Today marks the changeover of notebooks. The one started on 19 October, my first day at Camberwell, is full - apart from completing the index, which I'll do on the way to college today (if I get a seat on the tube).
Losing this notebook would be like losing three months of my life - everything is written in it (well not the shopping lists) - notes from seminars and from browsing journals in the library; lots of artists and websites to research; things overheard and bon mots seen elsewhere; ideas and preliminary workings-out; and of course spasms of TravelWriting. On to #2. I've stocked up on these notebooks - they come from Rymans and cost £5, and contain 150 pages of decent-quality, off-white paper. The covers and elastic are sturdy - and there's a bookmark.
But - as you can see from the amount of writing on the page - information is going to get lost. And it's tiring to read tiny handwriting. So in addition to the index, which lists page numbers for seminars, lectures, notes on reading, etc, and the list of pages containing the journey lines, I'll have to go through and highlight or otherwise mark things that are still relevant and/or important. As an aide-memoire, notebooks are a lot of work!
In #2 I'll try to be more spacious.
2 comments:
Interesting dilemma - I've had a similar situation with my lab books ( not helped by having 3 for different projects and a separate one for meetings etc!). I can find some things later sorting by date as I can relate it to my diary and wallplanner. Keywords also help and having a review at the beginnig of the week ofprevious weeks activities. Not quite so organised with my sketchbooks thought the blog have proved surprisingly useful.
I agree that notebooks are not the most useful when specifics are needed instanta. However, I love reading through them years later.
Thanks margaret for the links to campden (too complicated for me to get to in my limited free time these days) and the V&A which I have already seen. Have you seen the catalogue for the MOMA On Line exhibition? http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/971
I am reading it at present and find it fascinating.
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