Louise Carmen notebooks were featured in the New York Times recently. The article is dated Jan. 16, 2026, so I expected to see it in the print edition’s Sunday Styles section, but as of this writing, it seems to have appeared online only: A New Coveted French Accessory The article talks about the brand’s social … Continue reading Louise Carmen Notebooks in the NY Times
Orhan Pamuk’s Memories of Distant Mountains was published last year. I bought a copy right away but it’s taken me a while to review it! I wrote about Pamuk once before, quoting a passage from one of his books where he talks about his grandmother keeping notebooks that she wrote in every day. He must … Continue reading Orhan Pamuk’s Notebooks
Here’s another question from a reader who needs help finding a specific type of notebook: I’m looking for a pocket-sized daily planner (that’s NOT Moleskine). Something that has a full page for each day, not a planner that has a week layout on two pages. There are a thousand of those and I use them … Continue reading Reader Question: Seeking A Pocket Sized Daily Planner That Isn’t a Moleskine
Sometimes it seems like there are so many systems and methods for using notebooks– Bullet Journaling is the most famous, I suppose. And then there is GTD, though that doesn’t have to be notebook-based. I also saw a link recently to the “Life at a Glance System” of journaling (via The Pen Addict). Some of … Continue reading Zero-Effort Journaling©
What are the rules around selling and collecting old notebooks that belonged to other people? I’ve recently been wondering about this after seeing certain items for sale on various sites, including a diary with very intimate thoughts and full names included. Nothing was blurred out in the listing, so I was able to google the … Continue reading Vintage Journal Ethics
It’s been ages since I updated my “using now” photo, and while some things have stayed the same, there have been some changes along the way. I’m still using my Nolty Gold diary/planner to log exercise, meals, to-do lists, and grocery lists, as well as noting appointments and keeping track of habits. More details here: … Continue reading Notebooks I’m Using Now: Summer 2025
In Roland Allen’s The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, there’s a mention of how Socrates disapproved of writing things down because he thought it would ruin people’s ability to memorize things. At least I think there something about it in that book… but I can’t find either “Socrates” or “memory” in the index, … Continue reading Do Notebooks Destroy Memorization Skills?
A few months ago, I wrote about my latest work notebook, a vintage Filofax. It’s working so well for me that I wish I had bought a Filofax in this size years ago to use for this purpose. I can’t help regretting all those wasted decades of using random office supply closet notebooks (as well … Continue reading How to Use a Notebook When Your Life Isn’t Busy
I snapped the photo below in the shop at the Aldrich Museum about 2 years ago and then forgot all about it til I was trying to organize my unwieldy photo archives. You can see why the photo and the book caught my eye, with that lovely pile of notebooks and sketchbooks on the cover! … Continue reading Mark Dion’s Notebooks
A lovely story from the Washington Post: Woman, 100, has journaled every day for 90 years: ‘No excuse for me not to’ Evie Riski’s father gave her a diary so she could follow his tradition of recording the day’s events in her hometown. It was a week before her 11th birthday. Nine decades and almost … Continue reading 90 Years of Diary-Keeping
