08 Jul Hardback Notebooks
For a long time we’ve been collecting these German books, the slender hardbacks by Insel-Bücherei, for their beautiful patterned covers.
![insel-bucherei-book-1](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/insel-bucherei-book-1-196x300.jpg)
![insel-bucherei-book-2](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/insel-bucherei-book-2-192x300.jpg)
![insel-bucherei-book-3](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/insel-bucherei-book-3-192x300.jpg)
![insel-bucherei-book-4](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/insel-bucherei-book-4-196x300.jpg)
They’re the same size as a Ladybird Book, but with finer card covers, and covered with hand-block-printed patterned paper. They were produced from 1912 onwards: economical editions of all sorts of classic texts, produced to a high aesthetic standard. They really are lovely.
![inselbucherei1](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/inselbucherei1.png)
![inselbucherei 4](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/inselbucherei-4.png)
![inselbucherei 2](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/inselbucherei-2.jpg)
![inselbucherei 3](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/inselbucherei-3.jpg)
And there are hundreds of them: over 1400 in fact.
![DSCF4829-sm](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/DSCF4829-sm.jpg)
Plus all the similar books they inspired, like these wonderful Penguin Poets paperbacks:
![insel-bucherei-book-9](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/insel-bucherei-book-9-183x300.jpg)
![insel-bucherei-book-8](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/insel-bucherei-book-8-182x300.jpg)
![insel-bucherei-book-6](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/insel-bucherei-book-6-179x300.jpg)
![insel-bucherei-book-5](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/insel-bucherei-book-5-177x300.jpg)
The Penguin Poets are a little bit fragile now, and if you don’t read German fluently, the contents of the Insel-Bücherei books might be of limited interest. So, they tend to sit on a shelf, being looked at appreciatively from time to time, but that’s it. We began to think how nice it would be to have a collection of books like this that you could actually use every day. The Insel-Bücherei are robust yet slim and light-weight. A notebook like that, we thought, could easily be carried around in a bag all day for taking notes, yet not weigh you down.
We decided to get some prototypes made:
![Cambridge Imprint Hardback Notebook Little Stars petrol blue Cambridge Imprint Hardback Notebook Little Stars petrol blue](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/HB-STR-petrol.jpeg)
![Cambridge Imprint Hardback Notebook Seaweed Paisley Prussian blue Cambridge Imprint Hardback Notebook Seaweed Paisley Prussian blue](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/HB-PSW-blue.jpeg)
![Cambridge Imprint Hardback Notebook Pear Halves permanent rose Cambridge Imprint Hardback Notebook Pear Halves permanent rose](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/HB-PEAR-rose.jpeg)
![Cambridge Imprint Hardback Notebook Smocking yellow Cambridge Imprint Hardback Notebook Smocking yellow](https://www.cambridgeimprint.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/HB-SMK-yellow.jpeg)
They have 80 pages of fine matte cream paper, they are properly bound and sewn and they open perfectly flat. In fact, they are everything we hoped they would be: slim, elegant, robust and very pretty. We’ll be busy with them all summer and they’ll be for sale in the autumn.