The notebook : a history of thinking on paper

Book

The notebook : a history of thinking on paper / Roland Allen.

Summary:

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 9781771966283
ISBN: 1771966289
Physical Description: 416 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Windsor, Ontario : Biblioasis, 2024.
Copyright: ©2023.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 382-396) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Introduction -- Chapter 1: Before notebooks. The Mediterranean 1000 BCE-1250 CE -- Chapter 2: Red book, white book, cloth book. The invention of accounting, Provence and Florence 1299 -- Chapter 3: Slight strokes in a little book. The sketchbook, Florence 1300-1500 -- Chapter 4: Ricordi, ricordanzi. zibaldoni. Notebooks in the home, Florence 1300-1500 -- Chapter 5: Pepper in Alexandria. The Book of Michael of Rhodes, Venice 1434 -- Chapter 6: Wicked wives and and mouths stopped with wool. The notebook comes to England, 1372-1517 -- Chapter 7: The long life of LHD 244. Singing in harmony, Bologna c.1450-1600 -- Chapter 8: 'Alas, this will never get anything done..." Two notebook-keepers, Italy 1455-1519 -- Chapter 9: O the pains and labour to record what other people have said! Common-place books, 1512-present -- Chapter 10: From one mouth to the other runs East and West. The world ocean, 1519-1522 -- Chapter 11: King of the herring. Fishbook, The Netherlands 1570 -- Chapter 12: A dull Dutch fashion. Friendship books, northern Europe 1645 -- Chapter 13: Several gems. Industrial observations, Germany and Italy 1598 -- Chapter 14: 'Let him not stay long.' Travellers and their notebooks, 1470-present -- Chapter 15: The Waste Book. Mathematics, Lincolnshire 1612 -- Chapter 16: A tale of two notebooks. Fouquet and Colbert, Paris 1661-80 -- Chapter 17: 'But 18 pence in money; and a table-book.' Table-books, England and The Netherlands 1520s-1670s -- Chapter 18: Albetrosses. A logged journey: London to Amoy 1699 -- Chapter 19: 'I think...' Naturalists' notebooks, 1551-1859 -- Chapter 20: One way to immortality. Diaries and journals, 1600-present -- Chapter 21: 'You're spot on.' Police notebooks, 1829-present -- Chapter 22: 'Yes, better if dentist is dead.' Authors' notebooks, 1894-present -- Chapter 23: Preserving and Coockery. Recipe books, 1639-present -- Chapter 24: Express yourself. Journaling as self-care, 1968-present -- Chapter 25: Blue, green, red, yellow. Electioneering, Florida 1977-2003 -- Chapter 26: Non-trivial. Climate logs, 1850s-present -- Chapter 27: Attention deficit. Bullet journaling, Brooklyn 2010 -- Chapter 28: In search of lost time. Patient diaries, 1952-present -- Chapter 29: Nothing on this earth betrays our own karakter so. Notebook studies, 1883-present -- Chapter 30: A different part of the brain. Observing artists, 2022 -- Conclusion: Otto carries a notebook. the extended mind, 1938-present.