The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper: A New Statesman and Spectator Book of the Year
Spotted in bags, on desks, and stuffed into coat pockets the world over, the notebook is so familiar that most of us never stop to question it. Roland Allen thinks we should. This wide-ranging history traces the story of a deceptively simple object, following it from the crowded marketplaces of medieval Florence through to the private studies of some of history's most celebrated minds. The result is genuinely absorbing. Allen moves between centuries and disciplines with ease, weaving together the notebook habits of figures as varied as Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, Frida Kahlo, and Isaac Newton. You'll find Darwin quietly refining his theory of evolution in tiny pocketbooks, Agatha Christie mapping out a hundred fictional murders in battered exercise books, and Bruce Chatwin accidentally setting in motion the creation of the now-iconic Moleskine. The cast extends well beyond the famous, too. Cooks, sailors, mathematicians, fishermen, and politicians all make an appearance, each one using paper and pen as a space to think, plan, and shape what came next. What makes the book work is Allen's central argument: that the notebook isn't merely a place to store thoughts, it's a tool that actively changes how thinking happens. Short on pretension and long on curiosity, it's the kind of book that makes you reach for a pen before you've even finished the final chapter.
- Author: ROLAD ALLEN
- Publisher: PROFILE BOOKS
- Genre: Decorative Arts
- ISBN: 978-1788169332
- Pages: 416 pages