I Tried the Everbook - Here’s How it Went

In this follow-up to my previous update video, I revisit my experience using the Everbook system, a loose-sheet folder held together with a binder clip, and explain why it ultimately could not replace my bound notebook. The Everbook proved genuinely useful for one specific purpose: keeping printed book chapters and annotated texts organized by project. I walk through how I used it while working on my recent essay “Kierkegaard Must Be Read Playfully,” with folders containing texts from Caputo and Kierkegaard’s The Concept of Irony, revision checklists, and loose notes all kept together as a working unit. The core problem, however, is retrievability. Because loose sheets can be rearranged, they cannot be numbered, which means the back-index system I maintain across all my notebooks cannot be replicated here. That index, combined with a threading method adapted from Ryder Carroll’s Bullet Journal, is what makes my notebook navigable over time and across dozens of volumes. The Everbook solves certain problems but introduces a more fundamental one: there is no reliable way to find what you have written. The result is that I now carry both: the notebook for daily writing and long-term retrieval, the Everbook for active reading material I want on paper rather than on a screen. ———— Topics covered: analog note-taking, Everbook system, notebook indexing, threading, reading workflow, loose-leaf vs. bound notebooks, Kierkegaard, Caputo, Løgstrup.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​