Sarah asks:

 I wanted to ask your recommendation on a set of notebooks that I can use to journal my entire year so that I can carry them and write in them around one or two months’ worth at a time.  I don’t like  Moleskine’s thin paper but I am looking for that concept, a 6-pack of thin cover notebooks of identical size.  Any suggestions?  Thank you!!

Back in the day (2009), I reviewed Moleskine’s Color a Month Planner. I used one for a year and kind of liked it, though as noted in my review, each booklet had a lot of useless extra pages. I keep wishing they would refine this concept and create monthly journal booklets with dated, unlined pages on heavier paper that would work well for mixed-media art journaling. (See my recent post with other ideas for new Moleskine products.)

Even longer ago, in 2008, I posted about this set of 12 monthly notebooks from Design Within Reach. They did not seem to be dated, though. And they are no longer sold by DWR.

As for current products that are actually available, at least for the moment, the only set of monthly journals I could come up with was this Kate Spade Twelve Month Journal Set. These seem to be numbered rather than actually dated for each month, but I like the way they’ve made the box and tabs so you can easily see which notebook you’re pulling out. The size is 5×7″, which is fine for carrying around in a bag, but not in most pockets.

Here’s one fun alternative, if you don’t mind using a set of vintage journals dated 1912! (Available on Etsy) Save them for a year when the days of the week match up…

The best solution might just be to find your favorite pocket size stapled or stitched notebook and buy a batch of them, customizing the pages and covers to create your own set of monthly journals. Many notebooks in this style tend to have 48 pages so they’d fit one month at a page per day, plus some extra room for additional notes. Some brands may have enough pages to fit two months. If you want each page to have a certain layout, you might be able to have a custom rubber stamp made of your own page design, sized to fit the notebook page.

If you don’t like Moleskine Cahiers, Field Notes is a popular alternative with various page and cover styles. You could also look at Travelers Notebook inserts from Midori, or the similarly sized notebooks from Muji, which are less expensive. Other options include Calepino, Word., Rhodia, Clairefontaine Life.Unplugged, Hahnemuhle Travel Booklets, Doane Paper Utility Notebooks, Halaby Aero, Hitlist, Fabriano and so many more! You can check out the posts I’ve tagged “stitched” and “staple bound” for other brands in this format.