Love your writing tools: Leuchtturm 1917 NEON

Hi, my name is Laura, and I’m a stationery addict.

Don’t take me anywhere near an office supply store unless you want me to get lost wandering the aisles, oohing and ahhing over all the products that will make my life easier, improve my writing, or simply look marvelous on my desk.

My very, very messy desk that is always buried in papers, writing utensils, and random tchotchkes. See below for the absolute cleanest my desk has ever been (i.e. when we first moved in):

Anyway, my point is this: despite being a total 21st Century Gal with big love for all things Mac related, I’m also a writer at heart, and writers know that the absolute must-haves for jotting down notes when creativity strikes are

1. A pen, and
2. A trusty notebook.

As with most stationery devotees, I was a fan of the Moleskine notebook for a long time, enjoying its basic black cover, back pocket for storing loose bits of papers (or stickers, stamps, and what have you), and options for lined or unlined paper as you please. Moleskine even started releasing specialty notebooks for those sketching storyboards, composing music, and taking notes about their travels, which are awesome in their own way.

But today I must admit… I prefer the Leuchtturm line!

I first became familiar with this German brand of notebooks when perusing the paper section of the Goulet Pen Company’s website. Having invested in a high-quality fountain pen, naturally I wanted some high quality paper to go along with my new writing utensil. I liked the classic look of the Leuchtturm 1917, and purchased one to give it a whirl.

What I found was a great, Moleskine-like notebook – with several key improvements.

1. The Leuchtturm line comes with numbered pages, which can easily be indexed for quick reference in the Table of Contents at the front of the notebook. This is perfect for writers like me, who tend to scribble down completely random notes all in one place, and then need to hunt through their notebooks to sort out the useful from the useless.
2. Stickers are included for archival purposes, which is perfect for writers who blow through notebooks in a frenzy, collecting quite a pile of notes and ideas in identical black books. There’s both a spine-sized sticker for helping to identify the right notebook on a shelf with other books, as well as square stickers to place on the front or back covers, or anywhere else you deem appropriate.

On top of this great organizational stuff, Leuchtturm has recently introduced a pop of color to their notebooks. Now in addition to the basic black you can also choose from lemon yellow, hot pink, electric orange and lime green. You can choose from ruled or blank pages, of course. I received a complimentary NEON yellow notebook from @LT1917NYC, and I’ve been loving its cheery color that seems to shout “Why aren’t you writing right now?!”

If you dig the NEON vibe, you can order them online from Leuchtturm USA or from the fine folks at Goulet Pens. (P.S. Amazon also carries the black notebooks and a few different colors, but not NEON as of this post!)