The best notebooks are pocket notebooks
I love notebooks, they're vessels for my knowledge, thoughts, memories, and experiences. I've got a whole stack of them on my desk. Some of them are fancy Leuchterms and Moleskines and Foreskines and whatnot, but the majority of them are either free from events and conferences or are stolen from the office 👀. One of them was gifted to me by a masters student, which was very nice of her (I didn't get anything for the guy who supervised me for my masters, and I work with him now! Great guy). Some are plain, a few have gridlines, one is dotted, but the rest are lined. I didn't have specific uses for each notebook and just wrote whatever, but as I've accumulated many notebooks over the years I've sorted them into distinct uses, e.g. a diary, for certain topics, for recipes, to log my physical activities, for drawing (this book in particular is pretty empty).
But, as the title suggests, my favourite notebook is not found on my desk, but in my pocket as I go out and about. Whenever something's on my mind, I don't have to rummage through my backpack or type it into my phone, inevitably forgetting it and getting sucked into something else on that damn device, I just whip a little notebook out of my pocket (along with a pen, or recently a mechanical pencil!) and just write. Need to write something down for someone? Just write it in the little book, tear the page out and give it to them. Don't want to go on your phone? Doodle! Write! I write haiku's about the Tube because I'm a big nerd. Or read what you've written in the past. It may surprise you!
If you don't like pocket notebooks fight me 👀