A composition book is one of a type of stock-bound notebook commonly used by writers and students. Although available in several colors, the original marbled black-and-white cover, with its generic label on the front, is the overwhelming favorite. The paper in a composition book is traditionally lined in blue to aid writing, and has a vertical line for a margin on the left hand of every page. Traditionally the back cover of such a book had a table of the weights and measures of the English system printed on it for children to refer to, however this feature has become diminished in countries that have adopted the metric system. Sometimes a multiplication table or grammar or punctuation tips are also found on the inside back cover.
They are bound in a similar fashion to books, consisting of sheets about twice as wide as a single page, folded along the spine, and traditionally sewn together. Composition books are thus more durable than spiral notebooks or those with perforated pages.
Famous quotes containing the words composition and/or book:
“When I think of God, when I think of him as existent, and when I believe him to be existent, my idea of him neither increases nor diminishes. But as it is certain there is a great difference betwixt the simple conception of the existence of an object, and the belief of it, and as this difference lies not in the parts or composition of the idea which we conceive; it follows, that it must lie in the manner in which we conceive it.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“What was really horrifying about jail is that it really isn’t horrifying. You adjust very easily.”
—Roberta Victor, U.S. prostitute. As quoted in Working, book 2, by Studs Terkel (1973)