For those fans of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, comes another highly anticipated release by Susanna Clarke. Piranesi lives in a magical home. A labyrinth, really. There is only one other occupant of the home (The Other), who visits and meets with Piranesi twice a week.

The world is Narnia-like, but replace winter with the coming tides. The story also reminded me of The World House, by Guy Adams. The Other is obsessed with discovering the Great and Secret Knowledge that is hidden somewhere inside the labyrinth, and Piranesi is assisting with this purpose, but slowly loses his belief in it and realizes that he just doesn’t care anymore. How did Piranesi come to this world? That is something that is explored through his journals!

In the very beginning of the story we learn that Piranesi writes down his observations in his notebooks, and that there are mysterious page gaps unaccounted for. Piranesi is also careful to make an index of all of his journals. I am in heaven! Be still my heart. Here is how Piranesi explains his indexing system: Page 14: “One of the drawbacks of keeping a journal is the difficulty of finding important entries again and so it is my practice to use one notebook as an index to all the others. In this notebook I have allocated a certain number of pages to each letter of the alphabet (more pages for common letters, such as A and C; fewer for letters that occur less frequently, for example Q and X). Under each letter I list entries by subject and where in my Journals they are to be found.”

The world building is quite engaging, and readers will have great fun unraveling the mysteries of The Other, and who exactly, is the good guy and who is the bad guy in this tale.

Pictured with the book is Pretty as a Peach, one of our Hardcover Notebooks. Each indexed book journal features 186 pages that are ruled and numbered for your ease of use. The numbered pages with an index will help keep you organized and make it easy to find your important entries. To really make your brain sing, we recommend that you use tabs and update your book journal’s index as necessary immediately after you have completed your journaling.  

Secret Diary Journals are hardcover ruled notebooks made to resemble hardcover books that can easily be shelved in your living room or sit on a table at a coffee house without screaming: “I am a personal journal and I contain private thoughts. Pick me up and snoop!” Secret Diary Journals are designed to help you maintain your privacy when keeping your personal notes.