Back on February I was waiting to be seated in a restaurant for a birthday meal, so I wandered around the mall until I ended up in a bookstore. At the entrance, I found a table with popular nonfiction paperback books. I picked up the one called, "The Notebook, a History of Thinking on Paper" by Roland Allen. The plan was to read through some chapters quickly and put it down. I ended up buying a copy. I am glad that I did.
The title promises us a history of the development of the notebook. We get that history in the first few chapters. After that, the book goes on a long journey talking about different ways of using notebooks such as journaling, travel logs, notes for writing, and so much more. It ends with a number of chapters on how writing journals can help our mental and physical health. So it is a mixture of history, interesting annectodes about Leonardo or the Magallen trip around the world, and pyschological self-help through journaling.
It is an engaging book. After the initial historical chapters on the creation of the notebook, each chapter can stand by itself as its own self-contained article. So it is a great book that one can read on and off, getting interesting factoids and insights as one reads it in small bursts.
The final chapters, where the author talks about health benefits of journaling, were surprisingly useful. It appears that we retain more when we take notes writing by hand than when we use transcriptions. That writing about difficult experiences can help us work through them. That spending time drawing can increase the visual parts of our brain. Notebooks can help us manage ADHD.
If you keep or a journal or a notebook, you will enjoy this book. I found it a delight. I want others who would appreciate it to read it. So I have a plan. I will share it with someone else with the condition to give it to someone else who they think they will enjoy it.