Happiness is a New Notepad (opens in new tab)

I'm sure you'll agree with me that there can be few pleasures greater in life than purchasing a new notepad. You hand over the money and there it is: a hundred or more blank pages, waiting to be filled. With what? An infinity of options extends to the far horizon of your mind. Will it be the beginning of a novel-writing career that culminates in a Nobel prize? Will it be a book of poems that will win great plaudits and erudite reviews in the New Yorker and the London Review of Books? Will it ...