My current journal series actually started as more of a commonplace book. Commonplace books are a sort of scrapbook that usually contains notes, quotes, and other things of that nature. My journals gradually became more of a diary with occasional scrapbook type inclusions.
Last year I pulled out this old red and black notebook that I picked up in San Francisco’s Chinatown back in 2008. I had used it for notes, short diary entries, and sketches/art ideas. I never finished the book and it got packed away until I found it again in 2019. I decided I was going to fill this thing up and use it as a commonplace book and not as a regular journal. I wanted a smaller notebook to carry with me when the larger journal I use would be inconvenient. This book fit perfectly in my coat pocket. It does contain the occasional diary entry but those are all transcribed to my regular journal as time allows.
Page spread examples below:
I liked using this so much that I made a second one which I’m now I’m about two thirds the way through. Below is an Imgur album embed where you can view the first 80 or so pages of it.
Since I’m getting close to finishing this one I had to get busy and make my next one. I wrote a post on The Paper Journal all about the build.