[Full disclosure: I included some “associate links” to the products I mention here because, why not? However, my intention with this piece is to share my sincere thoughts on products I’ve actually used and spent my own money on — not to try to push monetized links on people. If you buy a product I link to and I make a little side cash off the sale, cool, but that’s not what inspired this piece and it hasn’t influenced my writing.]

For those of you who have just tuned into the Rad Dad blog for the first time, I’m really into writing by hand. In fact, I’d say I try to spend as much of my day as possible gripping a pencil, which implies that I’m very frequently writing on something, ostensibly paper. However, I don’t talk a lot about paper on this blog; mostly because I don’t think I know enough about it to do full-blown paper reviews. That said, paper is important to me. In fact, when it comes to the journal/diary section of my Traveler’s Notebook, I’m downright anal about it.

My journal is the most important notebook I carry around with me, maybe even more important than my Midori 019 “Weekly Diary” Planner, which I would be a total mess without. But my journal? My whole life is in there! I also don’t subscribe to the notion of setting aside a specific time to journal; I bring it with me everywhere so I can purge whenever I need. So my number-one criteria for choosing a journaling notebook is enough durability to stand up to a buttload of writing and a lot of abuse from being hauled all over hell’s half acre. Fortunately, my traveler’s notebook cover keeps it pretty protected, and I’ve simply not run into a notebook insert that was garbage-quality.