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
I recently read the book The Catcher Was a Spy, a fascinating account of the life of Morris “Moe” Berg. Berg was a catcher for several major league baseball teams from the late 1920s to the early 1940s. While his record as a player wasn’t that great, he was one of the most quirky and … Continue reading Moe Berg’s Notebooks
Sometime last year, I started seeing a lot of mentions of Walmart’s Pen + Gear notebooks on Instagram. It seemed a little odd to me that people would be getting all excited about a very basic spiral notebook, but supposedly they were fountain pen friendly! So the next time I was at a Walmart, of … Continue reading Notebook Review: Pen + Gear Memo Book and Journal
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
Several weeks ago, I went to the Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C., where there was a large exhibition about Burning Man, the annual festival in the Nevada desert where lots of creative people gather to enjoy each other’s art and self-expression in a variety of forms. The Renwick exhibition included a couple of notebooks: This … Continue reading Notebooks from Burning Man
About 2 years ago, I visited a very cute shop in Philadelphia called Omoi Zakka. As Wikipedia explains, “zakka” is a Japanese concept having to do with household items that are attractively designed. The Omoi Zakka shop certainly delivered on that when I was there, with lots of interesting little items for the desk and … Continue reading Notebooks from Omoi Zakka Shop
Here’s an interesting story where a notebook makes a cameo. Sgt. Richard G. “Dick” Schimmel was at Fort Shafter, near Pearl Harbor, when the attack happened. He worked as a switchboard operator, alternating shifts with Private Joseph McDonald. McDonald was on duty when a warning of the attack was radioed in– he wrote down a … Continue reading Pearl Harbor Notebook
“For years, Bob Dylan scholars have whispered about a tiny notebook, seen by only a few, in which the master labored over the lyrics to his classic 1975 album “Blood on the Tracks.†Rolling Stone once called it “the Maltese Falcon of Dylanology†for its promise as an interpretive key. But that notebook, it turns … Continue reading Bob Dylan’s Secret Notebooks
