I’ve seen various stories about people documenting their time under coronavirus lockdowns, using sketchbooks or journals. Here’s one example, a visual diary kept by a Scottish architect: Prof Alan Dunlop has filled six A4-size sketchbooks since the start of restrictions to limit the spread of the coronavirus. He has sketched scenes inside and outside the … Continue reading Lockdown Diaries
A lovely story about a Cincinnati Reds fan who kept track of box scores for 20 years. Grandma Olges lived alone but she didn’t live lonely. The sounds of play-by-play duo Marty and Joe echoed through the house, keeping her company while her writing in notebooks kept her busy. Every night and every game for … Continue reading A Grandmother’s Score-Keeping Notebooks
There was an article recently in the NY Times about all the plants abandoned in shut-down offices, and the people who are still taking care of them during the COVID-19 pandemic. The photos accompanying the article included the one below of one of the indoor horticulturalists’ notebooks: I feel sure that I’ve seen this notebook … Continue reading An Indoor Horticulturalist’s Notebook
I enjoyed this article from Nature by microbiology PhD student Adeline Williams. As a scientist, she keeps lab notebooks in both digital and paper form, and she also keeps a personal journal. She has some great observations about these different forms of journaling and their benefits. Since my school days, long before I started working … Continue reading Keeping Two Journals
Extraordinary notebooks from the Terra Nova Antarctic expedition of 1911 are available for study and research for the first time. They are an important record of the natural history of Antarctica, an area now facing grave threats. However, they are best known for their infamous passages describing the penguin sexual behaviours. The Natural History Museum … Continue reading Penguin Sex Diaries!
Some of my earliest notebook obsessions were spiral and wire-o binding notebooks. Back when I was a kid, other kinds of notebook were not as easy to find, or were prohibitively expensive for a kid to buy with her allowance. Nowadays, I rarely find myself using a wire bound notebook, but I thought I’d take … Continue reading Spiral and Wire-O Notebooks from My Collection, Part 1
I’ve heard from a couple of readers on how they’re notebooking their way through the COVID-19 shutdown. Here are their stories: Tina Koyama A little more than 3 weeks ago, I was so freaked out about the pandemic that I needed something to do to calm my mind so that I could move on with … Continue reading Notebooking Through the Coronavirus
I read a lot of books, and for a brief period, I tried to keep a reading notebook. I didn’t stick with it for long because it seemed kind of boring: it was just a notebook with a list of everything that I’d read. But when I came across this post at Bookriot, I loved … Continue reading How to Keep a Reading Journal
From the Minnesota Star Tribune, a profile of a college hockey player who is also a dedicated journaler: Before and after every practice, every game, the Gophers goaltender hunches over a Moleskine not much bigger than his palm and writes. Jack LaFontaine has five journals in all, each to collect different thoughts — practice focuses, … Continue reading A Hockey Player’s Notebook
Such an amazing story from the NY Times, with lots of images of the diaries! Anne Frank listened in an Amsterdam attic on March 28, 1944, as the voice of the Dutch minister of education came crackling over the radio from London. “Preserve your diaries and letters,†he said. Frank was not the only one listening. … Continue reading Dutch Diaries of World War II