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
Today we’ll take a look at another item from my collection of vintage notebooks, a Master-Craft loose leaf binder. At first glance, it looks quite similar to some of the other pocket size loose leaf notebooks I own but there are a couple of interesting differences. This Master-Craft notebook was quite well-used. The exterior is … Continue reading Vintage Master-Craft Loose Leaf Notebook
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?
It’s really quite dangerous for me to shop for pen refills at Jet Pens– I think I’ll be disciplined and just get what I need, but then I can never seem to resist throwing in a notebook… …such as this little cutie made by Papier Platz. Though the name sounds French or German, this is … Continue reading Papier Platz Notebook Review
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
In Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series, I traced the history of “pocket slim” Filofax models– pocket size, with no snap closure, mostly having smaller rings and no pen loops. But after poring over every catalog in the Philofaxy archives to build up my chronology, there are still some “pocket slim” models I … Continue reading The History of the Pocket Slim Filofax, Part 4: Oddities and Alternatives
Part 1 and Part 2 of this series took us through the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s. Now we’ll cover the 2010s to the present. I believe the next pocket slim Filofax made is the Regency, from 2011. This model wasn’t on my radar at all until a member of the Philofaxy Facebook group posted … Continue reading The History of the “Pocket Slim” Filofax Part 3
I bought these Logical Prime notebooks at Nota Bene in Montreal, a great destination for stationery shopping. These wire-o bound notebooks have a snazzy design that stands out from many of their competitors. I chose a B5 size notebook with a green cover, and an A5 size in grey. The covers are made of a … Continue reading Notebook Review: Logical Prime
In Part 1, I covered pocket slim Filofaxes from the 1980s and 1990s, from the birth of the pocket Filofaxes as a small-ringed, no-fastener organizer, through their first few years when they transitioned to a standard configuration having larger rings, pen loops, and snap fasteners. The first official catalog appearance of a pocket slim Filofax … Continue reading The History of the Pocket Slim Filofax, Part 2
