My current daily journal is an A5 (about 5½ x 8¼) sized Franklin Christoph notebook. I also have a roughly 4 x 6 "travel" journal, something I got at Barnes and Noble.
The A5 in particular seems to be a typical size picked for diaries, but I've been wondering why. Over the years, I've tried different sizes, and this seems a bit smaller than ideal, although it's certainly usable. When I was using ballpoints and then rollerballs, I made do with a series of composition books, generally about 7 x 9. When I got interested in fountain pens, it turned out that I wanted better paper than most of these have, although the Staples "Sustainable Earth" paper was not bad. I tried different Clairefontaine sizes, up to 8¼ x 11¾, and I still have a couple of those that I haven't used, but I wanted to try the smaller journal sizes too.
I do plan to use up all the ones that I've got now, but when that's done, I think the 8¼ x 11¾ size is best for me, although composition book size is good enough. I can write small if I have to, but it's more comfortable to let it spread out a bit. I like ruled left hand margins to make notes about what is found on each page, makes it easier to find things later. Maybe for a "travel journal" I could go with something a bit smaller, but 4 x 6 is pushing it.
Which makes me wonder where we got the idea that these small paper sizes are good for journal keeping. My guess is that, since these are usually private, people wanted something small and unobtrusive that they could quickly hide away in a small desk drawer. I'm just wondering if I'm the only one who prefers a larger notebook.
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