Just a quick post about the Levenger catalog that comes to my house, offering “tools for serious readers”, including pens, notebooks, bookshelves, “reading tools” and books such as a replica (”facsimile”) of the Sarajevo Haggadah.

That is to say, this catalog is not for me. It comes addressed to my father-in-law, who has never lived with us, but somehow gets lots of catalogs and magazine offers here. But I love browsing catalogs to try to pick out the most ridiculous items, and this time I came across a section titled Why Levenger paper may help you think better.

How tempting it is online to switch from e-mail to spreadsheet to INternet to document, each time interrupting your flow of thought. Paper, on the other hand, has a way of grounding you, even as your thoughts race across the page. Focusing on the paper in front of you - especially well-designed, high-quality stock - can give you more time to stay with your thoughts. Try the paper method for at least some of your note-taking and see what-and how-you think.

Levenger’s pads are more than just lines on paper - they also have boxes, margins, headers, grids, places to draw, places to write and are overall “a canvas for your thoughts”, claiming to “aid you in taking notes for your profession”, without listing what that profession might be. My father-in-law is a doctor, so maybe these pads help him diagnose patients in the emergency room. I find myself wondering what note paper designed for librarians to take notes on might look like.

But the main thing I’m thinking about is that Levenger is encouraging us to reject one technology (”online”) in favor of another (well-designed, high-quality stock paper) and argues that the latter is superior to “help us think”. No luddites here, Levenger believes in salvation by technology, but is picky about which technologies should save us.

“Grounding” ourselves with physical paper makes us more intellectual, more professional, more serious.

It’s all hooey, and you’ll just have to believe me until I get around to posting another spaced out missive on literacy in a few days.