Do you ever look at your notebooks and wish you had better handwriting to fill them with? And do you ever notice that notebooks from the past always seem to be full of beautiful script? If so, you might be interested in this book about the history of handwriting. In this electronic age, it just … Continue reading In Praise of Handwriting
I love this image, which is the cover of a book of wonderful notebook/Moleskine sketches called See You Around: The book is $19.95 at Blurb.com: See You Around (small) | Book Preview.
I always love hearing about writers’ notebooks, though this is a little different from most! From an interview with Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of American Salvage: Do you keep any kind of notebook? I don’t have a writing notebook properly, but I do have this fabulous datebook that I keep with me at all times. … Continue reading Bonnie Jo Campbell’s Standard Diary
I loved this picture– it reminded me of the goofy ideas I sketched out in some of my childhood notebooks: It’s from a review of a book called The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook.. The notebook itself is a pretty cool concept, with space to tuck pencils in the spine and that awesome … Continue reading The Invention Notebook!
Too bad this event already happened! I wonder what kind of notebook that is in the picture… Julius Singer Press and Awkward Press team up to present “Old Notebooks,” an evening of readings by authors Sara Jaffe (The Art of Touring), Chris Leo (Feathers Like Leather), Zack Lipez (No Seats On The Party Car) and … Continue reading Missed it! Authors Read Secret Notes From Old Journals
Here’s a notebook addict who used her collection to accomplish something amazing: A Wisconsin teenager named Cayla Kluver kept notebooks, lots of them. These colorful spiral notebooks are the kind you get at the local pharmacy or supermarket. Nothing fancy, but the perfect canvas for personalizing, or maybe writing a narrative. On those pages, Cayla … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: A Teenage Novelist
A thought-provoking quote from Mark Twain: It is a troublesome thing for a lazy man to take notes, so I used to try in my young days to pack my impressions in my head. But that can’t be done satisfactorily, so I went from that to another stage– that of making notes in a note-book. … Continue reading Mark Twain’s Notebooks
Last weekend, I read a wonderful novel called Andorra, by Peter Cameron. It’s elegantly and beautifully written, with some lush descriptions, including this scene, which takes place right at the beginning of the book, just after the narrator has arrived to start his new life in Andorra: I decided to visit the stationers. The front … Continue reading The Euphoria of Buying a Journal: Andorra, by Peter Cameron
What would you expect to find in Jack Kerouac’s notebooks? Probably not this: Jack Kerouac — Mr. On the Road, the King of the Beats, who begat the beatniks who begat the hippies who begat the hipsters — Jack Kerouac, the fountainhead of cool — that Jack Kerouac was obsessed with — guess what. Freedom? … Continue reading Jack Kerouac’s Notebooks: Not What You’d Think!
Here’s a quote from one of the best books I’ve read recently, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery. We went on to discuss the definition of intelligence and he asked me if he could write down my formula in his moleskine notebook: “It is not a sacred gift, it is a primate’s only … Continue reading A Notebook in “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”