About Blanks: A Story of Not A Book Notebook

This is not a story of a book, but of About Blanks notebook—but let’s start with the bookstore. Or better yet, let’s begin with the day. It was our first day in Amsterdam. Naturally, after loading up on stroopwafels and begrudgingly agreeing with Fafa that it was too early to smoke the day away in a Coffee Shop, I ended up in a bookstore – Athenaeum Boekhandel.

This bookstore is not like any I’d been to before. It had the usual bookstore sections, including an English section, but a large part was filled with local and international magazines, newspapers, and zines. I browsed to my heart’s content, but wait, this story isn’t about the books or the zines. This is About Blank notebooks.

About Blanks – Not A Book: A Notebook

So, back to the bookstore, I stumbled upon a small section of random books with the dusk jacket: “About Blanks”. This section is filled with recycled journals with repurposed book covers. Each was different in size, thickness and, of course, titles. Ranging from kids’ storybooks to medieval historical novels.

To say I was excited would be an understatement. But we had three weeks and six more countries to travel budget to ahead of us. So I bid a sad goodbye to the not-a-book notebook I meticulously picked, even knowing I couldn’t take it in my teeny-tiny suitcase.

But that’s not the end of the story.

Three weeks later, on our last day in Amsterdam, we ended up back at the bookstore—totally unplanned.

This time, I quickly grabbed an About Blanks notebook. Unfortunately, my original choice was gone, so I went with something I wouldn’t pick in the first place instead (yeah, at times, I am amazed by decision-making skills).

I was determined to make it my 2025 journal, no matter what. So be it if I had to carry it through three airports and three planes. But in the end, by that, I mean the next day, I managed to smuggle it into Fafa’s luggage without him realizing and retrieved it when we unpacked back in Melbourne. Full disclosure: I returned with four new journals, and Fafa only knew about two, that too, because he bought them for me.

This is where the story of the not-a-book book ends, at least for now. If you’re in the market for a new journal (the new year is only weeks away), consider getting an About Blanks notebook—you can get them online. You might just find one that fits your writer personality perfectly.

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