Review: The Notebook | A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen
In The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, Roland Allen offers a thoughtful written meditation on the humble yet profound notebook — an object so common it’s often overlooked, yet so essential it has quietly shaped the course of human thought.
This book is not a manual or a how-to; it’s a cultural and intellectual history. Allen traces the evolution of the notebook from its medieval origins in wax tablets and commonplacing traditions, through the rise of Renaissance notebooks, scientific logs, artist sketchbooks, field journals, and modern-day journals and field notes. What emerges is not just a history of paper, but a portrait of the mind at work … in solitude, in exploration, in curiosity.
For analog enthusiasts, The Notebook is a treasure trove. It celebrates the physical intimacy of paper, the private architecture of thought scrawled by hand, and the enduring power of the written word in an increasingly digital world. Allen doesn't simply romanticize the past. He reveals how the notebook has always been a tool of innovation, disorder, reflection and discovery.
One of my favorite things about this book are the historical examples: Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches and reversed writing, Darwin’s field notes, Virginia Woolf’s fragments of literary experimentation, and even the pocket notebooks of soldiers and schoolchildren. Each case underscores how the notebook is less a container of finished thought and more a living laboratory of the mind.
Allen’s prose is both scholarly and inviting. He moves between history, philosophy, and personal anecdote with ease, keeping my attention throughout.
For those of us committed to the analog life, this book affirms what we intuitively know: that notebooks are not obsolete … they are timeless companions in our pursuit of knowing and understanding.
Recommended For:
Journal keepers, writers, artists, and thinkers of every kind
Analog lifestyle enthusiasts who cherish pen, paper, and process
Anyone curious about the quiet “technologies” that have shaped human creativity
Conclusion
In a world fixated on speed and surface, The Notebook invites us to return to depth. It reminds us that the simplest tools — a pen and a blank page — remain among the most powerful instruments of thought ever devised.
Roland Allen has written not just a history, but a love letter to the analog mind.