There are lots of ways to "bind" pages, and some of them are inexpensive though some will require work on your part. You could even just attach the spiral and/or both covers of your notebooks into hardback covers that you take other pages out of or that you make yourself. You can also have a place like Kinkos cut all the pages of each notebook free of the spiral, and then bind in various ways, and add covers if you want.
Or you could just glue something that was more rigid and looked like a bound book perhaps to the outermost part of the spiral so it would show when the book was in a bookcase (but not cover the spiral too much so that the pages wouldn't open flat--they wouldn't be able to open all the way around again though). Https://www.google.com/images?q=crafts+d... http://hubpages.com/literature/How-to-bi... http://markmontanoblogs.blogspot.com/201... https://www.google.com/images?q=how+to+bind+books+pages.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.