The Origin Story of The Notebook

The Notebook: A History of Thinking On Paper by Roland Allen (2024)

All my notes for this book.

I cannot, for the life of me, remember where I came across this book. It was either on social media (likely Threads) or in reference while reading a different book. Either way, I adored it. A rich history into the origins of the notebook, with an added bonus of insight into the human brain and why notetaking is, indeed, so effective.

So Many Notes

I made copious amounts of notes. I had to tape additional sheets of paper into my journal. However, that was mostly due to having just enough spreads left for the remainder of the year and not wanting to carry December over to a new journal. I also made plenty of notes because I read it as an eBook through Hoopla, an online library borrowing app. Knowing I only had the book for 21 days, I went in expecting to write more notes than usual.

Also, I find it funny that I read a book titled The Notebook on a digital device. I will say, that if I ever come across it in a store, and I have the money to do so, I am scooping it up. I loved everything about it.

A Brief History of Paper

The introduction began with a story about the Moleskine journal and how it came to be one of the most well-known notebooks across the world. Then, chapter one drags us all the way to the beginning.

Before paper there was papyrus in Egypt, then parchment across Europe. Paper, as I have come to discover, originated in China. The Chinese recycled old clothing, even underwear, to make it into paper. Much to the chagrin of European Christians who argued, and I quote, “The word of God could not be written on ‘menses-stained rags.’” Nothing like good ol’ sexism to stand in the way of innovation.

The world of papermaking steadily grew and improved. By 1150, Xativan paper was renowned for its quality. The town of Xativa was located on a fertile inland plain from Valencia, Spain and belonged to a rich Muslim community for five centuries.

The Rise The Notebooks Many Uses

Rather than walk you through every piece of (cool) information I learned, I’m going to sum up a few pieces of history that struck me the most.

Firstly, coming from a family of accountants, I do have to point out that one of the first uses of notebooks was what we now know today as the Ledger and Journal. We owe double-entry accounting practices to a single Italian man.

There were common-place journals where one often recorded quotes, poems, and excerpts from other books. The sketchbook emerged and with it realistic sketching and painting. The traveller’s notebook helped discover the world. The notebook helped create the first “little black book” in France under the rule of King Louis XIV, it features in Shakespeare’s plays and allowed Charles Darwin to record the natural world through sketches with notes along the side.

Indeed, the notebook allowed many individuals to externalize their thoughts and ideas before questioning and manipulating them. It helped turn mere notions into concrete theories.

But it wasn’t until 1812 when the ‘datebook’ arrived that the introspective nature of a journal finally emerged.

StoryGraph Screenshot

The Diary and The Authors Notebook

The datebook was similar to a weekly planner. It was for businessmen who wanted to plan the future. But the habit quickly grew amongst women, seeing the datebook as a way to “[create] the narrative of the recent past.”

Then came the author’s notebook.

Allen brings forward examples from Henry James who collected names for characters yet-to-be, Virginia Woolf who drafted pieces of her stories right on the page, and Agatha Christie whose chaotic journals and equally scattered ideas eventually resulted in some of the greatest mystery novels ever written (with barely a proper outline to show for it).

As a writer myself, I was most intrigued by this chapter. It is nice to know not much has changed over these hundreds of years. Writers and authors still keep journals. They write down interesting names, plot stories, and draft with nothing but a pen and paper.

Journaling as Self-Care

Aside from expressive writing and the creation of the BuJo (or Bullet Journal), I was interested to learn about the so-called "patient diary.”

It truly began in Denmark in the 1970s wherein nurses would keep a daily log for coma patients. They’d note what was done and why, even family members began to leave notes during their visits.

These were not medical records. They were informal entries that the patient could read after recovering. Coma patients often experienced hallucinations, odd dreams, and misinterpreted brief periods of awareness where they’d see nurses and doctors taking blood or reapplying bandages. Apparently, keeping a patient diary “cut the risk of PTSD by over 60%,” because they helped make sense of the patient's memories and what they thought they’d experienced.

Final Thoughts

After finishing this book I felt a renewed sense of inspiration. I want to write by hand more. I want to collect more quotes and passages, make lists just for fun, and experience the many benefits of putting pen to paper just as people have done for centuries before me. The notebook is not merely a tool, it is a record of your mind and its propensity for creativity.

I will leave you with this journal excerpt, written in October 1788 by Magdalena Van Schinne.

“O my paper, henceforth you shall be the only one to hear my ideas, my feelings, my cares and joys. Here, I will be able to pour out my soul entirely; with others, even with my best friends, I want to learn how to hide things, or at least I no longer want to tell them about myself. You alone will be my confidant. When my heavy heart longs to unburden itself, you will not cruelly reject it. You will not misinterpret what I confide in you; when my pen is borne along by happiness, you will not have a morbid talent for snuffing it out in an instant. I will have you by my side always, to turn to when in need.”