Customer Reviews

Maker's Notebook

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ok... this might be the most unusual book review I've ever done. I'm about to review a book consisting of... blank pages. Ah, but what blank pages they are! :) It's the Maker's Notebook by O'Reilly Publishing and the staff at MAKE magazine. I was given this as a gift from a friend, and I don't think she could have given me something that appeals more to me on so many levels.

The Maker's Notebook is designed to be a durable, long-lasting lab notebook for your projects and experimentations. As stated in one of the chemistry books I reviewed, it's imperative that you document your work in such a way that it's reproducible as well as leaving a chain of evidence of what you did to get to the final result. While you can do this with a number of blank notebooks, the Maker's Notebook fills the need in a classy way. It's hardbound, so the durability will be better than something with a light cardboard cover. The pages inside consist of graph paper with room at the top for project/idea, date, notes/signature, and a place to record the starting and ending page(s) of the experiment notes. And since each page is numbered, there's never any question as to whether pages have been removed or not. Beyond those core features, there's a touch of the practical and whimsical. There's a built-in ruler on the inside cover that's handy, and the last dozen or so pages have "important" reference information... common weights and measures (and conversion factors), area codes and international calling codes, common glue bonds, the robot laws and rules, caffeine amounts in common caffeinated drinks, common English to 1337 character substitutions, and so forth. Throw in a ribbon to mark your place, a rubber band to hold the book tight and hold loose items, and stickers to brand pages and/or the cover, and you have a complete tool for documentation. There's even a white space on the edge binding so you can write a title and still read it on a bookshelf!

I'll admit I'm a junkie for these types of things. Clean, empty pages... waiting to be filled... so many promises. In this particular case, I plan on using my notebook to take notes as I learn about my new digital SLR camera. I was convinced even before this arrived that I needed to take notes to become good at photography. Now I have the perfect place to put them.

My guess is that even though this is the first Maker's Notebook I have, it won't be my last...

I've yet to complete a project yet, but i've drawn up at least 20 good ideas. I went to the website and added the back pocket they described. I love this book.

I was very surprised at how much I've liked browsing through MAKE: Technology on Your Time. The reviews of the magazine/book are glowing or negative, and I can't think of anything really to add. It's not that I actually make any of the complicated things people write about, but it is inspiring to know that ordinary people still enjoy creating. And the letters and short pieces are often inspiring and helpful for the sort of simple project that I'm interested in undertaking. (Suggestion: buy a sample issue before subscribing; you may find this "mook" too geeky for your taste.)

The editors of the magazine asked subscribers to the magazine and its website what they would like in a notebook. This handsome volume is the result. The volume is basically a set of quarter inch graph paper pages printed on good stock, with an appendix of helpful and amusing information. Whether you subscribe to the mook or not, you may find the notebook very useful.

I've found a number of uses in the first ten days:

- A sketch of a new garden around a pond we just opened.

- The layout of a porch we've decided to upgrade.

- A chart of my reviews on Amazon.

- The layout of two pages of my stamp collection.

From time to time I've amused myself reading the appendices. The editors and the readers have come up with a really very pretty and useful notebook. I'm buying a couple of extra copies as gifts, particularly for friends who enjoy seeing mine in action.

Robert C. Ross 2008

Other reviewers covered the high points -- this is a really nice notebook. It's appealing to us makers who want to add pockets, lights, etc.

A minor mod that we can't make would be to widen the gutter so the pages looked cleaner.

The BEST way to make it better for version 2.0 would be to add an INTERNAL SPIRAL BINDING so it'll stay open on the workbench. This should be the kind where the cover hides the spiral binding when it's closed, so it looks like a normal book on the shelf.

It's a good notebook. Not sure how often I'll use the diagrams in the back, but I had visions of reading them during particularly boring meetings. One quibble: they should add an elastic loop to hold a pen. How hard would that be?

This is truly the best thing i have bought from makezine and amazon. Highly recommended.

I had received one of these for Christmas and loved it, so when I saw it on Amazon I decided to buy it. From the reviews and pictures...and even the video showing how to create a pocket in the back, I settled on it thinking I was getting an older version of this notebook, which would've explained the price, but it is the newer version with a pocket already built in and containing all the neat little stickers and such. The Reference section is well organized and easy to read. The pages have plenty of room for sketching your ideas or documenting your experiments and a table of contents page to help you find what you're looking for later. I highly recommend this notebook to those who want a notebook that steps outside of the ordinary (composition books anyone?) and allows you to completely personalize it inside and out while giving you the technical requirements needed for permanently documenting your work.

I originally hoped this would be a large, grid-paper Moleskine on crack, since I chew through those things like candy with my project notes, design grids and even recreational sketching to pass the time. The hardbound cover is certainly more durable than most, and it comes in your favorite color (as long as it's blue) with room on the binding and covers to leave notes, stickers and/or other identifiable markings to discern it from your other project notebooks.

Unique to this is the introduction, reference charts and a handy "table of contents" page that one can use to quickly locate project notes on the fly, and the page numbering and title headers are other features I didn't know I was missing with a Moleskine.

Priced competitively, I wouldn't mind having a few more of these without the blue cover or the large title print. The ribbon bookmark shred to a thousand pieces after less than a week of typical use. One saving grace, however, is surprisingly the rubber band used to keep the book shut. I've found that it can also hold the book open to the page I'm on (no loose papers wandering into my line of sight), and also doubles as a makeshift penholder when tossing this aside.

The paper is so-so, with a little bleed through from my typical selection of pens (I prefer Pilot G2 0.5 pens, and Uniball Vision Elites/Sigmo's).

Overall, I like the size, weight, reference pages, the table of contents, the page layouts/numbering and durability of the cover.

They can improve this product by offering more editions, a choice of covers, and better paper.

At any rate, the product lives up to its name and intended purpose exceptionally well. Projects are surprisingly easily cataloged, organized, and more easily tracked with the right imagination repository and here lies its strength.

Good features. Very nice craftsmanship. It took a lot for me to even write in it; I didn't want to "ruin" it. Very handy, and easy to work with. It's downright cool.

This is partly a review of Amazon's format. I already sent my thoughts by an Amazon contact link.

I didn't find anywhere that Amazon described the contents of the book, or other books, even on a second check after I was told there was such. I only found links about options for buying and such. I also wonder where anyone will see this review.

Instead of mostly graph paper, I had expected the whole book to be similar to the information and wisdom of the last few pages. I don't find the graph paper that useful. If I was going to use such, I'd want it on large loose sheets that could lie flat.

Dan Robinson