Notebook Stories

Senator Bob Graham’s notebooks are in the news again, as he’s published a thriller based on his experiences with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the inquiry into 9/11. You are known to take notes and keep a very strict record of everything you do. Do you still do that? Yes. When did you [...]

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a wonderful children’s book by Brian Selznick, told in words and gorgeous pictures. Part of the story revolves around a notebook full of sketches of a mechanical man: The notebook is a key part of the plot- I won’t spoil the rest!

Now here’s a book many of us might like to read! Or write ourselves… From Old Notebooks is a memoir, a novel, a poem, an essay — a self-styled memoivel — which exemplifies how love of language and literature enriches our lives, and explores, often with great humor, the many pitfalls confronting a young writer and father [...]

Imagine buying 100 at a time! From a Flickr user: One Hundred (and three) Moleskine Notebooks I have just finished writing my book on Moleskine notebooks titled “Moleskine: How to make use of the “legendary” notebook”. I wanted to send a Moleskine notebook to each and every book reviewer and prominent reader of the book, [...]

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, [...]

I love this image, which is the cover of a book of wonderful notebook/Moleskine sketches called See You Around: The book is $19.95 at Blurb.com: See You Around (small) | Book Preview.

I loved this picture– it reminded me of the goofy ideas I sketched out in some of my childhood notebooks: It’s from a review of a book called The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook.. The notebook itself is a pretty cool concept, with space to tuck pencils in the spine and that awesome [...]

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 [...]

Last weekend, I read a wonderful novel called Andorra, by Peter Cameron. It’s elegantly and beautifully written, with some lush descriptions, including this scene, which takes place right at the beginning of the book, just after the narrator has arrived to start his new life in Andorra: I decided to visit the stationers. The front [...]

From Affinity, by Sarah Waters, a dark and moody novel of psychological suspense set in the Victorian era: I saw her looking at the pictures I have pinned at the side of my desk, and then at this book. I had closed the covers, but had my pen between the pages to keep the place. [...]