I snapped the photo below in the shop at the Aldrich Museum about 2 years ago and then forgot all about it til I was trying to organize my unwieldy photo archives. You can see why the photo and the book caught my eye, with that lovely pile of notebooks and sketchbooks on the cover!
The book is about the artist Mark Dion‘s works on paper: Mark Dion: Journals, Photographs, Souvenirs and Trophies. I can’t remember if I saw his work at the museum that day, but I’m sure I didn’t see any sketchbooks on display or I would have taken photos of those too!
It’s probably hard to see in the photo, but the spines of some of the notebooks seem to indicate they were journals kept during travels to Mexico, Nicaragua, Borneo, Brazil and Guyana.
I did snap a couple of pictures of the interior of the book. Many of the pages seemed to be from notebooks full of writing, rather than sketchbooks. But I’m not surprised, as Dion’s work is more conceptual. I think I’ve seen some of his work in other museums, and a lot of it seems to involve collections of artifacts. I tend to enjoy artworks like this, as they make me feel like I’m browsing really cool stuff in an antique store while also contemplating a work of art!
Evie Riski’s father gave her a diary so she could follow his tradition of recording the day’s events in her hometown. It was a week before her 11th birthday.
Nine decades and almost 33,000 entries later, Riski is still at it, journaling every night before bedtime in her independent living apartment in Lakota, N.D., about 20 miles from where she grew up in Niagara.
Riski, who turned 100 last month, has not missed a single day of writing since her first diary entry on Jan. 1, 1936.
I just loved this story– talk about consistency! And I liked seeing that she stores her diaries in much the same way I do, dating them on the edge, though it looks like she dates hers on the top edge and I date mine on the bottom edge.
One thing that surprised me was that there were a few negative reader comments on the Post article, rather snidely saying that Riski’s diary entries weren’t very substantive or reflective. The examples shown were all from her childhood, so you’d think people would be a little more understanding that a 10-year old didn’t spend a lot of time writing about world events and her place in history. But I also think these comments point to a misunderstanding of the difference in keeping a diary vs. a journal.
The terms diary and journal tend to be used interchangeably, (including in the quote above) but a diary is usually a record of events– brief notes about what happened on a certain day. That seems to be the format Riski has consistently employed, often in small diaries with only a few lines per day. (Similar to the Harvard Coop diaries I used when I was that age.) But a journal is a more expansive kind of diary, with longer form entries that are more descriptive of thoughts or feelings. My own notebooks usually involve a combination of diary-ish entries and journaling. There’s no right or wrong way to do it– if writing a few simple lines about your daily activities feels right and is satisfying, it’s nothing to feel guilty about. Sometimes these simple little records of our lives may be just as interesting and valuable as multi-page deconstructions of every little thing we felt.
Do read the whole Washington Post article– at age 100, Evie Riski’s joy in a lifetime of notebook-keeping shines through.
I recently watched a documentary about Brian Eno, which was streamed online as part of a 24-hour event where you could watch it up to 6 times. Each showing is different, generated randomly from hundreds of hours of interview footage from across Eno’s career– a very long and interesting career including his time as a glam rocker in Roxy Music, his work as a producer for artists like David Bowie, Talking Heads, and U2, and his solo work, including the ambient music he is now best known for. Some of his own music is generated using algorithms, in a similar way to how the documentary was produced.
Back in the 1990s, a friend gave me some cassette tapes of Eno’s early solo albums from the 1970s, such as Before and After Science. I haven’t listened to them in a long time, and I never really got into his ambient music, but after seeing the documentary, I want to revisit all his music as well as his writing. He has a lot of interesting thoughts about art and creativity, and guess what– he seems to have captured a lot of his ideas in notebooks!
I watched the documentary twice, and ended up being glad I did– about half of the footage I saw was repeated, but amongst the sections that were new in the second viewing, I had to snap this photo:
Screenshot from Eno by Gary Hustwit
I spy what must be a pocket sized Moleskine daily diary, and a Clairefontaine notebook, but I’m not sure what the other brands might be. The whole collection seems to span decades, as you can see dates from the 1970s written in white on some of the spines.
It’s tantalizing to see all those notebooks strewn over his desk, as he didn’t talk about them at all! That portion was focused on his “Oblique Strategies” card deck, a set of aphorisms that are meant to be used as creative prompts. But I suspect that some iterations of the documentary probably would include more discussion of the notebooks, based on this image from Brian Eno’s Facebook page:
According to this Medium article, Eno is a prolific keeper of visual diaries.
Even though Eno primarily makes music, he probably has kept more visual diaries than most of the artists who make visual art. In his notebooks, he kept everything from ideas of how to make an installation, to experience throughout a particular day, to reminders of dentist appointments.
“It’s the act of writing something down, that puts it into memory, takes it out of my mind, where it’s possible to think about it differently.”
Excerpt from Brian Eno’s notebook, 1970s, as show in Medium post by Ningxia Zhang
Here’s another image of some of Brian Eno’s notebooks from a fan site:
There are also some shown on the homepage of EnoShop.co.uk. If you click on the notebooks, it leads you to a quote about how Eno uses notebooks, which unfortunately is rather hard to read, at least to my eyes!
The best ways to learn more about Brian Eno’s notebooks are probably these books:
Brian Eno: Visual Music: this book is about Eno’s visual art, which looks like it includes some images of notebook pages.
What Art Does: this book (forthcoming in the US, already available in the UK) also looks interesting, even though it isn’t particularly about Eno’s notebooks.
All this makes me a little frustrated– the concept of the documentary being patched together so it’s different each time is cool, but I wish there was also a way to search for particular topics of interest! I don’t want to have to watch the same documentary millions of times in hopes of catching the one segment I’m looking for. In any case, I’m glad I watched it, and it inspired me to jot some ideas in my own notebook. I don’t know if it will be available for streaming again soon, but keep an eye out, it’s definitely worth watching if you have any interest in Brian Eno’s work.
I’ve been looking forward to reading Roland Allen’s book “The Notebook” ever since I first heard about it. I mean, a book about the history of the notebook, what’s not to like? And yet, when I looked at the table of contents and started flipping through the book, I wondered if I would find it disappointing. So much of the history seemed to date back to earlier centuries and I wasn’t sure how interested I would be in the parts covering, say, the invention of accounting in the year 1299.
But I was so wrong! The invention of accounting turned out to be really interesting, because Roland Allen is a great storyteller who knows how to bring history to life. I ended up being completely fascinated and entertained by the way he recounts the history of how and why people started keeping notes and how the notebook developed as a physical object, from wax tablets written on with styli, to papyrus and parchment, to the arrival of paper, whose lower cost made it more widely accessible.
The early chapters of the book take us through the gradual adoption and popularization of notetaking on paper, from financial record-keeping, to household use. You may think you already know some of this story, but this book makes it feel fresh and new. For instance, I’d read about the concept of a zibaldone before, but I learned so much more about them here– more than just a commonplace book, a zibaldone was sort of like a cross between Pinterest and Facebook bound into a book, as these highly personal collections of family history, handy information, quotations, and jokes would be passed along in families and showed to friends, who might then copy a favorite item into their own zibaldone. They were recreational, kept for fun, unlike commonplace books, which tended to be more systematic and organized, and used as a substitute for memorization.
My dog-eared, marked-up copy!
The Notebook goes on to trace many other uses of notebooks, from ships’ logs to scientific observation and cataloging nature, sketching, friendship albums and autograph books, and more. The history brings us right to the present day, covering the genesis of the Moleskine brand and the Bullet Journal method. Allen concludes with some really eye-opening observations about the notebook as a “cognitive technology,” arguing that a notebook becomes an extension of our minds. Using a notebook can actually change our brains.
If I have to quibble with anything about this book, it’s just that I wished there was MORE of it! I would have liked to see more information about how notebooks were used in cultures outside Europe and North America, and more attention to specific physical forms and brands of notebooks. Other than Moleskine and Letts diaries, the book mostly focuses on how people used their notebooks rather than why they chose particular designs or makers. Filofax is mentioned as a mere footnote, which seems like a big omission. I would also have liked to read more about how children use notebooks, and more about notebooks as a commercial product. The book also lacks a bibilography, though there are lots of references to sources in the endnotes. (This blog was cited!)
So yes, it would have been great if The Notebook was an even more comprehensive history. But hey, I’ve been blogging about notebooks for over 16 years and still haven’t run out of things to say, so I can understand that you can’t always fit everything into a book– at least not a reasonably sized book that most people would be willing to buy and read. Maybe he left enough material on the cutting room floor for a volume 2! But nevertheless, as it is, The Notebook is a hugely satisfying and enjoyable read, and I highly recommend it.
At some point in the last few months, I hinted that I’d be trying something new this year for the notebook that I use for my job. After many years of consistently using large-ish wire-o bound notebooks (see examples in these posts: Finishing a Work Notebook , My Latest Work Notebooks, New Job, New Notebook), last year I used a pocket size Pagem planner (see 2024 Pagem Planner Review) and quite enjoyed it. It made me realize I could make do with a smaller page size, and since I had a nice pocket size Filofax that I wanted to use more actively, (see Vintage Filofax Modification) I decided to make that my work notebook for 2025.
I bought a calendar insert for the pocket Filofax and already had it sitting on my desk, eager and ready to go… but the more I thought about it, the more I started to realize that a pocket Filofax page layout might just be too small. You can see below how it compares to the Pagem layout I was using.
Since I only work 3 days a week, I wasn’t too worried about fitting in all my daily appointments, but I do tend to have a long list of to-do items that goes on the facing page, and it started to feel like that wouldn’t work. Though I’d like to be the kind of person who accomplishes all her tasks and never has more to do than my tiny handwriting could cram into that size page, I’m not. I do procrastinate about certain things and tend to have long-term items that gather up and get rolled over from week to week, so the pocket Filofax layout felt like it would be cramped.
I also wanted to keep my notes for meetings and projects in the same notebook. One of the nice things about a refillable notebook was that I’d be able to move pages around, filing meeting notes in a section devoted to a particular project, or perhaps inserting them within a particular week of the calendar. When I’m rapidly scribbling notes during a meeting, my handwriting gets bigger and messier, and I need more space. That was a major reason why I was always using notebooks that were at least 7×9″ all those years. When I was using the Pagem planner, I wrote some notes in the blank pages at the beginning and end, but I ended up having a separate desktop notebook that I used for meeting notes.
So I was in this dither about what to do, but then I had an epiphany when I was playing with my friend’s Filofax Winchester from the 1980s: moving up to a personal size Filofax would give me the space I needed.
Ever since buying my first pocket Filofax in the early 1990s, I’d never really given much thought to the larger models. They seemed too big to carry around, and I didn’t care for the snap fasteners. And I’m just too loyal to my favorite size! But I did appreciate the beautiful leathers they were made with, and I remembered noticing that some of them had cute, tiny pockets for stamps. While researching older Filofaxes, I realized that there were some personal size models that didn’t have snap fasteners. So I set my sights on what I thought would be the perfect Filofax for my purposes, and I managed to buy one: the Gloucester, from the mid-1980s.
This Filofax Gloucester is what they’d now call a “compact” model, because it has half-inch rings, rather than the more typical 7/8″ rings found on most personal size organizers. One side has the little stamp pockets, and on the other side, there are two full length pockets, one gusseted. This design seems to have been around for a while before the 1980s heyday of Filofax organizers– in the catalog archive at Philofaxy, an early version with model #A299 is shown in a 1979 catalog. The A299 model number also appears, described with the same features, in a catalog estimated to be from 1937, though there is no picture. In the 1984 catalog, the Gloucester is noted as being a “traditional design.”
The nice thing about this Filofax is that the branding and model number (updated in the ’80s to 6CL1/2, for 6 pockets, made of CaLf leather, and 1/2″ rings) is stamped on it sideways, and the pockets all run sideways, so you can decide for yourself which pockets you want in the front or the back and it will never be upside-down. This one is in very good used condition–there are signs of wear, but it was well cared for and the minor scuffs and stains don’t bother me in the least. The leather is elegant but also quite thick and rugged– I don’t know if anyone even makes small leather goods with materials of this quality anymore, and if they do, I’m sure they cost a fortune.
For inserts, I got myself a Plotter bible size calendar and grid paper pad, and also decided to try some RayMay DaVinci paper. The dividers are original Filofax dividers from the early 1990s. The half-inch rings are quite full with this set up, so I may end up removing the alphabetized address section. (After writing this post, I realized that the calendar included extra weekly pages for the first 3 months of 2026, so I took those out to make a little more room.) I’ve been keeping the Plotter grid pad on my desk– the nice thing about Plotter papers is that they’re glue-bound like a notepad. It’s sometimes handy to be able to write on the top sheet of the pad, and then insert it in the ring binder afterwards.
The calendar layout gives me room for the work week on the left, and a blank page for to-do’s on the right. I put a sticky note on the ruler that aligns with my work days and reminds me of standard repeating tasks for those days. I love Plotter’s aesthetic, but I kind of wish this calendar was designed a bit differently. Mainly I just wish each spread spelled out the name of the month instead of just having a “1” in the corner for January, etc., but I’d also prefer a more clear layout– still minimal, but without some of the little marks and icons.
I keep blank paper for random notes in the “notes” section. I have a page each for various repeating meetings and ongoing projects in the “projects” section. In “information” I have a list of passwords and some other reference pages. The “financial” section is empty, and so far, the addresses section is empty. But I may add some contact info there. And maybe move my meetings and projects to the alphabetized sections so I can jump to particular pages more easily.
The Gloucester looks huge next to my pocket Grosvenor, but it’s actually not that big. The whole thing fits nicely on my desk and lies open pretty flat– I think it will lie even flatter as I break it in with more use. I love the slim size and it will be nicely portable on the rare occasions that I’m working somewhere other than home. But I do wish I had room for more pages, so I may consider archiving the calendar pages for past weeks, or using a different, thinner calendar next year. If I end up deciding I need more space, I may try another Filofax with larger rings. Maybe I’ll even go further out of my comfort zone and consider one with a pen loop and fastener! [gasp]
It’s only been a couple of weeks, but I think I’m going to be really happy with this set-up– it already feels like a very functional and well-organized work notebook. I don’t know what took me so long to try it!
This year, I feel like I’ve seen more Instagram and blog posts with this title than ever before. Setting up one’s planner for the coming year means different things to different people– for some, it seems to be an elaborate and labor-intensive process! I admire the creativity and care, and I’m sure beautiful, hand-crafted planner layouts give some people a lot of pleasure. I also can’t help but wonder whether the most time-consuming planner set-ups sometimes result in the least follow-through in actual planner use throughout the year. But I do think a bit of preparation can go a long way in making a planner an effective tool.
I have been using the Nolty Gold diary for several years now. It has pre-formatted pages that work well for my purposes (which involve retrospective logging as much as planning) so my “set-up” is pretty minimal. Here are my usual steps.
I’ve recently started to use the yearly page spread to pencil in a few major annual things I might need to plan around, like avoiding seasonal crunch times at work when I’m scheduling a vacation.
I add the habits I want to track to the monthly Gantt chart pages, and add additional pencil lines as needed to keep the rows straight.
I note any work holidays and pre-existing appointments in the weekly pages throughout the year, and I transfer any short-term to-do and grocery list items from the last week of the previous year to the first week of the new year.
I add pages at the end of the diary for my resolutions/goals for the year, and notes/future appointments to be added to the following year’s diary. I also close out the past year’s diary by making notes on how I did on my resolutions and goals. These pages cover things like how much money I want to save, how many books I want to read, how much weight I want to lose, and reminders about recurring household tasks like changing water filters, having the gutters cleaned out, and when to fertilize the plantings.
The Nolty diary comes with a detachable booklet in the back that I use for long-term lists. I tend to re-use these for at least 2 years at a time, so this year, I just moved the one I’d had in my 2024 diary. Some years, I end up re-writing the lists, and archiving certain list items elsewhere. (I need to do a separate post about long-term list management, as it’s one thing I continue to struggle with in terms of finding the best balance between notebooks and electronic tools.)
Finally, I transfer odds and ends I keep tucked in the front and back of my diary– a few sticky notes, a $20 bill for emergencies, and a postage stamp or two.
And I almost forgot 2 other very basic but important steps that I usually do before I even start with anything else: I write my name and contact details inside the front cover. And I always put nail polish on the ends of the ribbon markers so they won’t fray. (I do this with any notebook that has a ribbon marker.)
That’s it! It’s pretty simple and it doesn’t take too much time. This planner set-up works well for me and I’ll keep using it til it doesn’t! I’ve written about my planner/logbook methods in the post “How I Use My Nolty Planner.”
If you’re interested in trying a Nolty planner, they seem to be getting easier and easier to order for those of us in the USA– the 2025 Nolty Gold is available on Amazon now. The Gold version is pricey due to the leather cover and gold page edges, but the ones with faux-leather plastic covers are also great, and also available on Amazon in various formats for around $20– not all have the Gantt chart, so make sure you check the specs if that’s a feature you want to use. In 2020, I made a list of various Nolty models and whether they had Gantt charts or other layouts— their model numbers stay pretty consistent from year to year so that may still be helpful.
I’ve recently swapped this little cutie into my daily carry bundle: a sort of basic plastic looseleaf made by Brunnen. I saw it on someone’s Instagram and was intrigued: I have a couple of other Brunnen notebooks in my collection from past trips to Europe, but it’s not a brand you ever see for sale in stores in the US. But though I’m calling this Brunnen looseleaf notebook”sort of basic,” it actually has some interesting qualities that distinguish it from the competition.
The exterior is very plain black plastic, with almost squared corners. The plastic has a slight texture meant to resemble leather but it’s very obviously plastic! At the edge of the spine there is a striated texture, I guess to help it bend more easily. The Brunnen name and product number 65010 are very subtly stamped there.
One thing that’s nice about the exterior is something it lacks: rivets on the spine, which are common on this type of inexpensive looseleaf notebook. It’s not that big a deal, but I think the plain spine is more attractive somehow.
Brunnen looseleaf vs. 1990s generic pocket looseleaf from my collectionBrunnen pocket looseleaf spine vs. generic looseleaf with rivets holding rings
When you open the notebook, it is equally plain inside– no markings anywhere, and just one little clear plastic pocket on the back where you could tuck a couple of business cards or receipts.
You’ll notice that the Brunnen looseleaf notebook has very small rings– another factor that differentiates it from the average pocket looseleaf, which tends to have 1/2″ rings. The small 11mm rings always seem to attach vs. small tabs at the end of a backplate– at least they do in all the Filofax, Plotter, and Raymay DaVinci notebooks I’ve seen. 1/2″ rings attach either by a hidden set of clips, or in cheaper notebooks, by those rivets on the spine.
The small rings make this a pleasantly slim and pocketable notebook. It’s about the thickness of a pocket size Moleskine hardcover notebook. The width is also about the same, though it’s slightly shorter: it’s about 94mm x 137mm. It’s definitely smaller than any other generic plastic looseleaf notebook I’ve seen.
Brunnen looseleaf vs MoleskineBrunnen looseleaf vs. MoleskineBrunnen looseleaf vs Filofax Guildford Pocket Extra SlimBrunnen looseleaf vs Filofax Guildford Pocket Extra Slim
As you can see, I have Plotter inserts filling this notebook, and they work very nicely, especially if you add some dividers that are tabbed on the top. I also added some stickynotes to make tabs on the top of a couple of the Plotter project folders.
I previously had the same contents in my Filofax Guildford Pocket Extra Slim, which is a great size, but thicker, and almost impossible to buy these days. Plotter’s Mini size notebooks are wider and bulkier due to the metal spine plate and the thickness of the leather. They’re also a lot more expensive. If you want a really basic, really slim pocket size looseleaf, this Brunnen notebook is a great choice. I paid about $21 for it on Amazon— that’s more than a truly basic generic pocket looseleaf, but a lot less than you’ll pay for a leather organizer from Filofax or Plotter. Sometimes it’s comforting to use a cheap, easy to replace notebook, especially one that is so light and small and portable! I’ve left the Guildford behind when I was traveling a few times because I was afraid I’d lose it. I’d still be horrified if this Brunnen looseleaf notebook was lost or stolen, but at least I wouldn’t feel like I could never buy another one.
I was recently helping a friend with some decluttering, and you can imagine my joy when we unearthed this:
This was her Filofax from around 1988 or so, which she used for many years until switching to a Palm Pilot. (The Palm Pilot didn’t last long– after letting the battery die and losing all her data, she went back to using a pocket size Filofax as her address book while gradually transitioning to mostly using her computer and phone for organizing her calendar and contacts.)
When I think of the original, prototypical Filofax that became all the rage in the ’80s, it’s exactly this model. It’s gorgeous, made of beautiful sturdy calf leather. It’s been broken in quite a lot but is still in good condition other than some scuffs here and there. It has also lost the little cover backing from the snap– a very common problem with Filofaxes of this era.
This model was called the Winchester, but until later in the 1990s, Filofax didn’t stamp the model names inside the organizers. In the ’80s, they stamped a code number that indicated the number of pockets, the leather type, and the ring size: 4CLF7/8. This model has 4 pockets: an ID pocket and a small pocket above it, and then 2 full length pockets, a flat one in the front and a gusseted one in the back. The CL stands for the calf leather, and the rings are 7/8″ in diameter.
The size of this Winchester Filofax seemed almost smaller than I remembered them being. That may be because the corners have been rounded and bent by it being stuffed fat with inserts and banged around in a handbag for many years, but it’s also because it actually is smaller than some of today’s Filofax models. (You can see a comparison of an identical Winchester vs. the popular Malden model dating from the 2010s to present at this link. The Malden looks much bigger.) This Winchester Filofax measures 7 3/16 x 5″, a hair smaller than the 7 1/4″/ 185mm that was specified in Filofax catalogs. I’m usually so loyal to pocket size notebooks, but fondling this Filofax is making me want one just like it!
There’s no Filofax logo anywhere on the outside of the organizer, perhaps because this kind of leather wouldn’t lend itself to blind stamping? It’s a thick, relatively stiff leather with a nice grain and glossy surface. It would definitely have taken some breaking in, and would probably never lie flat even if it hadn’t been sitting closed for 20+ years. There are ring protector flaps that also serve to keep items very secure in the pockets– almost too secure, as it can be a bit awkward to get under the flaps due to the leather stiffness.
My friend used this mostly as an address book. The 2002 calendar inside it is totally blank, though she said she probably wrote some appointments in previous years’ calendars. She stuffed various business cards into the pockets and had loose papers tucked in front of the pages. The back pocket contents were a real time capsule: a car service voucher from a job she retired from 10 years ago, and a long-distance calling card, from pre-cellphone, pre-Skype/Zoom/Facetime days!
The inserts still include a lot of what was probably part of the package when she bought it: alphabetical tabs and address pages, which she used, and some “don’t forget” pages, which she didn’t. The original “reward if lost” card is in there too, though she didn’t fill it in. There is also a top-opening plastic envelope, which she didn’t seem to use.
She had plain and lined grey paper with various lists and notes, including some jottings about a trip to Egypt. I thought it was cute that she had a single notes page titled “Email Addresses,” containing the few people she knew who had one back at the dawn of the internet! (There was no space for email information in the address page format.) She added some maps, and some thin onion skin paper “Notes” pages with 1-4 numbering on them. I don’t recall seeing that layout before. The reference number is 807, which I haven’t been able to find in the Filofax catalogues of that period. The closest I could find was a “Memo, 3 divisions” insert, numbered 806. Given that Filofax catalogued a mind-boggling array of inserts for every possible purpose, it’s funny that they missed this one! But also rather understandable that they would have been hard to keep track of… (See my guest post at Philofaxy for a similar situation!)
All my friend’s inserts except the calendar have a soft raggedy-ness to the edges, showing that they spent a long time in that organizer, being carried around and flipped through over the years. But a lot of the pages are blank: my friend is not really much of a notebooker, though she often tells herself she should write more things down!
My friend said she remembered going to Lee’s Art Shop in NYC (long gone, alas) to buy this Filofax and its various refills over the years. Finding it now in a neglected drawer seemed to awaken a fond nostalgia in her: “Oh, my Filofax! I loved it!” I mentioned that I’d seen similar ones selling for well over $100 on eBay, but she immediately said “no! I can’t sell my Filofax!” She didn’t want to give it to me either, but she let me thumb through it and take all these photos, on the condition that I hide any identifying details. It’s always fun to get a peek at someone else’s notebook, especially a well-used classic Filofax like this one!
If you’re still searching for gifts for the notebook lover who has everything, or if you yourself are the notebook lover who has everything and wants their loved ones to give them something other than notebooks, here’s a few ideas to put on your list!
I recently finished reading The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, by Roland Allen. I intend to post a more detailed review, but I really enjoyed it and I’m sure any other notebook enthusiast would too.
Another cool book I just discovered recently is Edward Hopper: A Journal of His Work. Many of the Edward Hopper sketches that you see online are from ledgers where he catalogued his paintings and how much he’d sold them for. This book contains full size facsimile pages from those ledgers. Unfortunately, this book is out of print but used copies are out there at reasonable prices.
The most recently published book that’s gotten me excited is Orhan Pamuk’s Memories of Distant Mountains: Illustrated Notebooks 2009-2022, which just came out a couple of weeks ago. I love discovering that an amazing author is also a talented artist!
The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing is on my own Christmas list. It’s not specifically notebook-related, but notebooks do appear, as it is all about the creative process behind various great novels, works of art, music, etc. It’s heavily illustrated and I’m looking forward to immersing myself in it.
I haven’t yet read The Forbidden Notebook, by Alba de Cespedes, but I’ve been dying to ever since it came out. The title and cover alone are compelling, but it has also gotten rave reviews. It’s now out in paperback.
Obviously, I think books are the best gifts, and I have many other books about notebooks and facsimile sketchbooks I could recommend, but if your recipient isn’t a big reader, or if you’re looking for a small stocking stuffer, I think cute sticky notes are a great notebook companion. Here’s a few that caught my eye:
I’ve collected lots of other favorite items, including notebooks, pens, art supplies, books and more in my Amazon storefront. (These affiliate links earn me a small commission, which helps defray the costs of running this website.)
Sterling Ink is a brand I spotted on Instagram, thanks to the algorithms working as intended! I saw several posts mentioning their planners, and when I saw that they had a nice range of notebooks too, I couldn’t resist giving them a try.
I bought two Sterling Ink notebooks in my favorite 3.5 x 5.5″ size, both in the caramel color. That and mauve were the only options currently available, though from their photos, it looks like there was a black option at some point. They come packaged in a clear plastic envelope. The soft covers are a textured faux leather, totally plain except for the brand name stamped in gold on the back.
Inside the Sterling Ink notebooks, everything is completely plain. I chose the version with numbered grid paper, which is very pleasing to the eye– sharp, precise, minimal. The grid lines are dashed, spaced at 3.9mm, 20 squares by 33 squares with a plain border around the edges. The numbering starts on the second gridded page, and goes up to 269, as the 272 total page count includes blank ed pages. I would have started the numbers on the first grid page, but I guess this is done the way books are usually paginated, with even numbers on the left and odd numbers on the right. (I can’t believe I’ve worked in publishing for decades and never really noticed that.) Not a big deal either way. I love the font they used for the numbers, and the way there is a heavier dot at the top and bottom edge of the grid marking the middle. Everything seems very carefully considered.
The way the Sterling Ink notebook is constructed is also very nice– sewn signatures, which make it open flat and feel very flexible. The rounding on the corners is done to a very small diameter– a tiny detail that I always love, as it looks so much nicer than a big wide rounding,
The 272 page notebook has plain white page edges, but the other one I bought is a 520 page version with gold page edges, which dress it up nicely. In every other way, the thicker notebook is exactly the same.
The paper used is Tomoe River paper, 52 GSM. It is dreamy to write on– so smooth and luscious. Fountain pens don’t bleed, though the fineness of the paper does allow more show-through than some other papers. The bright white paper shows off ink colors beautifully. I hated to desecrate this lovely test page with the nasty Super Sharpie, but I had to see if it would bleed through, since it pretty much bleeds through everything.
I really love these notebooks. The 520-page one is especially cute with its chunky shape. It’s the exact shape I wished for when I first tried the Hobonichi Techo, which was a bit oversize for me in its A6 form. The design somewhat reminds me of Hobonichi, as well as Stalogy— clean, minimal, sharp. (Sterling Ink’s planners also look great, with the same design sense and some nice layouts for tracking goals and habits.) It is wonderful to see such amazing attention to detail in a notebook– everything about these feels good, looks good, and seems incredibly precise. Great quality control.
Of course, great quality doesn’t come cheap: these are $22 for for the 272 page version and $30 for the 520 page version. I think these prices are fair compared to other fountain pen friendly, Tomoe River paper notebooks I’ve seen elsewhere. If you compare it to the Dressco Notebook I recently reviewed, (which is not Tomoe River paper but is at the same level of quality in many ways), the Dressco is more expensive at $0.11 per page vs. $0.06-$0.08 per page for the Sterling Ink notebooks. Galen Leather sells a 400 page B6 size Tomoe River notebook for $25, which works out to less per page than Sterling Ink’s 260 page B6 notebook at $21, but I haven’t tried anything from Galen Leather so can’t compare their quality.
I’ll be checking back to see if the black versions of these ever come back into stock, or whether they offer any other colors. The caramel is perfectly nice, but I can’t help it that I’m a boring person who mostly just keeps buying black notebooks over and over again! For others who have different preferences, Sterling Ink offers a variety of sizes and colors and page layouts for various planners and notebooks. Check them out at their online store.
Notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, diaries: in search of the perfect page…
