One of my readers needs your help! She bought this notebook at Hobby Lobby, but she’s wondering if they can be purchased anywhere else. I’ve never seen this exact brand, and my own web searching has produced no leads. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but it looks similar to the Pen & Ink sketchbook I reviewed…
It is called “The Art of Watercolor†and there is also “The Art of Pen & Ink†version for dry media. They are in the sketchbook section and cost something like $12 for the large size. They are the same size as the Molekskine, have the back pocket, the ribbon bookmark, the elastic closure band, and a smooth black cover which has a more rubbery feel than the Moleskine cover. They also come in a pocket version that is the same size as the small Moleskine Sketchbook.
Read more of her review here, and let us know if you can help find these!
Welcome to everyone who came here looking for “notebook p 0 r n!” I promise you will find it! This site lovingly and obsessively drools over new and old notebooks of all brands, my notebooks, other people’s notebooks, with reviews, photos, ideas, tips, musings and questions, all about notebooks! You can subscribe to my feed here. You can also follow me on Twitter.
I am so flattered to have been noticed by one of the bigger blogs I follow! For regular Notebook Stories readers who don’t know it, The Unclutterer is a great source of inspiration for anyone who’s ever thought their life needs a little simplifying, and their “Unitasker Wednesday” series is always good for laughs! Of course, for many of us, notebooks and clutter are pretty much inseparable, but that’s all the more reason to check out The Unclutterer’s list of 35 Luxury Notebook brands. They even mentioned a few I hadn’t heard of… time to go shopping again! And as long as I keep my piles neat, it’s not clutter. Right?
Here’s a notebook belonging to the Irish writer Colm Toibin, whose latest novel, “Brooklyn,” has just been published:
He wrote “Brooklyn†while teaching at Stanford, and this spring, in little more than a month, he turned out two book reviews and a 10,000-word short story, the first thing he has written on a computer. He usually writes longhand with disposable fountain pens, not that it slows him down. He is the author of six novels, one play, three travel books, a short-story collection and two books with photographers. He has edited a few anthologies, including the Penguin Book of Irish Fiction. Just for fun, he’s also the art critic for British Esquire.
@nrepose I haven’t started using one on a daily basis yet– I just tried them for the review. I might use the little one for a wine journal. in reply to nrepose#
If I owned a stationery store, it would be like an alcoholic owning a bar. #
He’s already designed for some of the coolest companies (Nike, BMW), showed at the best galleries (Tate Modern, MoMa) and even invaded our homes (with Umbra’s critically acclaimed Artala garbage can). So what’s left for visual artist/Web designer Joshua Davis to conquer? If not our hearts, then certainly things equally portable, like our notebooks and bags.
Next week, the enterprising Davis teams up with Miquelrius paper company to launch a new line of stationery goods and accessories. All bags and book covers are wrapped in art from his previous works, including lush Japanese-inspired floral patterns and spy-tinged takes on the world map.
Our favourite is the datebook (about $8), which features all the trappings of a Moleskine, including a pocket on the inside cover, but none of the ubiquity.
Here’s a neat item that stretches the definition of “notebook,” or at least turns the clock back on it!
Brass and Ivory Pocket Notebook
It’s the 18th century version of the PDA. Beautifully crafted here in the US. Based on an original that Jefferson owned. These are made of sturdy brass stock with 4 old ivory pages and a pencil. Use this for making notes in the field and just erase with a wet finger when you are done. Folds up into a nice small package 1-1/8 inches by 4-1/2 inches by 3/16 inch thick. No batteries needed.
It’s $85 at Jas. Townsend & Son Ltd., “a mail order company that supplies 18th and 19th century reproductions for living history.”
This Fringe Magazine article shares a title with, and quotes from one of my favorite Joan Didion essays, “On Keeping a Notebook.”
In her essay, Didion says she doesn’t keep a notebook as any kind of attempt to record the facts of her daily life or to fossilize the events of the world around her. So then, why? Why bother writing random snatches of thoughts, imagined encounters and half-remembered lines of dialogue? “Remember what it was to be me: that is always the point…our notebooks give us away, for however dutifully we record what we see around us, the common denominator of all we see is always, transparently, shamelessly, the implaceable ‘I.'”
Notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, diaries: in search of the perfect page…
,” has just been published:
