Writing Implements

My New Century Notebook research is currently looking at the implements people use to write thei diary with. The usual things are like pens, pencils, crayons, coloured felt tip pens or other drawing implements and also the good old computer of course for Bloggers!

My research is also taking me up some strange pathways however ... like what do people write on ... other than notebooks. I've had lots of feedback about writing on old notebooks, napkins from restaurants and the back of tickets etc ... But there are some weird and whacky things people write on too (I'm leaving the whakiest for the book by the way!) ..

Any stories out there abou twhat you write your diary notes on????

A Diary for the Day

Hey if you are interested in diary writing (and why else would you be here?) ... then I have found a little treat for you.

First I must say I am a little peeved I didn't know about the Keep a Diary for a Day project run by the UK National trust for their project 'History in the Making'.

However having got over that (!) the project was run for 17 October 2006. The idea was that people in the UK would record their day (in a diary or on a blog). What a fantastic present to tomorrow's historians ans sociologists.

Here' the link to a BBC interview, which while it is advertising the project, is a really interesting interview about diary writing. I really enjoyed it.

Who do you trust your diary to?

Imagine being able to read the diary of one of the Jacobite's who plotted the 1715 rebellion ... the plotting, the reality of the underground battling, the fears and the motivation to rebel.

Imagine reading it written in the hand of someone who was actually there ....

Imagine having this diary bequeathed to you. Having in your hands, not only the story of the rebellion, a piece of history, but also the story of your ancestors long forgotten.

Imagine honouring the diary so much that you donate it to a library to care for it and preserve it for generations to come. Not any library. The British Library no less. Despite its worth being a five figure sum ... imagine donating it for posterity.

Imagine how you would feel when you went to visit the diary, only to find that it had been ruined. Oil spilt across it, the leather cover cut off, and most of its contents totally illegible.

Not happy I imagine.

It wasn't even a diary from my collection and I feel really sad ... and cranky ...

Here's the story from the Times if you want to read the original.

While we are talking postcards ...

Some of you will know blogging duchess Anji (!) ... and even if you don't ... she has a really lovely site about postcards - she is an expert and buys and sells as well as collects.

Check her site out at Time and Oft - it is like going to a post card museum.