You comic book aficionados out there are probably already familiar with Skottie Young's illustration work. If not, a good starting point is the charming Fortunately, the Milk, a book he worked on with Neil Gaiman. This morning, Skottie released his new sketchbook, Daily Grind, which collects about 100 of his black-and-white daily sketches that he hand-picked from his archive. It's a limited-print…
Take three Pitch Black Field Notes notebooks, bind them together with a rubberized, tar-like substance, add a double-wrapped cord closure and a small tarred-cord bookmark, and you've got Tar Field Notes. The stats: 144 pages total 50-lb Finch Opaque Smooth text paper Light-gray dot grid Hand-bound Pick up a set for $28 at Blackbird.
In case you missed the news back when David Sparks' new Field Guide on presentations was available for pre-order, here's a friendly reminder that the book is now live on the iBookstore. You can watch the trailer here. What I wrote about the book last time still applies, so here it is again: With a primary focus on Apple's Keynote software—and filled…
I guess it's a t-shirt kind of day. Ugmonk has partnered with Offscreen Mag to create a limited-time bundle featuring their iconic Mountains tee and a single Offscreen issue of your choice (#5, #6, #7, or #8). Two of our favorite things bundled into a single package, and for just $32? Yes please.
This morning our friend David Sparks announced the newest book in his excellent Field Guides ebook series. It's called Presentations. In a nutshell, this guide will teach you how to make your presentations not suck. With a primary focus on Apple's Keynote software—and filled with more than 30 screencasts, audio interviews, and other rich media assets—David shows you how to plan an…
Photo credit: Robert Occhialini The DDC Stuff Sheath—designed by the fine folks at Draplin Design Co.—is a simple leather sheath that protects your Field Notes notebook and other bits of paper bouncing around in your pocket. As the embossing on the front cover says, the Stuff Sheath is very durable and very, very orange. Sports a single line of stitching along the…
As I've said, you can never really have too many notebooks. These Camp Trip Notebooks from Trails of Escape in particular are great tools for planning and journaling your next outdoors excursion. The cover lets you fill in a trip location and date range, while the inner pages contain gear-packing checklists and pages where you can capture your thoughts during the trip.…
I rarely need a book light at home because my wife is nearly as much of a night owl as I am. The times when I do require one are more specific—for example, on a long road trip when it's getting dark outside and I happen to be riding passenger, reading a book I'm not ready to put down yet. This is…
Here at Tools & Toys, we don't think there is such a thing as having too many notebooks in one's life. Here's another one you should add to your collection (especially if you're an aviation nerd): FLIGHTBOOK. Inspired by the 1956 edition of The Observer's Book of Aircraft, the covers of these graph-paper notebooks contain some neat bits of aviation trivia, while…
Coal Headwear has teamed up with Draplin Design Co. to produce a special, limited-edition Field Notes set that is timed perfectly for both the 4th of July and the World Cup. This beautiful Americana-inspired 3-pack is of the graph paper variety, and will run you $12 + US-only shipping (which was $5 for me).
The recently-released third edition of Andy Affleck's ebook Take Control of Podcasting on the Mac brings the book into the current era of podcasting. It now covers: Recording and editing with GarageBand 10 and Audacity New information about recording Skype conversations Step-by-step instructions on recording with an iOS device New profiles of experienced podcasters, including Chuck Joiner, Louis Trapani, Kelly Guimont, and…
This weekend my wife and I each had the pleasure of starting and finishing Neil Gaiman's popular 2013 novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. In stark contrast with his lighthearted children's book Fortunately the Milk, Ocean is a dark tale that resurfaces in the mind of its protagonist as he recalls a series of disturbing events from his youth.…
This season's entry in the Field Notes COLORS lineup is the new "Arts and Sciences" edition. At 4.75" x 7.5", these notebooks are noticeably larger than the standard 3.5" x 5.5" Field Notes. Rather than shipping as a three-pack of the same notebook, this edition contains two distinct models: the wine-colored "Arts" notebook and the dark slate "Sciences" notebook. Each is respectively…
Ride North is a Kickstarter project by photographers Sebastiaan de With and Stuart Philkill. They will soon be embarking on a motorcycle road trip from San Francisco to Alaska, and documenting the entire journey. The Kickstarter is not intended to fund the trip itself—they've already saved up for that accordingly—but rather a set of high-quality physical prints and a photo book with…
Just when I thought nobody could possibly innovate in the notebook space, along comes a Kickstarter project to prove me wrong. Magnote magnetic notebooks look like simple notebooks on the surface, but their covers and spines are comprised of neodymium magnets. This allows the notebooks to be attached to one another for easy storage, and separated only as needed. Each Magnote is…
When I was a kid, nothing caused more heated arguments between me and my friends than our game consoles of choice. As a Sega fanboy at the time—and a hardcore PlayStation enthusiast later—I was always in the minority at school. Console Wars, a new book by Blake J. Harris, explores the actual rivalry between the Nintendo and Sega corporations that took place…
Epic! is one of the cooler subscription services I've seen in a while. For $5 a month (the first month is free), your iPad gains unlimited access to a huge, highly curated library of eBooks for kids 12 and under. Watch the promo video to see how it works. The books work in landscape and portrait modes, and new books are added…
The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday uses the tenets of stoicism to give you an interesting perspective on life's challenges. Rather than feeling utterly defeated at every wrong turn, Holiday wants you to view such obstacles as teachable moments that can fuel your ambition rather than snuff it out. It's not about gushy optimism, it's about having relentless persistence in…
Mark Frauenfelder—editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools—recently published an awesome book for geeky dads called Maker Dad: Lunch Box Guitars, Antigravity Jars, and 22 Other Incredibly Cool Father-Daughter DIY Projects. As the name suggests, the book contains a bunch of projects intended for fathers and their daughters to have fun building together. These projects teach your kid some important skills (like programming…
Man, time really flies. It's already been a year since Commander Chris Hadfield took the world by storm and did that awesome cover of "Space Oddity" while aboard the ISS. Not content to reinvigorate the world's sense of wonder about space and science, the man has also written a top-selling book. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth is sort of a…