If you’re into art journaling, this book will rock your world. Every page is stuffed with colors, words, drawings– Lynda Barry jams so much onto each page, so beautifully– it’s really inspiring. From the School Library Journal review: “Each page is a feast for the eyes with beautiful full-page collages of photographs, watercolors, ink drawings, … Continue reading My Favorite “Notebook Book:” Lynda Barry’s “What It Is”
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
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
The Munchkin Wrangler says he’s “hooked on paper!” This week’s Addict of the Week counted up his stash and did some math to prove the following: I have enough paper stashed in the house to write 2.3 million words. Considering my current production rate of one 100,000-word novel per year, and maybe another 20,000 words … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: The Munchkin Wrangler
There was a neat article in the Wall Street Journal the other day about the writing habits of some well-known novelists. I’m sure it will come as no surprise that many of them mention notebooks! Orhan Pamuk: “Mr. Pamuk writes by hand, in graph-paper notebooks, filling a page with prose and leaving the adjacent page … Continue reading How Great Novelists Use Notebooks
I very much identified with this post at Writer’s Little Helper: I am nearing the end of a notebook. One page left and it will be another filled. I like the achievement of finishing notebooks but there is also the fright. What sort of notebook shall I use next, will I be able to write … Continue reading The Next-Notebook Dilemma
I recently noticed this story about Siegfried Sassoon’s notebooks being archived at Cambridge University. Sassoon was a poet who refused to return to fight after being wounded in World War I. (Read Pat Barker’s novel Regeneration for an interesting perspective on his story.) The archive contains, among other things “Sassoon’s journals [and]Â pocket notebooks compiled … Continue reading Siegfried Sassoon’s Notebooks
Here’s someone who is a notebook addict and a bit of a philosopher too, it seems. Many of the notebooks seem to be the red and black ones made in China and sold in stores such as Pearl River Mart in NYC. I have one in my collection that was bought in Boston’s Chinatown many … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Jack Haas
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
This week’s notebook addict blogs about history at Patriots and Peoples. He says: A bit more than twenty years ago I started carrying a spiral notebook with me almost constantly. I usually wrote in it while reading—taking notes, jotting titles and authors of other texts that I planned to examine, proposing theses, writing initial drafts … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Patriots and Peoples