As with programming languages, I don’t write in just one kind of notebook. This page collates a few recommendations I would make to anyone with similar needs. I try to keep this page up to date with my current practices.

Be warned: fancy notebooks will not make you write better, and may even be detrimental to your writing process. A cheap spiral-bound supermarket notebook and a biro is probably a better choice than the options listed below, and will certainly be cheaper.

Legal pads

Yellow legal pads are perfect for taking notes on lectures and papers, as well as writing drafts of articles. I tend to use Cambridge pads, but that’s just because my local stationer stocks them.

Field Notes

Field Notes are classic memo books from Coudal. I bought a pack on a whim, and haven’t looked back since. Slim, light and small, they accompany me most places.

Moleskine

The classic pocket-sized hardback one (originally, of course, the only one they sold) is still a good notebook, albeit an expensive one: durable and well put together with excellent paper.

Rhodia

The Bloc Rhodia № 16 with 5×5 mm graph paper is a superb development notebook. Layouts, lists, copy, code—they all jump off the crisp paper, and the detachable pages are the best I’ve used. Being bright orange, they’re also quite hard to lose.

Pens & pencils

My pens of choice are black UB-150s from the Mitsubishi Pencil Co., but lately I’ve been mainly writing with pencils. I really recommend the Field Notes ones: the cedar casing is wonderfully aromatic, and the graphite is dark. Because they’re unlaquered, they also feel great in the hand.

I also recommend Henry Petroski’s book The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. It’s a fascinating look at the story behind this humble, ubiquitous and utilitarian object.