Finding myself in Lothian Road in Edinburgh the other day I did what I always do when I'm there.
I popped into Paper Tiger. I had an excuse. An upcoming birthday requiring a card. But most of the time I was in there my eyes kept drifting off towards the notebooks.
I have, I should say up front, a bit of a thing about notebooks. Lined, gridded, hardbacked, softcovered, any kind really. I'm drawn to them all. Paper Tiger is relatively safe for an addict like me. Most of its stock tends towards the quirky, or even fey. So I can keep my desire under control. As long as I stay away from the Moleskine stand.
What's terrible is I am useless with notebooks. I fill them full of my crabby, ugly writing that often – always; who am I kidding? –descends into illegibility.
Probably just as well because it's not as if my apercus are worth deciphering. My current notebook (plain red) is mostly a collection of addresses, DVD titles I've jotted down from Sight & Sound, and notes about the Damien Hirst exhibition I saw last month. Stuff that amounts to very little in the end. I'm not sure it even amounts to what Joan Didion said most notebooks contain, "bits of the mind's string too short to use".
I suspect that that's why I keep buying new ones. In the hope, delusional I know, that the next one will be the one to bring out the best in me.
That's the appeal of new notebooks. They haven't been spoiled yet.
Maybe the answer is to let someone else take the strain. A few years ago I gave Jackie Kay a notebook as a gift. Since then I've been imagining that the poet has been filling it with beautiful words. She probably uses it for her grocery lists.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article