Several years ago, I linked to an article about the history of an iconic Japanese notebook: The Tsubame Fools Notebook. It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally managed to buy and review one! I don’t know what took me so long. They’re not that hard to find, and they certainly aren’t expensive. This notebook … Continue reading Tsubame Fools Notebook Review
The poet Dylan Thomas held on to some of his school notebooks from his youth, and mined their contents for his adult work. For many years, only 4 notebooks were known of, but in 2014 a fifth came to light. John Goodby, the professor who edited it for publication, tells its story in an article … Continue reading A Dylan Thomas Notebook
What a cool thing: The Exercise Book Archive is a website that is preserving exercise books, otherwise known as children’s school notebooks, from around the world and over hundreds of years! You can click on each notebook and see larger images of the cover and interior. Here’s the pink one from 1980s China in the … Continue reading The Exercise Book Archive
Ireland is a fun place to visit. But I didn’t find it a wholly satisfying place for notebook shopping, which is always on my agenda when traveling. A few months ago, I was in Dublin and a few other towns, but most of the time, the pickings seemed slim. It was hard to even find … Continue reading Notebooks from Ireland
Hilroy is a well-known notebook brand in Canada. (I’ve never tried one, but some of our notebook addicts have!) Click through to an article with some cool video from the factory where their products are made! I’d love to visit a notebook factory someday… Hilroy’s notebooks have been a mainstay of Canadian schoolchildren for years, … Continue reading Behind the Scenes at the Hilroy Notebook Factory
From an interesting article at Slate: “American student Barbara Donahue (then Barbara Finlay) lived in Italy between August 1937 and March 1938, when she was 7 and 8 years old. She attended a Catholic school, the Istituto Vittoria Colonna, in Milan. There, she was issued these small soft-covered government-produced student notebooks, decorated with colorful, dramatic … Continue reading Notebooks from Mussolini’s Italy
These beautiful notebooks have covers made of vintage papers from around the world– things like old exercise books or bookbinding papers. Each is sold in a limited edition– sometimes a few hundred notebooks, sometimes less. You can read more about them and order the notebooks at Notes Limited’s website. “Notes Limited is a worldwide vintage … Continue reading Notebooks Made of Vintage Papers
Here’s something similar to the Grids and Guides notebook I posted about a few weeks ago. It’s called “Lineaturen” in German, which seems to translate to “line structures.” I spotted this notebook at the Centre Pompidou store and thought it was quite neat, not just as a notebook but as an exploration of the various … Continue reading Lineaturen Notebook