In a fascinating blend of history and modern innovation, Amazon Kindle has joined forces with prominent historian Dominic Sandbrook to explore how the world's most legendary thinkers might have harnessed today's digital writing tools.
The collaboration was launched alongside new research revealing that the timeless habit of writing things down remains powerfully relevant, with 66% of British adults still regularly making to-do lists and jotting down notes, mirroring the practices of history's greatest minds.
The Enduring Power of the Pen
From simple doodles to complex plans, the act of writing has been a constant thread connecting humanity's greatest achievements across centuries. Amazon's new study confirms this tradition is alive and well, demonstrating that nearly two-thirds of Brits maintain this productive habit.
To highlight the lasting importance of effective note-taking, Amazon partnered with Dominic Sandbrook, the renowned historian and co-host of the popular podcast The Rest is History. Together, they've investigated how brilliant historical figures might have organised their thoughts using devices like the Kindle Scribe, which combines Kindle's reading benefits with powerful note-taking capabilities that feel like writing on paper.
The initiative comes at a time when research shows 69% of people believe they remember information better once they've written it down. Contemporary note-takers report feeling more organised (42%), more in control of their day (28%), and better able to maintain focus (26%) as key benefits, according to the Daily Star.
Reimagining History's Notebooks
Working closely with Sandbrook, Amazon has created modern interpretations of what notes from historical icons might have looked like if they'd had access to Kindle Scribe. These digital recreations showcase how the device's features could have supported their creative processes.
"You often can learn more about people from their notes, jottings and doodles than you can from hours of speeches or piles of letters," Dominic Sandbrook observed. "So it's great fun to speculate what we might learn from the to-do lists of history's greatest characters. What little historical clues would we pick up from the scribbles of William Shakespeare? And how much easier might their lives have been if they, like us, had been able to reach for a Kindle Scribe to organise their thoughts?"
Despite living in a digital era, the research reveals that 81% of Brits still rely on scraps of paper for note-taking. Many use whatever is handy—65% scribble on random paper, envelopes, or receipts, while 68% depend on sticky notes.
The Digital Solution to Age-Old Problems
This traditional approach has significant drawbacks, with 11% of people admitting they frequently lose or misplace their notes and another 11% confessing they can't even read their own handwriting.
Electronic note-taking offers clear advantages for modern life. More than a quarter (29%) of surveyed Brits highlighted the ability to edit and rearrange notes while on the move as the primary benefit, while quickly locating specific notes (29%) and effectively structuring information (17%) also proved valuable.
When writing things down, Britons use various techniques including underlining (25%), highlighting (24%), writing summaries (16%), and incorporating doodles and sketches (10%). The Kindle Scribe accommodates all these methods with its paper-like display, Premium Pen, and seamless integration of reading and writing.
Users can access the built-in notebook with customisable templates and take notes directly within books. The device also allows conversion of handwritten notes to text and includes a notebook summarisation feature to easily review notes or refine handwriting into elegant script—all organised distraction-free on a single device.
