Zachary wonders “is it wrong that I saw the movie Thor over the weekend and left realizing I really wanted to find out what type of notebook Natalie Portman’s character was using?”

Rebecca is “hoping you may be able to help me with a search for grandluxe’s Urban Jello notepad? I bought this pad on holiday in Kinokuniya in Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, and then realized it’s the perfect notepad…. And I really want to buy several but can’t find any stockist anywhere! The notepad is A4 size, spiral bound with a clear plastic spiral rather than wire, and the paper is lined on one side and blank on the other which is perfect as I often have to draw pictures and take notes at the same time. Do you have any ideas on how to get hold of them? I’m based in the UK but happy to pay shipping.” Has anyone seen these anywhere?

Dave sends a link to an interesting leather-bound journal.

Andres shares his Moleskine art on his blog.

Mo points out a link to a book called “I Draw Cars,” which has a cool moleskine-ish look to it, and raised a ton of money on Kickstarter!

Laiameg shares a link to her handmade notebooks.

 And John shared a link to this beautiful map in a notebook:

“On July 15, 1806, Zebulon Pike began his expedition to expore the
southwest region of the Louisiana Purchase. Shown here is a map from
one of his notebooks.”

Thanks for all the questions, tips and suggestions everyone!

“In Thompson Library on the Ohio State campus, I saw the travel diary of Jesse Owens, for his 1936 trip to the Olympics in Germany. The card in the display case says, however, that it’s not a very exciting read. Owens wrote mundane entries about his cabin on the ocean liner, the food, etc., his room in the Olympic Village, and had discontinued writing in it by the time the Games started.”

He also told me about his lucky finds at a local flea market– or rather, free market:

I struck pay dirt at the Really, Really Free Market at the end of June.  I was five notebooks richer when I left.  I took five spiral-bound planners, advertising two Greek-letter organizations (Chi Omega sorority and Phi Delta Theta fraternity) and three colleges (Southern Methodist University, St. Bonaventure University, and Seattle Pacific University).  I attended none of these, and belonged to neither organizations, but their notebooks are quite handsome.  I will overlook the pre-printed dates in the planners as I use them to jot down ideas for future fiction and poetry projects, and will carry at least one in my “portable office” bag at all times–along with other necessities such as my diary, library books, address book, pens, and camera.
 

Thanks again to a great notebook reporter at large!

I GOT a real thrill in December 1999 in the Reading Room of the Morgan Library in New York when the librarian, Sylvie Merian, brought me, after I had completed an application with a letter of reference and a photo ID, the first, oldest notebook of Isaac Newton. First I was required to study a microfilm version. There followed a certain amount of appropriate pomp. The notebook was lifted from a blue cloth drop-spine box and laid on a special padded stand. I was struck by how impossibly tiny it was — 58 leaves bound in vellum, just 2 3/4 inches wide, half the size I would have guessed from the enlarged microfilm images. There was his name, “Isacus Newton,” proudly inscribed by the 17-year-old with his quill, and the date, 1659.

From an article by James Gleick: Books and Other Fetish Objects – NYTimes.com.

From Carol:

You probably already know about this—the Voynich manuscript—but I was looking at some cool pictures on National Geographic and thinking about how, really, it’s just someone’s very beautiful notebook!

And I’ve crossed the line into custom-made—this week Staples is making three wire-o-bound graph paper notebooks in a specific size to match the planner I use, and I can’t wait to get them.  Wondering if any other readers have tried this.  I looked long and hard online for a way to order custom notebooks (picturing a nice “build-your-own” website with a wide choice of paper, covers, sizes, bindings, pockets etc.) but no luck.

I had never heard of the Voynich manuscript– what a cool find! As for custom notebooks, I have tried to make some custom notebooks, and alter notebooks I’ve purchased in various ways over the years. I’ve heard of other people contacting printers to have notebooks made to their own specifications, sometimes just for their own use and sometimes to sell (I’ll be reviewing one such project soon.) Anyone else have stories to share?

From Dave, an interesting article he describes as “Endorsing the personalization of one’s books and the enhancement of the
reading experience through marginalia.” I remember reading this article, which I’m sure will bring out passionate disagreement among book lovers– the author argues that you should use the book you’re reading as almost a notebook, jotting your thoughts and reactions in the margins. But some people hate to mess up their books! I’ve definitely done it both ways myself, but I tend to prefer to write about books in my notebooks. How about you?

And Alex shared a link to an Etsy shop called Cleverhands, who make a variety of straps to hold pens onto notebooks. They also make some notebooks too!

Thank you loyal readers and contributors! Keep ‘em coming (and I’ll keep being backlogged for months)!

Here is a partial list of the kinds of lists included in “Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations,” an exhibition beginning Friday at the Morgan Library & Museum: lists of bills to pay, things undone, failings in oneself and others; lists of people to call, stuff to buy, errands to be accomplished. There are also lots of lists of artworks, real and imaginary. That’s because all the material in the exhibition comes from the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution — mostly, as the curator of the exhibition, Liza Kirwin, remarked the other day, from drawers and folders marked “Miscellaneous.”

The book is also called Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations from the Collections of the Smithsonian Museum. There are lots of great images, many of them, like the one above, obviously taken straight out of a notebook or sketchbook. If you can’t make it to NYC to see the exhibition, definitely check it out!

Read more at ‘Lists,’ Exhibition at Morgan Library & Museum – NYTimes.com.

I thought you might like to see a notebook that dates back to 1938 when my parents rented a flat in Sliema, Malta. The rent was £3.10.0 per month [£3.50 in modern money] and the ink has survived amazingly well over all these years. I found it when going through my deceased Father’s papers.

It is about 4 x 6 1/2″ with 48 lined pages which are edged in blue. The black, glossy cover has a feint, fine, vertical grooving with a hint of a random watermark pattern when the light hits it at the right angle. The cover feels as if it could be damp proof.

There are no maker’s marks. The pages are held in place with a pair of staples that are rusting. No wonder I am into notebooks as I was born in 1938 !

It’s a neat little notebook, similar to today’s Moleskine Cahiers. I love the handwriting and the stamp! And it’s a wonderful treasure for Colin to have something like this to remember his parents by. Thanks again for sharing it, Colin!

Paul writes

“The first picture is the front page of Kerouac’s 1949 work notebook, taken from Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac. The article is from the November 1998 issue of Atlantic Monthly. Enjoy, and post as you see fit.  The last picture is the front cover of my diary from spring and summer 1996–which happened to include my honeymoon in San Francisco.”

Thanks again to Paul for sharing another great notebook tip!

Why do I love this notebook so much? First of all, if I’d been able to buy this notebook brand new, it would be perfect. It’s just the right size (about 3 1/2 x 5 1/4″, shown below next to a pocket Moleskine for comparison), with a nice leather cover. No pockets, no frills, no bells & whistles, just a minimalist black looseleaf. I probably have a dozen small black looseleaf notebooks that are similar to this in many respects, but none of them were quite right. This is what I wanted them to be– or to become. Because, of course, this notebook is not brand new– it’s wonderfully broken-in and well-loved. It’s in surprisingly good condition given that it must be at least 60-75 years old, maybe even older. And then there are the contents– lovely paper with red edges and a red top line. Some of the pages are beautifully hand-written in pencil or fountain pen, but some are TYPE-WRITTEN! And there are a few little sketches and floor plans.

On the inside back cover, there’s a stamp for the manufacturer, A. Pomerantz & Co. of Philadelphia. The company actually still exists, but they’ve changed a lot: it must have started out as an office supply and stationery company, but they now specialize in workspace design– not just office furniture, but moving and storage, flooring and wall coverings, repair, lighting, asset management, and more.

One odd thing I noticed about the notebook was that there is no lever to open the rings– usually, there’s something you push at one end of the metal spine to pop the rings open. I figured you must just have to pull these open by carefully grabbing the rings themselves– I was terrified I’d break the mechanism, but I finally tried it and they worked– but they open separately in two groups. If you pull one of the top 3 rings apart, those top 3 rings all come open and the bottom 3 stay closed. I’ve never seen any other looseleaf that operated this way.

The notebook was once the property of an interior decorator– at least, I’m assuming he must have been a decorator based on the contents of the notebook. He seems to have catalogued all sorts of furniture from various stores in New York City, with detailed data on measurements and fabric yards needed for upholstered pieces. There’s a list of store addresses, and in a few pages, he sketched the furniture or a floorplan of a room, and on one page, he stapled in a clipping of a lamp. He also had a timetable for trains into New York, noting the fare. I would imagine that he made periodic buying or research trips into the city so he’d know all the latest furniture styles available for his clients, and kept notes on the rooms he was working on. There don’t seem to be any notes on other aspects of decor such as paint or wallpaper or carpets, so perhaps he was a specialist in furniture who worked for a larger company. Regardless of his exact job, I love how organized he was! He obviously had a system and his notebook was a big part of it.

I would guess that he used this notebook at some point between the 1920s and the 1940s– I found two listings for this man’s name in old census records, obviously a father and son, and also the obituary for the son. The obituary mentioned a career that had nothing to do with decorating, so it must have been the father born in the 1880s who used this notebook. Another clue is that the train line mentioned hasn’t existed since the early 1960s, and I know at least some of the stores listed went out of business years ago. When the son died, a junk dealer probably bought whatever his family didn’t keep and this little notebook made its way onto eBay and into my adoring hands.

I have to confess that I’m obscuring some identifying details because I’d be heartbroken if someone in the family happened to Google their way to this site and think “Gee, that old notebook was pretty cool! We should ask her to give it back to us!” I guess the odds of that happening are pretty slim– it’s hard for me to believe sometimes, but I have to remind myself that a lot of people would just think this was some cruddy old notebook full of obsolete information! But it’s found a loving home with me, and I’d like to think the original owner would be happy to know someone appreciated his notebook and the way he used it.

A diary jointly kept by Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne:

John Ruskin’s chess diary:

You can see more images in the slides shows in these reviews:

New York Times: Tales of Lives Richly Lived, but True?
DNA Info: New Midtown Exhibit Peeks at Private Diaries of Writers, Performers.

Read more about them at The Hindu : Sci-Tech / Science : 3 notebooks of Ramanujan being microfilmed.