C.R. Gibson MJ5-4792 Brown Bonded Leather Notebook with 240 Ruled Pages, 5″ W x 8.25″ H

It’s trendy, I know, to talk about a “dining experience,” a “shopping experience,” etc. I think marketing agencies have come up with that terminology to appeal to us. It really fits with some things, however. Reading a real, hardback book is one. The experience of sitting down in a comfortable chair with a hardback book is substantially different from standing on a bus reading the same thing off an e-reader on a smartphone. Location and physical materials do affect the experience.Another place the materials matter is writing. Yes, you can write something in a blog, or if you use paper, yes you can use notebook paper or a legal pad and put the sheets in a manilla folder. But writing in a bound book is just DIFFERENT. That’s why blank books are continually popular with a segment of the knowing, literate public.Now to this little book. The Gibson note books are quality bound, with a look and feel that somehow inspires writing. I keep one in a private office at work to make a daily page of inspirational notes. I have another at home for a journal. I will take another–the larger size–with me this coming summer when I ride my motorcycle from the east coast to Sturgis, SD. Every evening, I’ll take it out and record the day’s sights and sounds. It packs neatly and compactly. It isn’t too short for the job or too long–leaving wasted pages that I wouldn’t want to use for an unrelated subject. It’s just perfect.And as I say, a little book like this inspires writing. I write with a fountain pen. While the paper is perhaps optimal for a ballpoint, it does just fine with a fine point, italic ground nib. I imagine that’s why Sheaffer had some of these same books done up with their imprint a few years ago.As Arnold said, “I’ll be back.”