Could we love our writing instruments without being able to use paper? Yes, at least I know I could. Still, it would be difficult to be so fanatical about pens, pencils, markers, etc. without being able to try them out and compare their performance.
Most of us find ourselves become just as critical of our paper choices as what we choose to write with, while others just want to have paper on hand at all times, even if it is the cheapy notebooks you find for 25 cents during Back-To-School season.
The picture above consists of the contents of one of my desk drawers and is probably about 90% of what I have for notebooks. Not shown are my legal pads (mostly Doane or Staples Bagasse), my pocket notebook (currently a Doane Leather Works Utility Notebook Cover), and my desk notebooks (usually my cheaper notebooks or notebooks I am about to retire).
Along the bottom, you can see my Field Notes, including the Fire Spotter, Northerly, American Tradesman, and Ice Pops editions. Above that you can see a couple of Rhodia Reverse Books I picked up on clearance at Target - thanks to Nrepose @ Unposted for the tip.
Moving along the right: Doane Utility Notebooks, a Picadilly, an Ampad Gold Fibre quadrille notepad, some Clairefontaine Life. Unplugged., and a Cavalini notebook with a typewriter on it.
Moving up, we have a Writersblok, an Ampad Project Planner, a Daycraft Slab notebook won from Whatever (made, very convincingly, to look like wood), an orange Rhodia Webbie, and a small Clairefontaine Classic top wirebound. Under that (top right) is an Ecosystem notebook.
In the top-middle is an Office Max Steno notebook (the recycled ones are terrible, but the pastel ones are quite fountain-pen friendly, much to my surprise). Just right of that is Picadilly I recently found at Half Price Books for about $6.
The composition notebooks are Staples Bagasse notebooks (not consistent, but can be quite nice for fountain pens), and I have a Picadilly sitting on top of those. Moving down is a Field Notes steno notebooks and a Moleskine Cahier on top of that.
To the left is a Rhodia No 11 and a Miquelrius notebook (300 pages, graph, and $10 at Barnes & Noble. Awesome!).
Once again is the Cavalini notebook w/typewriter (found at Dick Blick). The notebooks with the gun and the the guy running are Daycraft notebooks that I reviewed. To the right of that is a Mead Cambridge, a Clairefontaine wirebound notebook, a Maruman Mnemosyne, and a black Quo Vadis Habana beneath that.
I realize how "listy" this all was, but I will start doing more paper reviews to supplement the writing instruments. Some of these I have yet to try, but I am very excited to see how they perform. If you have pictures of your collections, please include links in the comments; I'd love to see what you have!
Let me know if you have any questions about any of these notebooks.