Another recent NY Times spotting: Tom Verlaine Was a Mystery. His Archives Reveal More of His Story. I spy an Eastern Tablet Paper King composition book (small Paper King spiral notebooks were my favorites when I was a kid), and a small Pen-Tab spiral notebook (with yellow and black tape covering most of the spiral), … Continue reading Tom Verlaine’s Notebooks
Another reader has gotten in touch with a burning question, something I hadn’t really thought about much. Stephen asks: What are the optimal use cases for a notepad, as opposed to a notebook? I use Rhodia A4 and A5 Bloc pads all the time at my desk, ruled with that great ivory FP-friendly paper; and … Continue reading How to Use a Notepad
Most of my collection of vintage looseleaf notebooks is either basic black ring binders from the first half of the 20th century from makers like Marquette and Wilson Jones, or Filofax organizers from the 1980s and 1990s. I don’t have that many other brands, so I was happy to add this Succes organizer to my … Continue reading Vintage Succes Seven Star Diary
In the introduction to this series of posts, I covered some background on Filofax’s rare pocket size offerings from the 1930s to 1970s. With all that history out of the way, let’s look at how the modern pocket size Filofax organizer was first introduced in the 1989 Filofax UK catalog. This year, the ultimate adaptability … Continue reading The History of the “Pocket Slim” Filofax: Part 1
I was recently helping a friend with some decluttering, and you can imagine my joy when we unearthed this: This was her Filofax from around 1988 or so, which she used for many years until switching to a Palm Pilot. (The Palm Pilot didn’t last long– after letting the battery die and losing all her … Continue reading Filofax Winchester from the Late 1980s
These Harvard Coop diaries mark the beginnings of my serious obsession with little black notebooks. I started using them at around the age of 9. Before that, I’d had some 3 x 5″ spiral notebooks, and I liked to get the little Hallmark month-to-a-page planners that drugstores would give out for free, but I barely … Continue reading Harvard Coop Diaries
While writing my recent posts about my collection of wirebound notebooks (see Part 1 and Part 2), I was looking for more information about the JoRedCo notebook brand. I have two in my collection, but hadn’t really heard much about the brand, other than a commenter having mentioned finding old stock for sale. Google provided … Continue reading JoRedCo Notebooks
Continuing with Part 2 of my exploration of spiral notebooks and wire-o notebooks from my collection! As in Part 1, all of these are 3 x 5″ notebooks unless otherwise noted, and mostly from the 1980s. The Roaring Spring notebooks seem very classic and looked a little retro even in the ’80s. I loved those … Continue reading Wire-O and Spiral Notebooks from My Collection, Part 2
Some of my earliest notebook obsessions were spiral and wire-o binding notebooks. Back when I was a kid, other kinds of notebook were not as easy to find, or were prohibitively expensive for a kid to buy with her allowance. Nowadays, I rarely find myself using a wire bound notebook, but I thought I’d take … Continue reading Spiral and Wire-O Notebooks from My Collection, Part 1
Here’s another shoebox full of notebooks from my collection. This one has most of my Filofaxes and other refillable looseleaf notebooks. First, here’s the Filofaxes. I used 4 of these on a regular basis during the mid to late 1990s. (See Pocket Filofax, Early 1990s for details on the burgundy one.) These older ones all … Continue reading Shoebox Tour: Filofax and Other Looseleaf Notebooks
