Editing The Pen Addict 134/transcript (section)

== America the Beautiful ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Number 10 is America the Beautiful. And this is one that probably would have been in, like, 20th spot a year or two ago. But the more I look at this edition and the more I use this edition, the more I love this edition. And I have actually hunted down extra packs of this edition because I like it so much.

'''Myke Hurley:''' One of the greatest covers.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' One of the greatest covers they've ever done. It's really different in the grand scheme of Field Notes. It's a real standout design-wise. And it was one of the first to use the thicker paper, I believe. And it became hugely, hugely popular. And it's just a flat-out beautiful edition. I didn't get it at first. But the more I used it and the more I looked at it and the better it came, it became to me. And I just, I really, really liked the edition.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's one of my favorites. It is definitely, definitely one of my favorites.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. Number 9, Day Game. This is kind of like in the Fire Spotter range where it doesn't get a lot of love. Like some of the, like Night Sky, for example. Doesn't get a huge amount of love. But it's a really, really quality edition. It's got one of my favorite single notebooks in it. This is another three-color pack. It's one I'm actually using right now. It's with a white cover and red field notes printing on the front. Red ink. It looks beautiful. And plus the other, the green and the brown editions are really nice too. And it uses a dot grid, which at the time, when this came out, they weren't doing much dot grid, if any. I don't know if this was the first. I'd have to look back and do some math about that. But, and it also came with a book. If you were a part of the color subscribers, which I think that's the only time that there's been a book with the, with the editions. That's, that's been a popular edition. But it kind of, kind of like Fire Spotter. It gets a little bit lost in the shuffle with some of these other ones. But I really, really enjoy it. And that's my current, current edition that I'm using right now. Number 8 is Drink Local. I love this edition. Love, love, love this edition. Six different colors. Love the yellow, or I don't know if they call it lager or barley grid that they use. I haven't enjoyed using an edition as much as Drink Local in a long time. And I've filled up several of these and given some to friends and gave some to my parents. And, you know, they came with the little six-pack holder and the coasters. And I just thought it was a really well-designed edition. Great video. And I thoroughly enjoyed using that edition. And that's an edition that, when I'm looking for a new notebook to use now, it's right there at the top to grab a Drink Local and use that because I like that edition so much.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Number 7. This was a hard one to rank. And it's Butcher Blue. So this is probably the single rarest edition that there is. It's not the prettiest edition. It's not the most common edition, obviously. It's ridiculously expensive. But it ranks so high just because it has that aura about it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. Because I don't like the way these look.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, right. You know, if it was based on rarity, this would be number one. But, and it's not as good looking as, like, Butcher Orange, which I have ranked higher. But there's something about the aura of that book that makes it special. So that's where that one falls in, in the rankings. And one of these days I'm going to have to use one of these because I said I would. So coming soon to an insane asylum near you, I guess, when I crack that pack open. Number six, National Crop. Can you tell I like the multicolor editions?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, I love National Crop. I love the box that they came in. I love the idea behind them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The patch that it came with? Yeah. Everything about this edition is nailed. And this is one, if I see them for sale and they're reasonable price, I just stock up on it. It's a beautiful edition. Six different color books, all on different crops. Yes. You know, it's cotton, sorghum. I can't remember the whole list, but each of them is a different color. And seeing people use these, this is one of those that wears really, really well. So when you see a used beater one of these, they look fantastic. And this is, you know, the real traditional edition based on, you know, what these, what the field notes was about, you know, back in the 30s, 40s and 50s in the farmland and all the, all the farmers using, you know, their books to track their crop cycles and things like that. So great, great, great edition. Lots of history, lots of meaning behind this and the delivery and execution of the edition was spot on. Number five is Just Below Zero. This is a really, really beautiful edition. Kind of bluish, bluish gray, silvers. It's a super rare edition. It's one of the early editions. And actually all these at the top of my list. Maybe it's nostalgic that I've had some of these editions since the very beginning that I prefer them more than some of the old, some of the more current editions. But you'll see all the rest of this top five are older editions that you just can't get anymore. Something about that Just Below Zero is beautiful.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That Just Below Zero breaks the winter trend.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Yeah, that's a winter one that I like. So that's funny. Yeah, so that's good. And I guess the next one is too, a winter one, which is the very first colors edition. And that's Mr. Butcher Orange. Yes. Um, it's just, it's a famous edition. And what's funny is, I'll have to go back and look at it. I think it's the only edition with an unoriginal name along with Butcher Blue. They're named after the physical cardstock that they're printed on. So the actual cardstock of the cover is a Butcher Orange by whichever company that makes that cardstock. I can't remember. It's not in front of me right now. So like, you know, Just Below Zero is the name that Field Notes came up with. Butcher Orange and Butcher Blue are a physical product name. Like you could go to a printer right now and get Butcher Orange paper. So I thought that was interesting.

'''Myke Hurley:''' French Giratone, Butcher Orange, 80 pound cover.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. So between Butcher Orange and Butcher Blue, I don't think there's any other ones that's actually the product name. And that was their very first editions, right? So they were still feeling this out. They don't know what's going to happen at this point, right? No one knows that Butcher Orange and Butcher Blue are going to become terms in our realm that we actually throw around with regularity. So it's kind of funny to look back and see that naming style at the time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Craft was around before this, though, wasn't it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Craft was the first. And then shortly after, I want to say six months or within the first year, and I think it was probably about six months since they started the company, then they did the colors thing and Butcher Orange was the first, followed by Butcher Blue. And we've told stories and had Brian Bedell on to explain how all this stuff originated. And you'll have to go back and listen to that episode. We'll put that episode in the show notes, Myke, because Brian talks about the history and how they had some mistakes on the print runs of these and the quantities. And that's why they're so rare, especially the Butcher Blue. They just didn't have many to sell to non-retailers. So that's why they're hard to get a hold of. Number three, Raven's Wing. This edition is sick. The pitch black covers with the letterpressed covers and the orange band. It's just striking. I mean, it looks like Halloween. They picked the perfect name for it. It's a beautiful edition. I remember at the time I sent a few of these out, like singles out to friends just saying, look how awesome this is.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Raven's Wing was the edition that brought Field Notes into the general consciousness, I think. I think so. That was where I first heard of Field Notes because I remember John Gruber linking to it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. That one kind of broke them out. And it's still highly, highly sought after. You hear Raven's Wing just in Field Notes conversation all the time. I think it's probably a lot of people's favorite edition. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I have been able to get myself a couple of those packs, which I'm very happy about.