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The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper
The first history of the notebook, a simple invention that changed the way the world thinks.
We see notebooks everywhere we go. But where did this simple invention come from? How did they revolutionise our lives, and why are they such powerful tools for creativity? And how can using a notebook help you change the way you think?
In this wide-ranging story, Roland Allen reveals all the answers. Ranging from the bustling markets of medieval Florence to the quiet studies of our greatest thinkers, he follows a trail of dazzling ideas, revealing how the notebook became our most dependable and versatile tool for creative thinking. He tells the notebook stories of artists like Leonardo and Frida Kahlo, scientists from Isaac Newton to Marie Curie, and writers from Chaucer to Henry James. We watch Darwin developing his theory of evolution in tiny pocketbooks, see Agatha Christie plotting a hundred murders in scrappy exercise books, and learn how Bruce Chatwin unwittingly inspired the creation of the Moleskine.
On the way we meet a host of cooks, kings, sailors, fishermen, musicians, engineers, politicians, adventurers and mathematicians, who all used their notebooks as a space for thinking and to shape the modern world.
In an age of AI and digital overload, the humble notebook is more relevant than ever.
Allen shows how bullet points can combat ADHD, journals can ease PTSD, and patient diaries soften the trauma of reawakening from coma. The everyday act of moving a pen across paper can have profound consequences, changing the way we think and making us more creative, more productive -- and happier.
We see notebooks everywhere we go. But where did this simple invention come from? How did they revolutionise our lives, and why are they such powerful tools for creativity? And how can using a notebook help you change the way you think?
In this wide-ranging story, Roland Allen reveals all the answers. Ranging from the bustling markets of medieval Florence to the quiet studies of our greatest thinkers, he follows a trail of dazzling ideas, revealing how the notebook became our most dependable and versatile tool for creative thinking. He tells the notebook stories of artists like Leonardo and Frida Kahlo, scientists from Isaac Newton to Marie Curie, and writers from Chaucer to Henry James. We watch Darwin developing his theory of evolution in tiny pocketbooks, see Agatha Christie plotting a hundred murders in scrappy exercise books, and learn how Bruce Chatwin unwittingly inspired the creation of the Moleskine.
On the way we meet a host of cooks, kings, sailors, fishermen, musicians, engineers, politicians, adventurers and mathematicians, who all used their notebooks as a space for thinking and to shape the modern world.
In an age of AI and digital overload, the humble notebook is more relevant than ever.
Allen shows how bullet points can combat ADHD, journals can ease PTSD, and patient diaries soften the trauma of reawakening from coma. The everyday act of moving a pen across paper can have profound consequences, changing the way we think and making us more creative, more productive -- and happier.
416 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 2, 2023
831 people are currently reading
8110 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 305 reviews
February 29, 2024
24th book of 2024.
A thoroughly enjoyable read. Allen takes us from the beginning of paper and notebooks and explores, through the centuries, how writers, scientists, philosophers, travellers, and regular people have used and been shaped by notebooks and how they, in turn, have helped shape humanity. Countless names appear from the expected and beyond: Pepys, Darwin, Anne Frank, Henry James, Woolf, etc. He also explores some found notebooks from men travelling at sea, which I found fascinating. My favourite being the notebooks of Michael from Rhodes, as he came to be called. Someone mocked me at work for taking this, "You've really surpassed yourself with this one!" But it wasn't boring at all; Allen keeps the investigation lively, and it's no surprise that he is a self-proclaimed avid notebook-user.
The most exciting part about the stories and digressions is what keeps history being one of my favourite subjects. The sailor who wrote the notebook full of seafaring and fish drawings would never imagine that in the 21st century, another book was written about his own private musings. And that humanity has always been the same, for all our flaws, we are curious, obsessive, endlessly learning. It's comforting, in a way.
A thoroughly enjoyable read. Allen takes us from the beginning of paper and notebooks and explores, through the centuries, how writers, scientists, philosophers, travellers, and regular people have used and been shaped by notebooks and how they, in turn, have helped shape humanity. Countless names appear from the expected and beyond: Pepys, Darwin, Anne Frank, Henry James, Woolf, etc. He also explores some found notebooks from men travelling at sea, which I found fascinating. My favourite being the notebooks of Michael from Rhodes, as he came to be called. Someone mocked me at work for taking this, "You've really surpassed yourself with this one!" But it wasn't boring at all; Allen keeps the investigation lively, and it's no surprise that he is a self-proclaimed avid notebook-user.
The most exciting part about the stories and digressions is what keeps history being one of my favourite subjects. The sailor who wrote the notebook full of seafaring and fish drawings would never imagine that in the 21st century, another book was written about his own private musings. And that humanity has always been the same, for all our flaws, we are curious, obsessive, endlessly learning. It's comforting, in a way.
October 13, 2024
"I'm not writing it down to remember it later. I'm writing down to remember it now." A slogan you will find on the Field Notes home page. People forget that writing helps them remember, even if they never look back at what they have written. On a piece of paper, with a pen or pencil. Not a computer, which helps us forget. No wonder the world is such a mess!
I like notebooks. I normally carry a Field Notes and a pen, for lists, random jottings, quotes and observations from what I am reading. I use A5 notebooks at my desk (preferably Midori or Clairfontaine), for common-place, journal, research projects (well, that one not so much anymore). Roland Allen's history of notebooks and their uses goes into all sorts of obscure nooks and crannies of cultural and intellectual history. Their early use as account books and artists' sketchbooks in the late Middle Ages/early Renaissance, common-place books, travel journals, ships' logs, diaries and many other things. He talks about famous examples, like Leonardo's notebooks. Perhaps the oddest is the Visboek from sixteenth-century Holland, complete with drawings of herring and other fishies. There is much on their importance for art, music, history, science. Allen is especially interested in their role in cognitive processes:
"By privately externalising his ideas he was able to question them, manipulate them, and hone the arguments that would turn a raw hypothesis into a well-substantiated, coherently argued theory. Darwin more than once explained the method in print, recommending that researchers 'ought to remember Bacon's aphorism, that Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.'"
He quotes Ryder Carroll:
"Then I realised that there's much more utility to a notebook than I first saw: I started using it to actually think."
Allen ends with a discussion of Clark and Chalmers' theory of "the extended mind:"
"So long as one trusts the information stored in the notebook, relies upon it, and uses it, there is - philosophically speaking - no difference between the notebook and the mind."
Allen provides all sorts of odd facts in the course of the book. The English police call box, famous from Doctor Who, was not for citizens to call the police but for the police to call in, so the sergeants could tell they were actually on the job and not hanging out in a pub. Police inspectors were not originally detectives: they inspected the beat cops notebooks to make sure they were actually making their rounds. Who knew? Just some of the interesting historical trivia Allen compiles.
There are parts of Allen I will probably return to occasionally, for other parts semel satis est.
I like notebooks. I normally carry a Field Notes and a pen, for lists, random jottings, quotes and observations from what I am reading. I use A5 notebooks at my desk (preferably Midori or Clairfontaine), for common-place, journal, research projects (well, that one not so much anymore). Roland Allen's history of notebooks and their uses goes into all sorts of obscure nooks and crannies of cultural and intellectual history. Their early use as account books and artists' sketchbooks in the late Middle Ages/early Renaissance, common-place books, travel journals, ships' logs, diaries and many other things. He talks about famous examples, like Leonardo's notebooks. Perhaps the oddest is the Visboek from sixteenth-century Holland, complete with drawings of herring and other fishies. There is much on their importance for art, music, history, science. Allen is especially interested in their role in cognitive processes:
"By privately externalising his ideas he was able to question them, manipulate them, and hone the arguments that would turn a raw hypothesis into a well-substantiated, coherently argued theory. Darwin more than once explained the method in print, recommending that researchers 'ought to remember Bacon's aphorism, that Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.'"
He quotes Ryder Carroll:
"Then I realised that there's much more utility to a notebook than I first saw: I started using it to actually think."
Allen ends with a discussion of Clark and Chalmers' theory of "the extended mind:"
"So long as one trusts the information stored in the notebook, relies upon it, and uses it, there is - philosophically speaking - no difference between the notebook and the mind."
Allen provides all sorts of odd facts in the course of the book. The English police call box, famous from Doctor Who, was not for citizens to call the police but for the police to call in, so the sergeants could tell they were actually on the job and not hanging out in a pub. Police inspectors were not originally detectives: they inspected the beat cops notebooks to make sure they were actually making their rounds. Who knew? Just some of the interesting historical trivia Allen compiles.
There are parts of Allen I will probably return to occasionally, for other parts semel satis est.
October 30, 2024
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 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
Notebook by Tom Cox
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
Notebook by Tom Cox
January 28, 2024
“Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man'.”
This really was a delight. Allen binds together what for the most part are a collection of short stories that details the many ways people have put pen/pencil/ink/etc to (usually) paper and by doing so, expanded their minds and therefore, what they are capable of.
I picked the book up for details on Leonardo’s notebooks in particular, but there are some real gems in this, and Allen should receive great credit in how he tells the stories of some great note takers of history.
Overall, an inspiring book, that will hopefully help me build a more consistent journaling habit, but will definitely change the way I feel about putting pen to paper (or stylus to iPad…) and the benefits and joy it gives me.
This really was a delight. Allen binds together what for the most part are a collection of short stories that details the many ways people have put pen/pencil/ink/etc to (usually) paper and by doing so, expanded their minds and therefore, what they are capable of.
I picked the book up for details on Leonardo’s notebooks in particular, but there are some real gems in this, and Allen should receive great credit in how he tells the stories of some great note takers of history.
Overall, an inspiring book, that will hopefully help me build a more consistent journaling habit, but will definitely change the way I feel about putting pen to paper (or stylus to iPad…) and the benefits and joy it gives me.
December 12, 2024
This is sure to please any stationary addict and it sure does have some interesting case studies. However it's simply not accurate to say it's a history of the notebook when it is so restricted almost entirely to a history that is western and male. Rarely does the author consider that women or non-westerners keep notebooks too. Maybe that's not his expertise as a research - fine, but at least admit that at the start so the reader is not let down.
on-hold
February 14, 2025never thought i'd read a book on the history of the notebook but the cover is so appealing so yeah
February 28, 2024
Amazing read, one of the most well-researched books I have ever encountered! Every sentence is overflowing with amount of research details, carefulness and pure interest. I have not read every single chapter, but those I did were an enjoying read for me as an avid notebook-keeper:)
May 26, 2025
What a fascinating read! I picked it up as a 'blah' book after a serious/heavy novel, and didn't expect much from it, but was pleasantly surprised with so much interesting content! It's not just about a notebook itself in the hands of notable people through the ages, it's about progress it brought to the world, and changed how our society functions now.
January 23, 2025
Much better than I expected. After covering the small clay and wax tablets used in ancient times, Allen starts with the first use of paper notebooks in Italian bookkeeping in the early 14th century, then moves to artists' sketchbooks, then on to all manner of purposes. In each chapter on a particular notebook type, he usually chooses one individual as an exemplary or typical user. Sometimes the user is famous (Leonardo da Vinci for the artist's sketchbook, Isaac Newton for the wastebook where first thoughts were recorded until they could be developed into finished works, Darwin for a naturalist's notebook, Pepys for diaries) and sometimes is an everyday keeper of a ship's log or a commonplace book.
Some of the special purposes that I found intriguing were:
-zibaldoni (a 'mess' or 'jumble' of quotes, recipes, facts, poems, prayers...) An early Italian type that is the origin of the massive Zibaldone of Leopardi that I have sitting on a shelf waiting for my time.
-the petite collection of notes and treatises on music theory gathered over the 15th and 6th centuries by, it is hypothesized, Franciscan friars and used daily to train and guide their music making.
-French finance minister Fouquet's secret notebooks that detailed his embezzlement of government funds, adulterous affairs, gambling manipulations, etc.. His enemy Colbert seized the notebooks, published them, and took over French finances, much to the benefit of France and Louis XIV.
On he goes to writer's notebooks and diaries, police notebooks, recipe notebooks, climate logs...
He finishes with the fascinating. In 1998 Andy Clark and David Chalmers published a philosophical article that proposed that the mind is actually extended into the material world through the use of tools such as notebooks, computers, etc, and must be defined as the combined resources and power of the two. The ensuing discussion of this theory is quite interesting.
I found one very surprising omission among the list of famous keepers of commonplace books. Ralph Waldo Emerson kept a massive elaborately indexed system of commonplace notebooks from youth onward. They fueled his writing for the rest of his life. A wonderful book Emerson: The Mind on Fire covers this.
Finally, around the middle of the book I almost gave up. I began to feel like a lot of mini-biographies rather than a work on notebooks. But hang in there, it quickly gets back on track and the rest is well worth it.
November 3, 2025
This book is right up my alley, and if you love stationery, the feel of specific pens on paper, and reading about how people throughout history kept logbooks, ledgers, diaries, etc. you'll probably love this too.
January 27, 2025
This was fascinating! Half a history of technology, half a smattering of human interest stories from the past seven hundred years. Allen really, really knows how to start in media res but also...not in media res. It's great. I did not expect so many plot twists in a nonfiction book, but here we are. I especially recommend the chapter on mathematics.
Minor quibble: this book is very WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic). I didn't even realize until I was skimming the appendix that he doesn't touch on, say, the Baghdad House of Wisdom at all...which did everything renaissance and enlightenment Europe did, apparently without the notebooks that were so indispensable from Italy to England. I can only hope Allan tackles that side of things at some point.
Minor quibble: this book is very WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic). I didn't even realize until I was skimming the appendix that he doesn't touch on, say, the Baghdad House of Wisdom at all...which did everything renaissance and enlightenment Europe did, apparently without the notebooks that were so indispensable from Italy to England. I can only hope Allan tackles that side of things at some point.
November 3, 2024
I loved this book from start to finish. It's a fascinating account of the many ways that people have used notebooks since the invention of paper. However, that really is just the starting point- it also builds a picture of how people have used notebooks to record their life, plan the future, sketch out ideas and ultimately it makes a strong case that for those of us who use them, they become part of our mind, part of us. I can't recommend this highly enough to anyone who uses a notebook and anyone who is interested in the methods and processes of the world's great thinkers.
January 14, 2025
Informative, interesting, and highly readable.
July 10, 2024
This book was gifted to me, I believe at Christmas time. It might be the insanely hot weather, but I found it difficult to fully engage with - much of the information seemed rather dryly presented. There is some interesting information within, but I don't understand how the author chose which notebooks to focus on - where, for example, are journalist's notebooks and secretary's shorthand notebooks?
March 12, 2025
What a marvellous book!
A treasure trow of not only information, but also of connecting the information across time and space, all told in an easy to follow, pleasant style.
I very much enjoyed The Notebook!
A treasure trow of not only information, but also of connecting the information across time and space, all told in an easy to follow, pleasant style.
I very much enjoyed The Notebook!
November 3, 2024
If you know me, you know that I carry a ‘Field Notes” brand pocket notebook everywhere I go, and will often pull it out of my pocket when a conversation gets interesting. At this point, using these notebooks (I’ve been doing so since 2016 and have filled over 200 of them) is an extension of my life. So this extensive history of the notebook and its role in intellectual life was a very fun read. Allen is a captivating writer and this handsomely produced book was a great pleasure.
December 17, 2024
If you love notebooks then this history of the development of the notebook and it's usage is absolutely fascinating. Loved it.
June 22, 2025
Interesting read on the history and applications of the notebook from clay tablets to the present. It’s breadth in terms of both time and the uses to which notebooks have been put and even including recent research on the ameliorative effects of journaling is impressive. From Italian merchants to Charles Darwin , ships captains, law enforcement, artists, playwrights, directors, Agatha Christie and scores more, most readers will find interesting tidbits here.
Because of the broad reach it’s the kind of book that can be read in fits and starts and you can feel free to skip around. It has something for everyone.
Because of the broad reach it’s the kind of book that can be read in fits and starts and you can feel free to skip around. It has something for everyone.
January 16, 2025
3.5 stars
Interesting book for nuggets of history about paper and notebooks. I really liked the first half of the book in which the author shared bits and pieces of how paper came to be and its intrinsic relation with accounting history. The later half of the book didn't feel as engaging, but it it still had some interesting moments.
Interesting book for nuggets of history about paper and notebooks. I really liked the first half of the book in which the author shared bits and pieces of how paper came to be and its intrinsic relation with accounting history. The later half of the book didn't feel as engaging, but it it still had some interesting moments.
Read
June 13, 2025DNF. Clever idea. Starts off okay but then gets bogged down in any random topic that might fill a notebook.
May 15, 2025
Excellent, readable history of notebooks
Sadly, I rarely finish books these days, but I finished this one, reading it in little bite during launch at work over the course of several months, and it kept me engaged to the very end. Excellent, excellent work.
Sadly, I rarely finish books these days, but I finished this one, reading it in little bite during launch at work over the course of several months, and it kept me engaged to the very end. Excellent, excellent work.
February 10, 2025
THE NOTEBOOK: A HISTORY OF THINKING ON PAPER
By Roland Allen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As a girl who was born with a pen and paper in one hand and a book in the other, and as an educator who dedicated her life to helping young people discover their “voice”, I was immediately drawn to this book.
You never know how readable a history of anything will be until you crack it open, but I was delighted to discover this history of the art and science of writing stuff down to be quite engaging! It’s only been the last 500 years that the journal has become popular among the masses as paper became more readily available and cheaper.
Journals give us a window into ordinary life in centuries past. Naturalist’s used notebooks to record their discoveries and make new ones as their written observations brought to light patterns in nature. Notebooks helped investigators solve crimes back in the day when the power of observation was all they could rely on. The journal was the tool of Magellan to Picasso to Anne Frank, Hemingway to Lennon and Dylan. With pen in hand, they changed the world!
There’s a fascinating story about the lad with a severe case of ADHD who was led to design a methodology to assist him by with executive functioning—a system of keeping track of “to do’s” and “done wells”. The lad’s name is Ryker Carroll and the method is called Bullet Journaling, a system combining time management, goal setting, habit tracking, diary entries and doodles into one notebook, a tool that made him a wealthy man!
You’ll read about a well-known politician whose journal writing practice earned him a seat in the U.S. Senate.
You’ll learn about the history of the Moleskin and the Filofax and of Julia Cameron’s Morning pages, a spiritual practice of clearing one’s head first thing in the morning in order to clear the way to a more creative day.
I loved the section highlighting the latest neurological research proving once again the effectiveness of handwriting over laptops as far as engendering long-term memory and higher level thinking. “It seems that, despite the billions poured into product development by the likes of Apple, Goigle, and Evernote, the best cognitive tool we have was invented hundreds of years ago.” As Roland concludes, the notebook “challenges us to create, to explore, to record, to analyse, to think. It lets us draw, compose, organs and remember… With it, we can come to know ourselves better, appreciate the good, put the bad in perspective, and live fuller lives.”
By Roland Allen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As a girl who was born with a pen and paper in one hand and a book in the other, and as an educator who dedicated her life to helping young people discover their “voice”, I was immediately drawn to this book.
You never know how readable a history of anything will be until you crack it open, but I was delighted to discover this history of the art and science of writing stuff down to be quite engaging! It’s only been the last 500 years that the journal has become popular among the masses as paper became more readily available and cheaper.
Journals give us a window into ordinary life in centuries past. Naturalist’s used notebooks to record their discoveries and make new ones as their written observations brought to light patterns in nature. Notebooks helped investigators solve crimes back in the day when the power of observation was all they could rely on. The journal was the tool of Magellan to Picasso to Anne Frank, Hemingway to Lennon and Dylan. With pen in hand, they changed the world!
There’s a fascinating story about the lad with a severe case of ADHD who was led to design a methodology to assist him by with executive functioning—a system of keeping track of “to do’s” and “done wells”. The lad’s name is Ryker Carroll and the method is called Bullet Journaling, a system combining time management, goal setting, habit tracking, diary entries and doodles into one notebook, a tool that made him a wealthy man!
You’ll read about a well-known politician whose journal writing practice earned him a seat in the U.S. Senate.
You’ll learn about the history of the Moleskin and the Filofax and of Julia Cameron’s Morning pages, a spiritual practice of clearing one’s head first thing in the morning in order to clear the way to a more creative day.
I loved the section highlighting the latest neurological research proving once again the effectiveness of handwriting over laptops as far as engendering long-term memory and higher level thinking. “It seems that, despite the billions poured into product development by the likes of Apple, Goigle, and Evernote, the best cognitive tool we have was invented hundreds of years ago.” As Roland concludes, the notebook “challenges us to create, to explore, to record, to analyse, to think. It lets us draw, compose, organs and remember… With it, we can come to know ourselves better, appreciate the good, put the bad in perspective, and live fuller lives.”
February 1, 2025
As a notebook enthusiast - Field Notes Baronfig, and Leuchtturm are favorites, as was Moleskine when they still had the Peanuts special editions, which they no longer do, alas - I enjoyed learning about the long history behind notebooks. The history begins somewhere around the 1200's and starts to seriously pick up steam in the early 1800's.
My favorite stories of heavy notebook users are Leonardo DaVinci, the late Senator Bob Graham, and Bullet Journal founder Ryder Carroll.
Every type of notebook is covered, from police, recipes, self-care, naturalist, math, travelling, weather, to industrial. My favorite to learn about was patient diaries - many ICUs have a patient diary where each day a nurse will write a brief entry of what happened with the patient that day, with family members often contributing, so that when the person awakes from their coma they will have a record to read of the time they don't remember.
"In 2021, a Japanese study compared how effectively we take (non-academic) notes on paper, a phone, or a tablet. Pen and paper proved the most efficient by far: not only did subjects complete the note-taking task more quickly, they later had much better recall of the details. This study also used MRI scanning to discover that the hippocampi, precunei, visual cortices, and language-related frontal regions of the brain were all much more active in the notebook users. … It seems that, despite the billions poured into product development by the likes of Apple, Google and Evernote, the best cognitive tool we have was invented hundreds of years ago."
My favorite stories of heavy notebook users are Leonardo DaVinci, the late Senator Bob Graham, and Bullet Journal founder Ryder Carroll.
Every type of notebook is covered, from police, recipes, self-care, naturalist, math, travelling, weather, to industrial. My favorite to learn about was patient diaries - many ICUs have a patient diary where each day a nurse will write a brief entry of what happened with the patient that day, with family members often contributing, so that when the person awakes from their coma they will have a record to read of the time they don't remember.
"In 2021, a Japanese study compared how effectively we take (non-academic) notes on paper, a phone, or a tablet. Pen and paper proved the most efficient by far: not only did subjects complete the note-taking task more quickly, they later had much better recall of the details. This study also used MRI scanning to discover that the hippocampi, precunei, visual cortices, and language-related frontal regions of the brain were all much more active in the notebook users. … It seems that, despite the billions poured into product development by the likes of Apple, Google and Evernote, the best cognitive tool we have was invented hundreds of years ago."
July 17, 2024
Будучи затятим любителем нотаток, я випадково знайшов цю книгу, яка мене відразу зацікавила, проте виявилось, що вона виходить далеко за межі своєї основної теми. Це не просто книга, це ціла подорож свідомістю видатних науковців, художників та письменників, яка стала доступною завдяки відкриттю папірусу, а зрештою й паперу. Читаючи, ви познайомитесь із Флорентійськими торговцями, які започаткували систему ведення обліку прибутків, побуваєте у майстерні Леонардо да Вінчі, відправитесь у морську подорож (і не одну!) разом із молодим Чарлзом Дарвіном, дізнаєтесь, чому британські констеблі почали брати нотатники на патрулювання та чи справді папір та олівець - це наш зовнішній мозок. Неймовірна книга!
April 5, 2025
Another book that explains history using an object as a thread, this one has fascinating facts (the way notebooks created ledgers which birthed credit as we think of it), conjectures (how Michelangelo may have sketched forms and images that helped him create real-looking human beings), and social history (diaries and household accounts allowing historians to imagine average women’s lives). Of course, sections are tedious for those uninterested in that aspect of history, and later in the book, the organization gets confusing and each section takes some settling into like you do at the start of a novel. Worthwhile, not great.
March 26, 2024
I bought this book as a hard back because I was expecting lots of drawings and pictures and although there were a few it would have been OK to read on the Kindle. This was a well written and researched book which takes you on a journey of discovery of the practice of note writing. I discovered a lot that I did not know in its pages and I was often entertained. I have to rethink my note book strategy and I will put into practice some of the ideas. My only compliant was that perhaps the language was overly complicated.
January 5, 2025
Fascinating history and evolution of the notebook. As one who has relied on taking notes from my early education to 40 years in my business career, I always defaulted to pen/pencil and my notebook. Somewhat ironic considering I worked for technology companies and lived with a laptop computer from the time they first showed up on the landscape. I found I retained more in my memory vs typing notes on my computer. I hold to an observation in the final chapter of the book, “Use it enough, and a notebook will change your brain.”
February 3, 2025
I don't know why I expected a book about the history of the notebook to be thrilling, but I was incorrect in assuming that. I audiobooked it and it probably would have been better suited for flipping through.
However!!!! It was tremendously well researched and I loved learning information from it! I've recommended it to a few people based on the relevant information listed.
Especially as so many things become digital, this book reminds you why messy, unstructured notes might be the best paths to innovation. Let your thoughts flow!
However!!!! It was tremendously well researched and I loved learning information from it! I've recommended it to a few people based on the relevant information listed.
Especially as so many things become digital, this book reminds you why messy, unstructured notes might be the best paths to innovation. Let your thoughts flow!
September 22, 2024
One of the best books I’ve read this year. Completely fascinating, full of information, yet so engagingly written. Also made me laugh out loud far more than I would have thought — I had to stop and read passages out loud to my partner at several points. I never write reviews but I had such a great time with this!
January 8, 2025
Roland Allen has given us a wonderful history of the notebook, and no, I did not read it on Kindle. It is well-written, well-researched, and has some amazing illustrations. I wanted to stop reading and write in my journal, but I persevered. I enjoyed every page and learned so much about how humans have gained from using notebooks.
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