The Importance of Notebooks

Written By Alexandra Sebire

Notebooks have featured in the lives of humans for centuries; but why?

In this article I’m going to look at how important the notebook is, has been and always will be when it comes to telling the stories of ordinary humans and allowing a more equal playing field when it comes to areas like education.

Levelling The Playing Field

When it comes to understanding how important notebooks are in our everyday lives, it is probably best to remember that notebooks as we know them today only began to be made and purchased in the 18th Century - even then they were only used by artists, writers and journalists. In the 19th Century the city of Tours in France was the only producer of notebooks and then in the 20th Century things really began to kick off with the invention of the spiral bound notebook and the availability of notebooks in hughstreet stores as brands began to target shoppers. However of course individuals had been recording things on paper for millennia - ever since paper was invented in China back in 100BC.

There have been huge swathes of time where not everyone could read or write. Unfortunately there are still countries in the world where - whether for misogynistic, political or economic reasons - children cannot attend school and adults (especially women) are not encouraged to expand their knowledge. That is where notebooks and the expansion of the notebook as a tool for exploring knowledge and creative expression is so important. Not only does it make knowledge and the recording of knowledge or the trials and tribulations of day to day life more accessible, it also levels the playing field when it comes to the gap between those who can and cannot express themselves.

Most individuals can afford a notebook and a pencil with which to record things in the pages. A notebook does not require a supply of electricity to charge the battery, it does not allow the individual’s thoughts to be tracked in the same way that internet searches can be monitored; and it is light to carry over distances big or small. Whether the notebook is used to record daily occurrences or to note down classes and studies - it is more accessible than a laptop will ever be.

Famous Notebooks & Their Users

Anne Frank

Arguably the most famous and sociologically important diary ever published when it comes to understanding the effects of dictatorial regimes upon the young and vulnerable. Anne Frank’s Diary (also known as The Diary of a Young Girl) was a way for her to explore her writing style and to grow her practice, she wanted to be a writer and though her story is published and one of the most widely read books across the world - she never survived the concentration camps. Writing to Kitty her imaginary friend who embodies the diary, Anne recorded the Frank family’s experience of anti-semitism in the run-up to the Gestapo’s use of ghetto’s and then their flight into hiding and subsequent time spent in the attic.

This diary alone could support my argument for the importance of notebooks as places of refuge and recording daily life - or just being a space where no one can track you or judge your expressions and opinions.

In terms of historical records there is no other method more real and more accurate in terms of seeing the daily practices and state of a certain period of time on citizens than a diary. So long as, of course, it was written not to be read by the masses but as a way of confiding to another the everyday pains and joys of Living in a world which far too often is unnecessarily cruel.

Norma Jeane Baker aka Marilyn Monroe

The incredible intellect of Monroe is - unfortunately - almost always forgotten against her status as a pin-up and bombshell blonde actress. Can’t the woman be remembered for both equally? Apparently not. Fortunately for those of us who remember that she had an extensive personal library and an IQ that was (allegedly) 168 there are her diaries.

Monroe was anything but a dumb blonde and her notebooks contain the evidence for all of this. Not only was she incredibly interested in the Arts and culture, she was also a shrewd business woman and avid reader. There was nothing ditzy about her and the collection of personal paper records she left behind show that. Again, without these notebooks which are so personal - much of the person known as Marilyn Monroe would be left in the murk of the 1950’s inside the silence of her alleged suicide.

Included in them are personal notes on what she wants to achieve, how painful the psychoanalysis classes forced on her by her acting teacher were for her; and how she found the breakdown of her three marriages. Not to mention the collection of friends she mentions, the letters sent and other more seemingly mundane collections of notes such as recipes.

There is no such thing as a boring notebook, or a mundane entry.

Leonardo Da Vinci

The genius polymath that needs no introduction, as well as leaving behind a huge amount of work that we still enjoy today - Da Vinci also left behind a huge collection of paper. These collections were bound together and include ideas for inventions, sketches of human and animal anatomy, mathematical equations and artistic studies. Stationery shops were and are very prevalent in Italy so it is thought that Da Vinci would have bought loose paper which he walked around with and put his notes on as he thought or observed things.

His records are done in mirror writing which would have been popular to use at the time though it has left historian speculating about whether Da Vinci wished his notes to remain indecipherable to ensure none of his ideas were stolen.

Again these records give us not only a huge insight into the work and method behind Da Vinci’s pieces as well as his huge contribution to modern topics of mathematics, engineering and art - but also into life in Renaissance Italy. The feudal system, how an individual such as Da Vinci was able to earn a living in a very religious culture and what his work did in and to society.

Ordinary People Extraordinary Lives

I will always maintain that seemingly ordinary people lead the most extraordinary lives. It is the lives of common civilians who historians are most anxious to know about in times gone by, because it is the lives of civilians who often go by nameless and unknown except to those who know and love them, which are most important for understanding the cause and effect of political/ sociological/ religious upheaval and change.

Keeping a notebook is not something which should be done with the aim of having it published… too many figures in politics and society have kept notebooks with this view and their entries come over as horrifically contrived. Name-dropping, overly fastidious prose, seeking out events just to be able to record them, et cetera I’m sure you can imagine. If you will keep a notebook keep it for yourself so that in years to come you can pick a volume from the bookshelf and flick through the years back to when you were worried so-and-so didn’t like you, or when you were saving up for a car, or when you were so anxious to fall in love and never imagined you would.

In a notebook you can explore theories, mess up equations until you don’t, sketch badly until you get sketch well, vent about the economy or your mother-in-law without anyone having access to the records unless they steal the volume from your person. A notebook is a stream of consciousness that gives us better access to ourselves as well as the world around us. And without one, well we might as well revert back to carving our shopping receipts on rocks.

Other Interesting Notebooks & Their Users

Want to find a notebook that suits your daily routines and rituals? Take a look at the SOLEMNIKO collection for handmade luxury you can take anywhere.

Alexandra Sebire
Next

My Stationery List