I recently finished the fantastic book by Erik Larson entitled The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. This book is a non-fiction work centered around Sir Winston Churchill during the early days of World War 2. One of the things that I was struck by as I listened to the audiobook, was how much information the author was able to glean from diaries and personal correspondence. Whether it was from the diary of Churchill’s personal aide, which gave all manner of insights into how Sir Winston acted and treated others to Mary Churchill’s diary entries telling of how the 18-year-old daughter spent her evenings dancing at clubs and spending time chasing airmen from the Royal Air Force, these diaries helped to paint a much more full picture of the life and times of Churchill.

Other examples of how diaries and letters help to tell the story of history, are the bestselling biographies, John Adams, by David McCullough and Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow. My mom and dad have listened to both of these recently and over and over again, they tell me about these wonderful nuggets of history that show up in these books directly from the archived letters and diaries of various historical figures. One such example is the friendship and rivalry of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. John Adams wrote extensively about how their friendship fell apart over politics and then much later in life, they were able to reconcile with one another. On a side note, these two great founding fathers died on the same day, within hours of one another, fifty years to the day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Not related to my point about diaries, but still a really great nugget of information.

In reflecting on all this, I couldn’t help but think about how we as Americans and perhaps even as humans, seem to have forgotten how to journal in diaries. Be it because of our fixation with technology and entertainment or our inability to be bored or whatever it is, we just do not do much of it anymore. I can’t help but think that historians will have so much digital information to dig through, tons and tons of official documentation about this time we are living in, but so little of it will be personal thoughts on day to day life.

Are we better off without the diary? Are our lives improved by not taking the time each day to write down what happened and how we feel about it? Have we forgotten how to journal in the last 75 years since Churchill’s time? Is this what regular blogging is for our time? I honestly don’t know but I do like the romantic idea of becoming a much more prolific diarist. I do know that when I take the time to journal daily, that my mind is more at ease and my thoughts less jumbled. Besides, journaling regularly will give me a great use for all these fantastic notebooks and writing instruments that I love so dearly. What a concept! If it was important to our second President and so many others, maybe it does have value after all.

But, there is still room for more and to that end, I present the Sketchnote Ideabook. This is a product that is currently on Kickstarter with about three weeks to go in its funding campaign. The product was developed by noted sketchnote expert and author Mike Rohde, in collaboration with Airship Notebooks. Sketchnoting is a style of note-taking that utilizes a more creative method of taking notes in order to improve information retention and to make the process more fun and interesting.

These notebooks are lovely to look at and feature heavy, high-quality paper which should be suitable for just about any pen or pencil. The project fully funded within just a few hours, We ordered a six-pack of the books to share with my art-loving daughter and fellow stationery addict father. We are all looking forward to getting them once they ship sometime in October and I will follow up with a review. I recommend you take advantage of the Kickstarter while the prices are still well below the future expected retail price of $25.

Baron Fig recently released a limited edition notebook in partnership with CodeAcademy called Computerworld. It was meant to be a celebration of technology and the way that analog and digital tools can come together to create amazing things. After seeing them, I had a feeling that they would be right up my alley given how much of my life is spent using both types of tools. I was fortunate enough to pick up a box of three notebooks before the edition sold out and I am very pleased with my purchase.

Let’s get the specs out of the way first. These 72-page notebooks are in the Vanguard line and are Flagship-sized. In plain English, this means they are soft cover notebooks and are 5.4 inches by 7.7 inches in size. The ruling found inside are one of the unique features of Computerworld. They feature what Baron Fig calls Code Ruling which has numbered rules and bullets for indents. This could be useful for those who write out their code first but also works for making lists and general note taking.

The notebooks shipped in a sturdy, brightly colored box featuring the fun Computerworld illustration and logo design that you will also find on the notebooks themselves. Inside are three notebooks, each with different art detailing how computer hardware, software and data are like living things. They each also have unique bright colors for the back and inner covers, coming in pink, yellow and blue. Along with unique colors, each notebook features a poem inspired by the three destinations, “Software Skies,” “Hardware Fields” and “Data Valley.” These poems are found inside the back cover and they tie into the art design for each book. This type of attention to detail is typical for Baron Fig and really shows how they are attempting to present a cohesive vision with this product.

As we move to the inside, we find the standard high-quality Baron Fig paper. It takes pencil and fountain pen ink equally well, being toothy enough for pencil yet smooth enough for ink. It even took my daughter’s brush pens well that she uses for art. The only thing that bled through were her alcohol and watercolor markers which is to be expected. She simply put a sheet of sketch paper behind it while coloring in her doodle and that kept the bleed from reaching the next page. Also in the box was a sheet of fun stickers in the same style as all the rest of the set.

Overall, my thoughts on these Computerworld edition notebooks are similar to how I felt about the Baron Fig Composition notebooks. Great paper and fun details combined with a high level of quality make for an excellent notebook. Especially considering that I only paid $15 for the box of 3. I just wish I would have bought more before they sold out.

I had heard a lot of praise about Baron Fig and their “tools for thinkers” over the last few years, but had not taken the plunge on purchasing any of their products. I had heard about their excellent paper and their well designed stationery items and was always just on the verge of buying. So, when a coupon to save $10 off an order of $20 or more was posted to the Erasable Podcast Facebook group, I thought now is as good a time as any to get a few things and see what all the fuss is about. One product in particular caught my eye and that was the Vanguard Composition Notebook.

As a child of the greatest decade ever, the 1980s, I was well familiar with composition books. In my time, they typically had black marbled covers and had stitched binding. They were softcovers yet were sturdy enough to last despite being chucked around and used hard. The paper was never that great but in the age of Bic ballpoints and pencils, they were good enough. I’ve even continued using them to this day, mostly to capture notes from audio podcasts and books that I am listening to. But, as an adult, I have often wished that these were just better. Better quality, maybe even just a bit more grown-up.

That’s where the motivation to purchase the Baron Fig Composition Notebook came from. And in many ways, it delivers on being better. Now, is it truly a “composition book?” No, not really and that’s okay too. The first thing I noticed was how much smaller it is than it’s larger inspiration. It is A5-ish in size, coming in at 5.4 inches by 7.7 inches. It also contains just 72 pages, whereas most composition books are 100 pages. Essentially these notebooks are not meant to be a replacement for the classic, but perhaps an evolution of it.

After using them for several days, I can say with certainty that the hype is well-deserved. The paper is lovely to use. It is toothy enough to be great for pencils and yet takes fountain pens and rollerballs with ease. There is slight shadow on the opposite side when using wetter nibs but not enough to cause me any pause. This excellent paper is stitch bound and the binding feels very tight and secure. The books come in a pack of 3, and have composition book style covers in black, green and yellow. They also feature a “This book belongs to” inside the front cover and a chart of “Useful Information” inside the back. The useful information includes a handy conversion chart and some English helps such as a parts of speech and punctuation guide. These are neat additions that show Baron Fig’s attention to detail.

I do wish that the ruling was slightly darker so as to be more visible. I realize that most eyes can see them just fine, but not mine. I also was saddened that you can no longer get the Archer pencils with the books as part of the School Set that Baron Fig used to offer. Alas, the Archers are no longer in stock and there is no indication that they will return.

My final verdict is that I am pleased with these notebooks. Their design, paper quality and size make them a great addition to my collection.

I purchased these for $12 for a pack of 3 and I even got free shipping due to my order exceeding $25! If you’d like to take advantage of the same $10 off offer that I did, just click here!

The opinions included are mine and mine alone.