Sometime last year, I started seeing a lot of mentions of Walmart’s Pen + Gear notebooks on Instagram. It seemed a little odd to me that people would be getting all excited about a very basic spiral notebook, but supposedly they were fountain pen friendly! So the next time I was at a Walmart, of … Continue reading Notebook Review: Pen + Gear Memo Book and Journal
While writing my recent posts about my collection of wirebound notebooks (see Part 1 and Part 2), I was looking for more information about the JoRedCo notebook brand. I have two in my collection, but hadn’t really heard much about the brand, other than a commenter having mentioned finding old stock for sale. Google provided … Continue reading JoRedCo Notebooks
Continuing with Part 2 of my exploration of spiral notebooks and wire-o notebooks from my collection! As in Part 1, all of these are 3 x 5″ notebooks unless otherwise noted, and mostly from the 1980s. The Roaring Spring notebooks seem very classic and looked a little retro even in the ’80s. I loved those … Continue reading Wire-O and Spiral Notebooks from My Collection, Part 2
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
Several weeks ago, I went to the Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C., where there was a large exhibition about Burning Man, the annual festival in the Nevada desert where lots of creative people gather to enjoy each other’s art and self-expression in a variety of forms. The Renwick exhibition included a couple of notebooks: This … Continue reading Notebooks from Burning Man
About 2 years ago, I visited a very cute shop in Philadelphia called Omoi Zakka. As Wikipedia explains, “zakka” is a Japanese concept having to do with household items that are attractively designed. The Omoi Zakka shop certainly delivered on that when I was there, with lots of interesting little items for the desk and … Continue reading Notebooks from Omoi Zakka Shop
Here’s an interesting story where a notebook makes a cameo. Sgt. Richard G. “Dick” Schimmel was at Fort Shafter, near Pearl Harbor, when the attack happened. He worked as a switchboard operator, alternating shifts with Private Joseph McDonald. McDonald was on duty when a warning of the attack was radioed in– he wrote down a … Continue reading Pearl Harbor Notebook
“For years, Bob Dylan scholars have whispered about a tiny notebook, seen by only a few, in which the master labored over the lyrics to his classic 1975 album “Blood on the Tracks.†Rolling Stone once called it “the Maltese Falcon of Dylanology†for its promise as an interpretive key. But that notebook, it turns … Continue reading Bob Dylan’s Secret Notebooks
This week’s addict sent me an email about her notebook addiction: “The name is Kim and I have been an notebook addict unofficially since 1996 but officially since 2001. When I discovered this website it made me realize I am not alone out there and people understand the obsession these magical books posses! One of … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Kim
I liked the look of the notebooks in the image below, from a rare book dealer’s listing of the “Kupferberg and Topp Collection”: The Kupferberg and Topp Collection reflects Tuli’s literary, musical, artistic, and political career, as well as Tuli and Sylvia’s publishing work with Birth Press and theatrical work with the Revolting Theater. … Continue reading Tuli Kupferberg’s Notebooks
