Here’s a gorgeous little antique notebook that I recently added to my collection. At over a century old, it is still in pretty good shape! The cover seems to be some kind of faux leather wrapped around cardboard, with the year stamped in gold. The pages have gilt edges, rather faded now. Another nice little … Continue reading 1912 Diary from France
A lovely story from the Washington Post: Woman, 100, has journaled every day for 90 years: ‘No excuse for me not to’ 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 … Continue reading 90 Years of Diary-Keeping
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 … Continue reading Book Review: “The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper”
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 … Continue reading 2025 Planner Set-Up
In my trawling of various websites that sell Japanese notebooks, I’d often noticed a lot of listings for “household account books.” I figured using a notebook to track household finances must be common or traditional in Japan, but I never knew the full story behind it until I finally decided to do some research and … Continue reading Kakeibo: Japanese Household Account Books
I came across a very interesting post on the website of the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre. Their Heritage Education Officer Ruth Butler writes about working on a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, in 2016. She found what she describes as “a treasure-trove of sketchbooks, diaries, letters and photographs … Continue reading Jack Parham’s Notebooks
Every so often, I spot interesting looking Japanese notebooks and planners on Instagram. Without knowing any Japanese, it’s sometimes hard to figure out what the brand is, but sometimes I manage to click around in various hashtags and find at least a keyword or two that might lead to a link I can copy and … Continue reading Interesting Japanese Diaries
In my post about Denbigh notebooks, I linked to a site that had a photo of a Denbigh notebook from the 1960s: Drew Family Diaries. These diaries are worth a post of their own! Roger Drew created a website to share this amazing collection of diaries kept by members of his family, starting with his … Continue reading The Drew Family Diaries
When I placed this year’s Nolty order from Japan, I decided to throw in one of their Pagem planners. Pagem is a brand that seems to be aimed more at women, as many of their designs have pastel colors and floral patterns rather than the very conservative Nolty options. Colorful, patterned, “feminine” covers are not … Continue reading 2024 Pagem Planner Review
Here’s another trip down memory lane with a Filofax from my collection of refillable notebooks. This Filofax must have been bought before the two Pocket Chelsea models I wrote about recently. At first, I thought it might be more recent, because it is in such good condition, but it only has 4 rings, a configuration … Continue reading No-Name Pocket Filofax, 1990s
