What to do with a large, empty, blank book?

i use mine as a sketchbook for brainstorming or drawing. sometimes i’ll write notes to remember or whole pages of writing. and sometimes if i see something i like in a magazine, a postcard, any clipping really, i will paste it in there. i use it mostly to collect all my ideas in one place. it’s one of those things that is always in my bag, just in case.

also i always have a ruler stuck in there. never know when you’re going to need a ruler.

A journal of your life for your kids would be cool.

Carve out the pages to make a hiding place for something!?!

I’ve bought a couple, but can’t seem to write in them for fear of ruining the potential of a white page. So, they sit on the shelf looking pretty.

Draw in it! :)

WRITE!

That’s a beautiful book, chad.

I too, have this tendency to hoard beautiful blank notebooks. The blankness just brims with potential – and the moment you make the first mark you collaspe possibilities.

However – I am learning that you can’t really create without embracing the risk of failure, and so now I commit my notebooks to projects. I say to myself, ok, I’m going to give myself two months with this notebook to fill it with sketches of sleepy commuters. So I give myself an external structure (2 months for fill up this book), some leeway (it would be a sketch a day, but if I don’t do one today I can make up for it later.), and the license to produce garbage… it’s the process that is important. In that sense, I commit to a creative practice with my books.

(c.f. Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones about structured free writing practice)

i actually have the same notebook…

i took it with me on a trip to Hawaii and made it my travel journal. perhaps you could do the same!

i’ve probably filled about fifteen of those books (not quite as fancy as that one, but big blank books) over the past seven years – they’re the only kind of journal i like to use. i draw, take notes, journal, write drafts of letters, design flyers, and lately i’ve been drawing portraits of people… sometimes i later go through and photocopy favorite pages and make a zine/chapbook out of them… which reminds me, i need a new one!

Gah, well, I got an email today from Barnes and Noble saying that they’re unable to complete my order, and so, in the end, the book is not getting sent to me. Strange though, because the site still notes that there is one “used” copy of the book available… for the small price of $199 and some cents. :(

oh that sucks! i feel like i’ve seen books like that in smaller, independent book stores, you should keep your eyes out, try something other than barnes&noble…

Yeah, I definitely will be doing that. I just had some extra credit remaining on a B&N gift card, but now that it hasn’t worked out, I will be looking into some trendy, independent bookstores around my area.

i like filling those with pretty pictures of friends and family and then drawing around the pictures with bright colous and doing neat stuff like that.
also…and this may be a bit weird but i like to get the pages wet first because then they have a cool texture to them and i feel like im holding a book thats been through a lot.