5 out of 5 stars
The Moleskine notebook that I originally drafted this review in, I have been using on and off since 2015 when the first entry was on my birthday that year. It was one of three Star Wars-themed notebooks that I bought in a sale in a bookshop. I have about 30 pages to go to fill it up and then I can pick from one of the many <number redacted> notebooks that I have bought since then…
It wasn’t used that often when I first got it and now it comes everywhere with me. I draft reviews, write lists, make notes, and occasionally doodle and it has become an external part of my brain.
I had never really thought about where this little block of folded paper came from or where it began, but having seen this book was coming out and having read a number of books on stationary before it made me wonder when and where the notebook began. It is a subject that fascinated Roland Allen too and he decided to research and write a book about it.
The introduction starts with the creation of the book that I first wrote this in, the Moleskine. The original was a notebook made by a Parisian bookseller and made famous by Chatwin and Hemmingway and was reinvented. The modern version is now a world-famous brand used by lots of people around the world. I didn’t know this, until I went to Paris in 2024, that there are even Moleskine shops there!
His research has uncovered the first known recordings of these hand little aid memories and how they were first used by Italian merchants for recording sales and ledgers. He talks through the various paper and binding technologies that have been used through the Middle Ages and the different materials used since then.
There are chapters on famous notebook users and the legacy they left behind for us to study. There are chapters on travel writers, artists and sailors and how our European friends used them before bringing them to the UK.
Each chapter is short, engaging and full of fascinating facts. With this, he mixes personal anecdotes and gems that he has come across in his research. It doesn’t feel like an academic tome either, probably because he is a notebook user and diarist himself. If you have a thing about quality stationary, then this will be a perfect book for you.
I can also recommend:
Paper: An Elegy by Ian Sanson
The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting by Philip Hensher
To The Letter: A Journey Through a Vanishing World by Simon Garfield
Adventures in Stationery: Stories From Your Pencil Case by James Ward
I’m a bit of a stationery nurd myself, so glad to hear this one is good!
nerd, even…. 🤣
I am sure you’ll love it
Ooh, I need this! Onto the wishlist it goes …
You do. And a new notebook to go with it…
Thanks so much for this review! So glad you enjoyed the book. Keep filling them notebooks…
You are very welcome!
I am part way through this book and loving it.