Like most physical media it is virtually an anachronism in the 21st century when word processors and graphics applications and their host devices are so pervasive and well-supported. Yet the old medium has many qualities - summed up in one word, versatility - which make it more suitable or convenient.
- cost: cheaper than a moleskine or similar brand of bound blank book, far cheaper than a tablet
- availability: most stores that sell stationery carry this type of notebook, but university bookstores have the lowest prices and the widest variety - blank unruled, wide-ruled, narrow-ruled, grid-ruled
- durability: the pages are stitched with heavy thread and the spine is wrapped with a kind of fabric material; the cover is stiff enough to bear down on for writing in the field yet flexible enough to fold in half if needed and still maintain integrity; it won't break if you drop it on the pavement or leave it out in the rain (things that would break a computer)
- flexibility: paste pictures or draw on the cover to suit your taste; staple or paste extra pages, pictures, graphs, field samples to the existing sewn-in pages
- longevity: barring extreme calamities, your comp book should last for centuries or even millenia; will never require electricity or any device other than your eyes to read it
Any of these potential benefits may be rendered irrelevant if you ever want to share your work, but if quality isn't an issue, scan it or take snapshots with your phone. But the kinds of writing best suited to comp books are the kinds you don't want to share:
Other good uses for comp books, things you might want to share:
- lab notebook (often required for chemistry and biology courses)
- hiker's journal
- geocaching cache log
- fake accounting books
The world is undeniably moving away from physical media toward digital media. But consider the immediacy and permanence of a comp book (or any physical media) for you next project; compare the cost to that of making a hard copy of a digitial work. Printer ink is notoriously expensive. It is much cheaper to go in the opposite direction, to make a digital copy of your physical work.