Duly Noted

I try to carry some sort of note-taking device with me at all times, but one always turns into a half-dozen because I rock an oversized tote on the regular. Options, people!

My current favorites are the little blue Moleskin Volant X-Small Ruled Notebooks (2.5" x 4" and packaged in pairs), which are perfect for impromptu list-making* the old fashioned way. (I've tried to adopt Blackberry's MemoPad as my default list-jotter but it's. just. not. the. same.)

Anyway, this this morning I sated my appetite for voyeurism by exploring The Pocket Notebooks of 20 Famous Men. Close-ups of the authors' musings, clearly, are the highlight, but embedded within are some factual gems.

Mark Twain, for instance, ordered custom-made, leather-bound notebooks whose pages had tabs that he would rip off after a brainstorming session, marking his spot for the next time. Pablo Picasso covered his sketchbooks in tapestry fabric. And left-hander Leonardo Da Vinci, aside from being a prolific--if chaotic--scribe, wrote in "mirror writing," from right to left, to prevent his hand from smeaking the freshly inked words as he wrote....

Do you still take notes the old-fashioned way?

(*As my note scribbles are generally indecipherable to everyone but me, I will not post photos of the pages.)