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Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper
Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper | Roland Allen
4 posts | 3 read | 17 to read
A Globe 100 Best Book of 2024 - A New Yorker Best Book of 2024 - A Kirkus Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2024The first history of the notebook, a simple invention that changed the way the world thinks.We see notebooks everywhere we go. But where did these indispensable implements come from? How did they revolutionize our lives? And how can using a notebook help change the way you think? In this wide-ranging history, Roland Allen reveals how the notebook became our most dependable and versatile tool for creative thinking. He tells the notebook stories of Leonardo and Frida Kahlo, Isaac Newton and Marie Curie, and writers from Chaucer to Henry James; shows how Darwin developed his theory of evolution in tiny pocket books and Agatha Christie plotted a hundred murders in scrappy exercise books; and introduces a host of cooks, kings, sailors, fishermen, musicians, engineers, politicians, adventurers, and mathematicians, all of whom used their notebooks as a space to think--and in doing so, shaped the modern world.In an age of AI and digital overload, the humble notebook is more relevant than ever. Allen shows how bullet points can combat ADHD, journals can ease PTSD, and patient diaries soften the trauma of reawakening from coma. The everyday act of moving a pen across paper, he finds, can have profound consequences, changing the way we think and feel: making us more creative, more productive--and maybe even happier.
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Angeles
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Really fun microhistory about something I am obsessed about: notebooks. It is very well written, with each chapter covering interesting historical vignettes about notebooks from mainly Renaissance to the present. I feel it is not thorough, but it is illuminating and well written, and you can enjoy it even if you are not a notebook nerd.
My cat also enjoyed it, as you can see.She gives it a definite Paws up!

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BekaReid
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In addition to the physical history, Roland also discusses how notebooks were used throughout history - in accounting, art, natural history, writing, etc. and various ways notebooks were perceived. I.e., in the 1200s when clergy refused to use anything other than parchment being suspicious of paper's novelty and its infidel and recycled origins: “one opponent fulminated against the idea that the word of God could be written on menses-stained rag.“

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readingjedi
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Everything a quality non-fiction book should be - informative, accessible, absorbing, well researched and absolutely fascinating! The writing is highly engaging, never getting bogged down in dry details, and has warmth & humour. The subject matter is more complex & intriguing than I thought possible! Researching this must've been an absolute joy for the author & that joy most definitely comes across! Impeccably referenced, a fabulous read.

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readingjedi
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My Christmas books - 1/3

This book brings together reading ❤️ AND stationery ❤️ thus ticking all my favourite boxes & I can't wait to start it!

shanaqui Ooh, this looks right up my street! I hope it's as good as it sounds. 2y
batsy Oh, this sounds wonderful! 1y
63 likes6 stack adds2 comments