I got this beautiful address book from a friend as a belated Christmas present. I was very happy to see this when I opened the gift she gave me sometime last month. I thought it is not so easy to find a paper address book anymore. I remember a conversation I had with another friend, I think, more than two weeks before my friend gave me this, about paper address books seemingly on the brink of getting obsolete too, as people became more and more dependent on their mobile phones and other gadgets for storing everything they need to remember.

What started us talking about address books, are planners. The two of us always get this thin, basic type of planner at a local bookstore before the end of the current year, or at the start of the new one, as it is easy to use and navigate. I told her I have a Starbucks planner she can have too, as I haven’t had much use for planners at the moment. I just collected the stickers as I became quite a fixture at the Starbucks near my place writing entries for this blog! My friend said, she would rather stick to her simple planner.

Then, she started telling me about a lady who asked for her help while she was looking at planners. The lady wanted to know if my friend knows where the address books are placed, as she can’t seem to find them. The lady even remarked that maybe, there is none anymore on the shelves, as no one seemed to use it, nowadays! My friend told me that she was at a lost too, and was unable to help her!

That got me thinking! Do people still use the traditional paper address books these days? Do you? I must admit, I don’t really, in recent years. I just use my mobile phone for contact information of friends, colleagues and family. The e-mail addresses are just filed in the contacts folder of my electronic addresses. If I need their physical addresses, I just ask them through a text message or a message through Messenger! Sometimes, I would just jot it down on a piece of paper, then forget about it after we meet or after I have been there. I never thought of jotting it down in a paper address book anymore, or electronically, for possible future use.

I do have several old address books and getting this new one made me remember them as well. Like beautiful notebooks of all shapes, kinds, colors and sizes, I found myself collecting these through the years. In fact, when I need to find an old landline number and addresses, this very old address book that a friend also gave me, is my default.

I tried transferring its content into this beautiful one, but still I went back to the old, well-used one!

I flipped through the entries in that old purple address book.

It brought back memories seeing the names of the friends, colleagues, acquaintances, classmates, and mentors who became a part of my life at some point or another. Most of them I am still in contact with from time to time, some others I haven’t seen in ages or lost touch with. There were also some who already passed away, and looking at their names and contact information in my old address books made me smile and felt sad at the same time! I remember the memories we have shared, and at the same time, sad to remember that they are gone.

I hope that the lady in the bookstore did manage to find a new address book.

In a recent trip to the mall, my friend and I found this one, not solely an address book, but rather a small, handy, notebook with small accordion folders, pages for notes and several sheets for addresses and other contact details.

Well,  as for me, I’ll put to good use the one my friend gave me. It is time to update my old one. Call it old school, but I think it is better to have a paper back up of all information electronically stored, too!

There is also a different kind of happy feel, holding and flipping through a paper address book that scrolling down the screen of my phone or other gadgets!

Many thanks, again, to my friend who had not only given me a beautiful, useful gift, but made me remember the joy of using a paper address book!