The best notebook I ever owned
Clear - Daily Thought
The best notebook I ever owned is the one I nearly threw away.
Spine cracked, cover stained, pages falling out.
It cost £4.
The £30 leather one is still blank on page three.
I bought that one first.
A5, hardbound, cream paper that takes ink beautifully.
I told myself this would be the notebook.
The one I’d fill with ideas and keep forever.
It sat on my desk for six months.
Too big to carry.
Too nice to wreck.
Too precious to think in.
The £4 pocket notebook was an accident.
I grabbed it at a stationer’s because I needed something for a meeting and that was what they had. It fit in my back pocket.
I forgot it was there.
That was the point.
It went everywhere.
Coffee shops, trains, the kitchen table at 11pm.
It got bent in my bag and stained by a leaking pen.
The spine cracked.
Pages started threatening to fall out.
I filled it in five weeks.
The nice notebook never stood a chance.
It was furniture.
The pocket notebook was a tool, and tools get used until they break.
The notebook with bent corners and coffee stains is the one that worked.
Not despite the damage.
Because of it.
A real notebook looks like it’s been somewhere.
