Disclaimer: I know less about the Field Notes brand than most people I know in the pen community, so this is not exactly a review. Instead, think of it as a use case. My use case posts celebrate finding ways to use my dragon hoard of notebooks, pens, washi tape, stickers, etc.

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered some ink ¹See “Another Shade of Green “about my new Pelikan M605 and finding the perfect green from Pen Chalet. They deliver super fast and give a discount to Pen Addict Podcast listeners. I was $5 shy of the $50 required for free shipping when I checked out. So being an easy mark for bright colors and intrigued by the heavy debossing, I ordered a package of their 2022 quarterly release, “Signs of Spring.” They arrived quickly, and I (of course) opened the package and started examining the small yellow books. They’re not a lemony yellow, instead they’re closest to the color of sunflower petals.

At first, I couldn’t quite imagine what to do with such cute little books.

When I say little, I mean little. These notebooks are 3.5″ by 5.5″ — a size I more associate with index cards than notebooks.²I’m so used to using A4 or 8.5″ by 11″ that I think of my A5 notebooks small They’re designed to fit in someone’s back pocket (when women’s clothing designers allow such functional things³The lack of functional pockets in women clothing is a long-standing complaint of mine.). This edition is forty-eight pages of slightly-textured paper printed with a yellow-leaning-toward-orange 4.7mm dot grid.

And on the inside of the covers, there’s a host of useful information, including everything you could want to know about the composition of the books. I am especially charmed by the little ruler on the back edge. It reminds me of the golden Pee Chee folders I used from grammar through high school.⁴Searching Pee Chee folders revealed all kinds of artwork, including a fun Smithsonian page with artist illustrations of the cover.

So the books arrived with my order, and I tucked them into my desk, wondering if I’d find some way to use them or ultimately give them away. The Field Note books’ size simultaneously made me struggle to imagine using them while wanting to find a reason to write in them, maybe because they’re only forty-eight pages. By the next day, I had one — a Slack journal/notebook.

I manage and am part of a pretty large number of Slack communities. Some are moderately active; others can be quiet for months until a class, conference, or workshop comes around. One, however, is active beyond its free account capacity⁵. For whatever reason, Slack’s pricing structure makes it pretty near impossible for a large interest community to move into a paid tier — for the Pen Addict Slack to have a paid account, the community would need to come up with thousands of dollars annually: the Slack of the community surrounding the Pen Addict site.⁶If you’re interested in joining the Slack space, contact Brad at hello@penaddict.com and ask.

There are so many people using the Pen Addict Slack that conversations, public and private, disappear weekly, sometimes even daily. As you’ve probably guessed from my blogging here, I tend to take time over things. This means by the time I’m considering expanding on a Slack conversation by writing about it, that conversation has vanished and I may not even remember who said what or even who was part of the discussion. Enter my new little Slack notebook.

How’s it going? Since I started the little book on Saturday, I’ve used five pages, some for conversation notes, some for pen repair advice, and some to keep track of people I’ve bought pens from. They’re fun to write in and easy to keep on hand. I’m not sure how often I’ll buy Field Notes, but I think I’m always going to want to have some of these in my dragon hoard.

----notes----

• 1
  See “Another Shade of Green “about my new Pelikan M605 and finding the perfect green
• 2
  I’m so used to using A4 or 8.5″ by 11″ that I think of my A5 notebooks small
• 3
  The lack of functional pockets in women clothing is a long-standing complaint of mine.
• 4
  Searching Pee Chee folders revealed all kinds of artwork, including a fun Smithsonian page with artist illustrations of the cover.
• 5
  . For whatever reason, Slack’s pricing structure makes it pretty near impossible for a large interest community to move into a paid tier — for the Pen Addict Slack to have a paid account, the community would need to come up with thousands of dollars annually
• 6
  If you’re interested in joining the Slack space, contact Brad at hello@penaddict.com and ask.