Five Year Diaries

[Citygirl]

Hi,just wondering if anyone here uses those five year diaries (or for more years if they make them). I think it may be a good idea to do aswell as journalling but needs discipline to do every day.

[The Good Captain]

Based on another of your posts, do you think that a multiple year diary would be a good idea? It you'd put something in for one entry you later regretted, it would be a lot harder to hide that bit on it's own.

[Citygirl]

I was thinking more on the lines of just writing non personal things in a five year diary and using the laptop for the more nitty gritty stuff.

[schin]

I am using one of those five year diaries since February. Each day is allotted only 5 lines, so I try to summarize and have been writing almost daily since, it takes only 5 mins. I have to keep a separate journal though so I can elaborate more on important days, and I look forward to next year so I can fill it up while reading what I did on the same time last year.

 

If I had to buy it again, I would buy one with more lines. I find that more often than not, I wrote over the allotted 5 lines over to the next year's space. It's going to be a very cramped journal by the time I reach 2016.

[The Good Captain]

I have to say that I gave up worrying about what people mentioned in my journals might think whenever they read them. Mainly because by that time I'll be past caring but I'm safe in the knowledge that should they be read while I'm still able to defend myself, there'll be no problems whatsoever.

Nobody else has a hope in hell of being able to read my writing anyway: surely one of the best forms of encryption that I know of! And this comment applies to your concerned post about your journal too - and my rather frivolous remark on that. Pinch of salt comes to mind!!!!

[wallylynn]

Based on another of your posts, do you think that a multiple year diary would be a good idea? It you'd put something in for one entry you later regretted, it would be a lot harder to hide that bit on it's own.

On the other hand, it'll be easy to see that "one year later" the feeling may have changed. That's the point of the 5y/10yr diaries: to see a wide expanse of time very quickly.

[Runnin_Ute]

I have "sort of" wondered about them as well. Especially the Levenger 5 and 10 year diaries. Then I saw that the only have 5 lines per day. That is great for my running diary - in fact sometimes it isn't enough for that. (the one I have has 6-7/day, but is probably more narrow)

 

I have also looked at the Levenger Ledgerdomain notebook - haven't seen one in person but not willing to plunk down $25-$30 or more just to check it out and return it when I decide I don't like it.

[JefferyS]

I had a Levenger 5-year diary, but it was really confining (the size of a compact Holy Bible) and left little space to really write much.

 

I wonder if any of the journaling software does a 5-year thing. That would lend itself to a computer screen, with 4 or 5 boxes representing that day of the year.

[LedZepGirl]

I've seen them before but I don't use them. Actually I seen them yesterday for the first time at Barnes & Noble- I received a gift card from there for Christmas and they didn't have the book I wanted so I went and looked at journals... but I don't need any more because I have a stash of them.

[mm1624124]

I have "sort of" wondered about them as well. Especially the Levenger 5 and 10 year diaries. Then I saw that the only have 5 lines per day. That is great for my running diary - in fact sometimes it isn't enough for that. (the one I have has 6-7/day, but is probably more narrow)

 

I have also looked at the Levenger Ledgerdomain notebook - haven't seen one in person but not willing to plunk down $25-$30 or more just to check it out and return it when I decide I don't like it.

 

Bought a Ledgerdomain and immediately chunked it after a quick and dirty test with a dry, fine nib and well behaved ink. Feathering, bleeding (of the worst kind where the next page would have ink on it), spreading, and rough, fibrous texture. Shame, too, because I liked the size, the number of sheets, the binding, the tasteful covering, the pagination, the line spacing, and margins. Yep, I'm all about paper quality. I am a paper hound, so I've got a large variety of paper(s) and Levenger shares a top spot for some of the worst paper I have tried--ever. As appealing as they look, after that, I didn't have the courage to try one of the diaries. I was hoping to use one for recording weather observations.

 

You'd think that a company that promotes its own branding of fountain pens and inks would be attuned to paper, but it isn't so.

[maryannemoll]

I have a DIY ten year journal that was able to download sometime in 2011. The file is in Word format. I have edited it to begin in 2013 and end in 2022, and printed it on good paper, designed a good cover for it, had it bound, and presented it to my brother and his wife as a Christmas present because they are starting a family together.

 

If you'd like me to send you the file, if be happy to email it to you.

[Merrib]

The only questions I would have are:

1. How will they hold up over the extended time period 5 years or more. I have 1 year diaries that did not hold up.

2. How much space do they give you for each individual day for making entries. The more space the larger the diary, a 10 year diary could be quite large I imagine.

These are just my thought's about multiple year diaries.

[GutSchrift]

I have one and there's a thread here somewhere about my search for the little German number I eventually picked up. Yes, it does take discipline. I started mine around the middle of February '11 and there is at least a two month gap during July - August with only a couple of entries for some very special days. I'm rather disappointed about that gap, not only on account of the cost of the diary itself, but of the lost archive.

 

I don't use the 5 year diary for everything I've done or thought during a day. In fact, I rarely record ruminations, reflections, etc. I usually keep it short and very matter of fact. If I want to go into major life issues and ideas then I have my cavallini journal for that. I just wanted to create a simple document of where I was and what I did -- at the very least, for my own future hindsight. It's like a very simple personal archive of my own life. It really could be almost anything you want and there are a number of 5 year diaries out there with themes and / or prompts that make it rather interesting.

[ModiHammarstedt]

I have a very small 5 year diary that I recently started just to jot some things down from my day! I'm on break from college now so my entries for the past 2 weeks have been short. As in, 2 or 3 lines short. Just because there isn't anything to write down if I've done nothing, but the days in which I have done stuff I write a lot more. I usually try to confine myself, and condense my thoughts so it won't be long winded when I look back on it!

 

It's something I'll do every day right before I go to bed so only the important things are put in, am I worried about any one reading them? Nope! They are for my eyes only, just to see how I've developed!

[AubreyY]

I've been using one of the "one line a day" 5 year diaries. I wasn't going to at first, but found a themed version at Barnes and Noble and couldn't resist. It's called "Jane-a-Day" and each date has a quote from a Jane Austen novel or from her personal correspondances. The cover was irresistible as well. I love it. I keep a regular journal as well but enjoy using the Jane-a-day.

 

If you want to try one for basic reasons I'd look into them for sure!

 

[flyingfox]

I was looking for a five-year journal books, and saw several different ones. Aside from the blank ones with just the dates on the top of the pages, there's one that has random questions on the top of the page and you can see how your answers change from one year to another, others have quotes. After all, I got a blank notebook that has 200 sheets (400 pages total) and has 22 lines per page. Figured- if I want to write more, I can just use it as a three-years journal or whatever.

 

I find it fantastic- since there are only 4-5 lines per day, it's not nearly as intimidating as doing a full-diary. It's only been like 3 months, but it's the longest ever that I could keep a journal. When I have nothing to write about (I am not an introspective type- I love writing letters to others though) I can make up my own question, write down a quote, write down an interesting dream, or whatever. This is a perfect solution for a non-diary-writer who still want to keep record if something interesting happens in life LOL.

[hot cocoa]

I have the Levenger 5 year journal and like it. The paper is very fountain pen friendly, smooth, no bleeding with Noodler's black through a fine Bexley nib. It has 5 lines and that's just right for my short attention span.

[mirosc]

1. How will they hold up over the extended time period 5 years or more. I have 1 year diaries that did not hold up.

2. How much space do they give you for each individual day for making entries. The more space the larger the diary, a 10 year diary could be quite large I imagine.

These are just my thought's about multiple year diaries.

 

I have and use a 10 year diary. With the current volume I'm in the 5th year and it's still in great shape, because it's an actual book made to high standards. Older ones hold up perfectly, the gilt edging has worn a little bit, but otherwise no problems at all. Some photos of the model I use regularly are below. (100g paper, non-aging, very ink friendly, no bleedthrough with any ink, a bit longer dry time than cheap copy paper, the bonus: they provide a test sheet with the book where you can test your inks if they are suited for the book before actually writing in it, size: 18x25cm).

I get it from Jahresweiser

 

The space is limited, of course. It's about 2cm per day. That makes about 4-5 lines with an F nib. That's enough to concentrate on the main events of the day that are worth keeping. I usually write it down one or two days later when I know what really stood out on that day. The fun thing is - when reading that concise summary of a day several years later I usually can recall everything again. I see the limited space as a real benefit.

 

For me that's the best way of having a diary and I will keep doing this. It's just great to compare the days over such a period. A neat summary of how my life evolves and changes.

http://www.jahresweiser.de/images/begleiter/JW_schwarz_1.jpghttp://www.jahresweiser.de/images/kalendarium/Kalendarium_JW_gross.jpg

Edited February 18, 2013 by mirosc

[Citygirl]

Thats really cool, don't you keep an actual journal aswell? I am tempted by the 5 year diary but its just having the discipline to keep it up as I am so used to writing as and when I feel like it.

[bogiesan]

This form factor has been popluar for centuries. Among the diary collections in museums and gealogical groups, they are highly prizedfor their succinctness and important weather and social information, which are often gathered from the same location by a single author. Of course, not all of them remained in one spot and some were passed through families or social groups like companies or churches.

 

Just me, of course, but if I were going to commit to the tedious chore of jotting down five years' worth of daily entires, I'd assume my diary/notebook would enjoy historical importance beyond my own entertainment. I'd fill it with weather, gardening, births, deaths, significant local events, perhaps global news items and maybe my one-word reactions to them.

 

Looking at scans of old firve- and ten-year diaries, I was surprised at how much information the authors squeezed into each day's compact entry. They often created their own shorthand and abbreviations. Do future generations a favor and include a decoder key.