Here’s a pretty basic notebook from the mid-1980s. I used it for a while in high school to keep track of school assignments and such– I dated each page, and noted each day’s assignments and deadlines. It’s got a nice clean design, but is otherwise quite boring! I’m not sure why I favored it at the time, other than just wanting something cheap and simple to write in.

I got a kick out of the page below– a very exciting thing at the time, driving lessons!

I used lots of simple spiral notebooks like this, many of which I still have. This particular one was made by Roaring Spring/Top Scholar, of Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania. I have another notebook made by Top Scholar– it appears to have been a separate company based in Columbia, MD, so I guess Roaring Spring must have bought them out. I can’t find any information on the companies, but I’m sure it was yet another link in the chain of notebook manufacturing companies consolidating and then sending their operations overseas… this always makes me feel sad!

Diary, Fun & Weird, Links, Other People's Notebooks, record-keeping

Bob Graham’s Notebooks In the News

May 19, 2009 Nifty Notebook 5 Comments

A few years ago, former Senator Bob Graham, then a presidential candidate, raised some eyebrows when it was revealed that he kept extremely detailed diaries noting how he spent every minute of his day:

12:50: Cissy thinks she’s going into labor
1:15: Cissy preparing to leave for Baptist Hospital
1:20-1:30: MLTH. Bedroom, bathroom. Dress in blue slacks
1:30-1:45: Rewind Ace Ventura
2:00: Adele ready to go. Drive to Baptist Hospital
2:15: Stop at to return Ace Ventura
6:00-7:05: Cissy in examining room, delivery room, watch ABC News. Cissy commences preparation for labor
7:05-8:40: Drive to Bennigan’s Restaurant with Adele. Listen to New England Patriots-Miami Dolphins (39-35)
7:20-8:25: Bennigan’s. Eat supper (ham and cheese sandwich). Return to hospital
9:05-9:10: Waiting room. Read NYT, mingle
11:00-12:45: Waiting room. Watch CNN, CBS News
12:44: It’s a boy!

Since then, he’s retired from politics and his notebooks have been archived at the University of Florida. Now they’re in the news again, as he claims they show that the CIA did not brief Democrats about interrogation tactics as often as they claimed:

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham said Friday that his detailed diaries show Democrats were told less about the interrogation of terrorists than the CIA claims.

Graham said the CIA claimed he was briefed four times about extreme interrogation techniques as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

He said he called the head of archives at the University of Florida, where his notebooks are stored, to check if he had listed the briefings.

Have you ever done this kind of detailed life-logging? Have your records ever come in handy later, to answer a question or prove a point? And does it really take 15 minutes to rewind Ace Ventura?

Updated: I just found this article, with more details on the notebooks, and an image of Bob Graham’s official portrait, which was hanging next to the governor’s office in the Florida capitol in 2003. There he is, notebook in hand!

Notebook Reviews, Piccadilly

Piccadilly Follow-Up

May 18, 2009 Nifty Notebook 13 Comments

I just barely started using my small lined Piccadilly notebook this week (as a reading journal where I’ll keep track of books I’ve read), but I’d noticed even before I started that the elastic was already getting loose– the parts that hit the edges have lost their stretch, though the middle of the elastic still has some tension to it. I’d heard other users complain about the same thing. But as others have said, you get what you pay for, and the price differential between these and a Moleskine may still outweigh the quality differential for many people.

So far my large unlined Piccadilly seems to be fine. I also noticed that I like the paper better in that one– it seems smoother than the paper in the small unlined notebook.

Does anyone else have any feedback on how the Piccadilly notebooks stand the test of long term use? Are they back in stock at any Borders stores yet?

Links, pens

Don’t Be Afraid!

May 15, 2009 Nifty Notebook Leave a comment

So says our friend Inkophile in “My New Notebook Is Scary!“:

Ever been at a loss over how to utilize that terrific new notebook? Afraid youâ€™ll make a mess of it? Relax. Itâ€™s your notebook and it will hang on your every word. Honest!

Read more at her blog, and check out the latest ink reviews too– subtle shades of grey!

Places to Buy Notebooks

Help Another Reader Find a Notebook

May 14, 2009 Nifty Notebook 1 Comment

Ellann writes in to ask for help identifying this mysterious notebook:

Two years ago, my mother gave me a notebook that I thought I would really hate, but turned out to love. The pictures are in the album linked to below. My guess would be that she bought it on sale somewhere like Staples or Walmart, but I have been very unsuccessful in my search for another one. There is no name on the notebook anywhere, no symbols, nothing. The only really distinguishing feature are the dots at the end of every other line on that paper. The cover is really stiff, no bending the book at all. The cover is also a little squishy and has some give between the outer leather-ish layer and the hard layer. Do you have any guesses on who manufactured this book or where I could find another one?

You can see more pictures here.

I’m sure I’ve seen journals like this with padded covers at various stationery shops, or perhaps Barnes & Noble or Borders, but this exact design isn’t ringing a bell, and I don’t recall ever seeing paper with dotted lines like that. Can anyone help Ellann?

Art, Moleskine, Sketchbook

Guilherme Dietrich Sketchbook

May 13, 2009 Nifty Notebook 2 Comments

Some wonderfully vibrant notebook art by Guilherme Dietrich, from Doodler’s Anonymous:

Looks like this was done in a Moleskine sketchbook.

Art, Links, Moleskine, Notebook Addict of the Week, Other People's Notebooks, Sketchbook

Notebooks of an Argentine Survivor

May 12, 2009 Nifty Notebook Leave a comment

I don’t know if this qualifies as an “Addict of the Week” post, but here’s some thoughts on notebook use from Surviving in Argentina:

The one with the wire coil is my old notebook, the one I used last year and was mostly dedicated to help with my book. I carried it around all day and made small notes of what I wanted to write down later that day, or ideas I thought Iâ€™d be missing form a certain chapter.
I found this to be incredibly useful. It also worked for everyday work such as writing down measures, making floor plan sketches, even writing down improvised signed receipts so as to keep track of work begin done and money paid.
The notebook ended up pretty messy, yet functional: If I wrote something down somewhere else I just glued it to one of the notebooks pages, if I need more space Iâ€™d use another larger page, fold it and glued it too. If I needed more space to continue a line of thought wrote somewhere, I just cut a couple more pages with my pocket knife and glued it where it was needed….

The other notebooks are a Moleskine, and a hand-made watercolor notebook.

Fun & Weird

Notebooks in Synechdoche, New York

May 11, 2009 Nifty Notebook Leave a comment

I watched this movie the other night and was incredibly disappointed. I loved Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and thought Charlie Kaufman could do no wrong, but this movie was just a boring, overwrought, trying-too-hard downer as far as I was concerned.

But there were a couple of scenes where I couldn’t help perking up at glimpses of notebooks! You can see one image of torn out notebook pages here:

I don’t remember what he was writing on those pages… and frankly, I don’t care enough to watch the movie again to find out!

Notebook Stories

1980s Roaring Spring Spiral Notebook