As many of you know (if there are many of you), I’ve been keeping a journal off and on for about 20 years in many forms. My latest journaling effort involves the Everyman’s Journal from Lee Valley Tools. My grandmother gave me one a number of years ago but I was always afraid to write in it. It was so nice that I didn’t want to spoil it by getting ink all over it.Â

When my grandmother got married (July 9, 2004), I decided that I would use this lovely book that I’d always liked but was afraid to use. I did a little research and found a Lee Valley Tools in Toronto so I took a really long bus ride out to the boonies and bought a couple more copies. Once I had a couple fresh, clean untartished books, I felt comfortable enought to actually start using it.

For anyone looking for a great book with solid binding and acid-free paper at a really good price, I would highly, highly recommend this book. Lee Valley is not a stationary company by any means and they absolutely do not inflate the price of this book. I have never, ever found a book that is any where near as good as this one. I’ll bet that if Staples sold something like this, they would charge $60 or $70.

I started this book on Sunday, July 11, 2004 and finished it last night. There are 153 entries spanning 388 pages. I’m actually very proud of the fact that I finished it. I very rarely actually finish anything I start.

As I am prone to do, I went a little overboard. They opened a Lee Valley Tools just down the street from where I used to live, so I ended up buying 12 more copies of this book. I started to get worried that the great quality and cheap price would mean that they would discontinue production. I just had to get them. Now I have a whole bunch of them sitting on my shelf. I figure that if it took me three years to finish the first one, I should be all set for the next 42 years…. shit, I should get some more. In 42 years, they probably won’t be making them any more.

Now all I need is a fire-proof safe to keep them in so I don’t have to worry about my place burning down and destroying them all.

~ Jason

The journal I’ve been writing in for the last three years is getting a little ratty.  It’s a nice book and it’s holding together well; it’s just that it was getting scuffed and scratched an a little dirty from just being around.  I take it with me when I travel so it’s spent some time being stuffed in and out of suitcases, bags and my backpack.

At work, one of the neat swag items we were given were these nice leather notebook covers with our company logo debossed in the lower right corner. I thought that one of these kinds of things would be a nice touch.  So, I scoured the internet for custom leather book covers. 

Finally, I stumbled on Renaissance Art who make all kinds of leather products.  After some deliberation, I sucked it up and placed an order for a nice cover with my name debossed in the lower right corner.  A little self-indulgent but what the hell.  The nice thing about leather is that when it’s distressed, it has character. Now I’ll have the cover that I can switch from journal to journal as I fill them out over the years.

~ Jason

 

Yes, I keep a journal.  I’ve been keeping one off-and-on for the better part of 17 years.

Recently, while packing, I started going through all my old boxes and found my various journals from over the years.  I actually found a journal that took up two binders where I wrote every day in 1990. I knew that I wrote that year but did’t remember that it was every day.  Not only did I write, but I had tabs for each month and a monthly index at the beginning of each tab as a breif overview of the month.  Man, was I organized in grade 10.

My current journal efforts consist of writing every couple of days in a wonderful book that my Grandmother gave me almost ten years ago. I liked the book so much that I didn’t want to spoil it by writing in it.  It wasn’t until about three years ago that I found the maker of the book (Lee Valley Tools) and bought a bunch more that I felt confident enough to start writing in it.  So far, the first book has the last three years in it.  At this rate, I have enough of these books to last the next 35 years or so.

So, here’s my delema. How do you write a journal that will last a thousand years? I have no illusions about my writing skill and I definately don’t have anything so interesting happening to me that would be of particular interest to the world, but I would like to have something stick around for a while. For the last few months, I’ve been doing research on various techniques and products that I could use to keep my bland, spelling challenged writing around for generations. 

I figure’d I’d share my findings.  

More to come…

~ Jason