, but I also don't want to have too much because that feels wasteful. I don't like to waste paper. So again, a very peculiar process that's all in my head about what's the right size. I have notebooks for to keep track of various things, different notebooks for some, if I'm going to like an ongoing project that's going to be quite extensive, I have a separate notebook for that. Or, you know, I do some, I mostly write for Slate, but I also have some other columns or freelance pieces that I do. So I'll often, I have a different notebook, which is currently a field notes that I keep inside a NotCo container, let's say. NotCo.

'''June Thomas:''' What do you call these things, Brad? NotCo.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' A case. A case. A case. Thank you.

'''June Thomas:''' There's a word, not Co case, for another magazine that I write for. And then in the evening, I have, as I say, I journal in the Forest Choice notebooks. And I just do two sides. And that might seem like a little bit, but I've never, ever in all my life, despite having been a professional journalist for a long time, I was never able to journal. That was like, I, either I found, oh, I've written myself out, I write all the time, or I just, again, maybe I was a little bit intimidated by books, but I've managed to keep that up for almost a year, which I feel like I should throw a party for myself. Wow. Yeah. And there's something, again, it's like this, they feel very throwaway. It's nothing too special, but I like to put stickers on them and make them a little bit special, but blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, lots and lots of different processes. And when I'm watching television, if it's something that I might write about, again, I have another notebook that I keep notes about TV shows in, partly so that I can kind of index them and find the specific notes. So if I keep them separate from just general stuff, that feels useful. Because I do often have to kind of go back to that writing so that I can, you know, find old notes and stuff.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So people listening to this right now, I mean, that listen to a show about pens and all that stuff, they're like totally nodding their head. They're like, yes, I do the same thing. And, you know, I have these 10 different notebooks going for all these 10 different projects. And man, this is awesome. And, you know, in the real world, it doesn't really apply. But, you know, I look back, you know, I've had this problem since childhood. Like, how long does this go back for you to where you like actually cared about, you know, what paper you write on or what pen you had or things like that? I mean, is this a long seated thing? Or is this kind of a relatively new thing?

'''June Thomas:''' No, it's a forever thing for me. I've always related. When you've talked about, you know, going with your granddad to the university bookstore, or, you know, I think that was your origin story, right? Yep. Yep. Absolutely. I could totally relate to that because I have such clear memories of going, in my case, to WH Smith's in Bolton and just spending hours and hours just wandering the aisles. And WH Smith's, Brad, is a very standard store. It's probably the most, like there's one on every high street in England. And it's a general store in a way. They have newspapers and books and stationery. And it tends to be kind of, as I say, standard stuff. But I would find so much entertainment in that store. It was like the greatest television show. And so I've always been very much. And for me, I think the thing that I really enjoy is finding the right paper for the right pen. You know, it's all about, I'm like a total matchmaker of pen and paper. Mm-hmm. So even if you have kind of a crummy pen or a crummy paper, you can always, you can always still find a thrill of matchmaking. So, yeah, that's been something that I have always enjoyed. And when I travel, again, it's a crazy thing, but I love to, first of all, I love to just go into supermarkets and look at like, oh, so this is what's in a Dutch supermarket. Which is, you know, when I come back home, oh, what did you do? Well, I spent a lot of time wandering the aisles of a superstore. And then I also like to go to just, you know, I like to go to nice ones, but I'm really happy just going into a, you know, just a regular old office supply store. There's always something that you discover. Sure. And I'm fascinated by different kinds of books that are used in different countries. So it's a very long and enduring passion. And other things that I liked when I was a kid have kind of fallen away. But stationery is something that has endured for me.