advice for a newbie?

[tinkaton]

Hello! So I recently discovered the concept of a commonplace book, got really excited about it because I haven't journaled by hand since high school and every previous attempt of mine at keeping a planner/bujo has failed, and have now ended up here looking for advice. I've watched a bunch of YouTube videos of people showing off their own commonplace books to get ideas on content, setup, etc. and am curious what kind of supplies you guys would recommend for somewhat casual journaling? There's a lot more to consider about notebooks/pens than I realized before looking into the subject and I have basically no knowledge of paper types and fancy pens and whatnot.

For reference I've done a little browsing and I'm eyeing things like this Hobonichi Plain Notebook or this Leuchtturm1917 Hardcover (I'd probably want something medium size, with dot or grid paper), but I'd love to see what you guys prefer, or what pens you'd recommend, that kind of thing! Any advice you'd give for someone who's only previous notebook concern was whether the cover was cute or not lol.

(Any tips on commonplace books or journaling in general is welcome too! I love seeing how people prefer to set up their journals/how they like to decorate/etc.)

Comments

[feast_of_regrets]

I love commonplacing and I love Hobonichi. I think the Hobonichi notebook (plain or with cute covers!) is a great choice for a dedicated commonplace book (although I have a tendency to just commonplace in whatever I am 'living in' at the moment, which last year was a Hobonichi Weeks Mega). I personally feel that the beauty and touch of the Tomoe River paper actually helps me stay engaged with my journaling (and I'm not particularly into fountain pens or pretty inks), but I do agree you have to be particular about pens, because a lot of gel pens and even some ballpoints do not work well on this paper. I wield a Uni Jetstream multipen 0.38 for quick jotting, a Tombow Mono drawing pen 01 for when I want the writing really permanent or need to draw a format, Tomobow brush pens for color, and Platinum Curidas EF with Platinum Carbon Black when I do want a fountain pen (mostly for comfort in long writing sessions).

[tinkaton]

Thank you for the thoughts on the Hobonichi, and the pen recs! I do like the look and feel of thin paper like that, so it's awfully tempting. I watched a few videos of people showing off their Hobonichi Cousin planners and I was like 👀👀👀 despite spectacularly failing to use a planner properly last year lmao

[feast_of_regrets]

The Cousin is such a poster child of a book. I failed to use the one I had last year (though I am still using it for art experiments, so no loss), and I still bought one to try again this year. I probably should have just stuck with the notebook or the Weeks. So yeah, I definitely hear you on the temptation!