Traveling with a Notebook

One of the Things That I Want To Do (but probably won’t) is to get into a better notebook discipline. I’m taking two notebooks on my trip to Korea: an A5 and B5 size Leuchtturm notebooks. My plan is to use the larger notebook to document my trip and carry the smaller one for quick notes (e.g. in a museum or when it would be impolite to pull out a larger notebook). 

Some of my preparation has been mental. I’ve been reading Orhan Pamuk’s Memories of Distant Mountains: Illustrated Notebooks, 2009-2022 (2024) as a way to inform my notebooking practice. Of course, I’m not ever going to be able to replicate Pamuk’s use of illustration, nor his poetic and reflective language, but perhaps my notebooks could encourage me to look around a bit more and try to be write about the present rather than in support of some vague future writing goal or plan. 

Between multiple days of travel when any writing should be difficult, I’m only anticipating three or four days (starting today!) where I have the bandwidth and time to write something. This should be manageable, even if it is just quick notes when I take a moment to jot down what I’m seeing and experiencing. 

This means, of course, attempting to press pause on a plan for NDQ, not becoming distracted by the looming semester, worrying a bit less about discussion protocols in my survey classes and how my first semester teaching the Cornerstone Program will proceed, and relaxing about other challenges in my life.