on the virtue of cheap paper

At various times I've carried beautiful little notebooks in my pocket - fancy little bound volumes of paper designed to capture big thoughts and clever notions.  So fancy (and expensive), in fact, that I felt bad about writing in them unless there was something so clever that it deserved being saved into perpetuity.

It was thus reassuring and helpful to go into a big box office supply store and get a modest supply of cheap disposable spiral bound pads, with paper so cheap that it is clear that they are designed to be used and then tossed when you are done with them.  That plus a supply of cheap pens means that I can have something in my pocket to write things down on and not have to worry that I have to be profound at all.

Comments

[Chris]

I began working as a photographer for the Michigan Daily a year or so ago, and ever since then I've found that I usually like to have a journalists' notepad with me. They're like typical little spiral-bound notepads, but the journalists' books are longer and (in my experience) built with thicker cardboard to take more abuse.
(Yes, photojournalists have to write too - quite a bit!)

[Ryan McGee]

I like to carry around a hardcover book with blank paper in it to keep all of my notes in. I may not always have my laptop, but I always have my notebook.