Reading Lists

Books, I love to read them, but can I remember which ones I've read, and if I'm reading a series have I read them in the correct order?

If you know me well enough then the answer is no... to both questions! Poor memory or just too much going on in life you decide!

This is where my organiser comes to the rescue!  I have some simple templates that I can write in the book titles I've read so far. In the case of a series I write them in to the list in the correct order and then I can enter the dates I read them or simply tick them off as I go through them.

You can find the templates I use here:

• A5 Reading List - .doc .pdf
• Personal Reading List - .doc .pdf

Alternatively I've adapted an existing 'To-do' list into a reading list or books to read list. Will there be enough time to read them all is another matter!

You will of course find my dear wife's books here! I'm sure she will welcome a few more fans! 

Happy reading.... 

What happened to Web Finds today?

Hello everyone.

No, I didn't forget to do the video Web Finds today.

Following the terrible events in Christchurch New Zealand last week, You Tube have disabled the ability to filter and sort videos by the upload date.  Therefore it is virtually impossible for my system to find the most recent videos to include in the Web Finds posts.

My system uses a variety of search terms to find the videos such as this one: Filofax Video

As you will see not only are the videos in some sort of random order, they date from years ago to weeks ago. Normally the videos would be in the order of the most recent one first.

I had planned to assemble the post on Monday before travelling all day yesterday and do a quick update late last night to finish off the post for today. Sadly that wasn't going to be possible given the issues with You Tube.

So I had to quickly finish off the post you saw today which was intended for Thursday...

I will of course be keeping a close watch on You Tube to see if they restore the search/filtering, but until they do I will not easily be able to bring you video web finds. I will also look at other ways of bringing you the recent videos from the frequent video creators as well.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

True Vintage - Norman and Hill Leather Organiser

This last weekend I got to see my brother in law. He has loaned me his 'vintage' Norman and Hill leather slim organiser.

He's not the original owner, he inherited it from a previous engineer at his workplace back in about 1994.

Tony (B.i.L.) has been using it as an address book! And as you can see from the photos it's not in perfect condition, but it has not had an easy life! He has a few old inserts, just lined paper.

The organiser could do with a little TLC as some of the stitching has come undone and may be give it a light clean and a little leather conditioning. But it is in lovely condition for its age. I will not do anything to it until I have had a chance to talk with him.

The rings are the modern linked type, not the very old independent type I've written about before. They are approximately half an inch in internal diameter.

It has a very practical set of pockets on the inside front and rear inside covers. The small pockets, top and bottom of the front inside cover would have been used for postage stamps or railway tickets.

The presence of this emblem might help us give an accurate date to this organiser. 'N&H Ltd London' is of course Norman and Hill Ltd London. 

Norman and Hill is the original company that started to import organisers from Lefax in the USA in the early 1920's, they later renamed their products Filofax from 'File of Facts' 

The original 'cover page' which also shows the Norman Hill address in Newgate Street.

In discussion with 'GMax' we seem to believe that this model is as shown in the 1937 catalogue page 2 as shown below.

We think it is a model A.299 Lefax “pocket book” this matches the pocket layout. Additionally given the address details shown on the cover page, which is an address we know that Norman and Hill occupied before World War 2.

This design was continued through until about 1980/1981 when it became the Filofax 6CL (Gloucester) it also changed from Morocco leather to Calf leather.

This is one of the oldest examples of the Norman and Hill Ltd products that we have seen to date.

Thank you to GMax for his help and knowledge in dating or narrowing down the period we are confident that this organiser is from. Of course thanks also to by brother in law Tony for the loan of this organiser.

Free For All Tuesday - No. 424

So what questions or discussion points have you got for us today?

It doesn't matter if you are a beginner or a more experienced user of organisers, we want to hear your thoughts, questions, opinions etc.

We are here to answer your questions.

Make today the one day you post a comment or a question.

It is Tuesday after all so fire away.