It recently occurred to me that I have been using and collecting Field Notes notebooks for more than a decade now. My first notebook dates from June 2015, which means I've been using these notebooks longer than our youngest daughter has been alive1. In that time, I've collected a few hundred notebooks, thanks in part to the Field Notes quarterly subscription I've had for much of this time. As I use the different notebooks, I've found that I like some more than others.
My favorite of all of the Field Notes notebooks I've used is their Heavy Duty notebook. It is my preferred notebook to carry around with me, and it is the one that I have ordered more of than any other. The notebook was introduced in the summer of 2020 and I've filled probably half a dozen of them now.
These are durable, spiral-bound notebooks, bound at the top rather than the left side like most of their traditional notebooks are. They have a heavy cardboard cover and backing, and thicker paper. One side of the paper is lined and the other side is a grid. There are also 80 pages in this notebook, almost twice as many as are typically included in a Field Notes notebook.
From a practical standpoint, I find it easier to pull this notebook from my pocket and flip it open and start scribbling. I use both sides of the page so that when I hold the notebook open, all of the scribbles are in the same direction.
These days, I use these notebooks much the same way that I always have, capturing thoughts out in the wild, scribbling lists, notes from reading, names of waiters at restaurants. In addition, I've found that I've also started jotting observations and other ideas that I normally would reserve for digital notes. So these notebooks have become truly a set of Field Notes for me, and flipping through one gives me a good picture of what I was doing and thinking on any given day.
Every now and then, I'll order a few more of the Heavy Duty notebooks, even though I have a variety of notebooks to choose from, because I really enjoy using the Heavy Duty notebooks, and I want to make sure I have a decent supply in case Field Notes decides to stop making them.
I used to use a Pilot G-2 0.7 pen to write in my Field Notes notebooks, but with the Heavy Duty notebooks, I've been using a Tombow MONO drawing pen 01, which I buy in 12-packs.
I frequently give Field Notes notebooks as little gifts, but I selfishly hold back my Heavy Duty notebooks. I like them that much.
