The notebook you have with you
I quite like my stationary, my big affectation is fountain pens but I like notebooks too. Unlike Glenn Beck, I’m not a big Moleskine fan for a couple of reasons, the first one is the general advertising and culture (Hemingway didn’t use a notebook that you can buy on Amazon.co.uk) that surrounds them and also because I think that if your notebook is too nice you’re not going to use it. I’m currently using own brand ones from Tesco because all you’re looking for is a book of blank paper that you can doodle in.
There’s a photography maxim that says “the best camera is the one you have with you” and this really applies to notebooks too. I have a substantial A4 hardback Moleskine notebook in my desk, it was over a tenner (far too much to spend on blank pages in hindsight) and I’ve earmarked it for serious work – you can’t remove pages from it, it looks very business like and A4 is the right size for holding lots of writing on a page. It’s very rarely out of the house, though, and it spends more time sitting in a bag than being used. Currently it only contains the final notes that I spoke from for a couple of speeches I’ve made recently which look very lonely at the very front of the book. It’s very rarely the best notebook for any job.
The notebook you have with you
Enter the wallet notebook – I keep a WHSmith small memo pad in my wallet (can’t find it online but there’s a photo below). It’s far too small to be any use for doing work in (it’s actually smaller than a pen) but it’s perfect for taking a phone number or address, a to do or just an observation. It’s very rare that I won’t have my wallet on me and therefore keeping things in my wallet makes a lot of sense for me. It works for giving people notes or taking them myself. You wouldn’t write a book in something that size but you wouldn’t leave it at home either.
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Great post…
I have a moleskine notebook that is still in its wrapper as it cost me so much, I’ve always been afraid to use it.
Other than that, I’m not a notebook person… I have a think wad of semi-used A4 paper on my desk at work… I don’t like keeping all of my scribbles in a book for some reason. :-$
Michael
April 10, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Stuff White People Like covered the Moleskine and said “white people only keep their most original and creative ideas in the Moleskine.” I think that’s actually pretty true just because even Marie Antoinette wouldn’t use a £10 notebook for her shopping lists. It’s so expensive you don’t really want to waste it, and we’re not in the middle ages anymore.
I’m actually a hybrid user. I tend to use A4 paper for lecture notes and supermarket A5 notebooks for working in. I then put the notebooks into the same lever arch file as my lecture notes at the end of the semester. I would recommend it as a way of staying organised because I’m paranoid of losing loose sheets.
scotslawstudent
April 11, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Is it recommended to apply for University after 5th year? Instead of doings the A Levels in 6th? Thanks.
Henna
April 28, 2010 at 10:30 pm
There’s nothing stopping you applying in 5th year – just get the grades and go. I think you need to make a maturity judgment about if you are ready to do (I think law is a particularly brutal step up) university or if an extra year will be good for you.
scotslawstudent
April 29, 2010 at 8:08 am