First, I'm not sure it's ok to share such a simple hack that it barely deserves to be called a hack.
Second, the link points to my own blog (fear not: zero ads, zero tracking and, nope, I have nothing to sell you either. It's content freely shared at my own expense, like most blogs once used to be: a personal space to actually echange content and ideas with our fellow human beings, and with a smile).

But I do find this simple, cheap (it's 100% made out of reused/recycled stuff) and dirty little hack very useful as it allows me to much more easily take notes while reading a book, or whatever else I may be reading even good old newspapers. No matter where I'm, be it comfortably sat at home or anywhere I may be reading and taking notes... Yesterday, I spent 5 hours or so at the local Emergencies to be checked by a doctor but I was able to work almost as comfortably as I would have done at home thx to a stupid piece of cardboard very much like this one:

With time, I've devised a few different models (I think I show two models in the blog post, but there are a few more.

My latest attempt is made out of... I don't know the English word for that very lightweight extruded plastic of various thickness used to make signs (house for sale, and crap like that), it's also very light. It's the first model I've not made out of some sort of cardboard and also is the least usable one, by far: that plastic is not great for writing on (the pen will punch through the thin surface the second one presses too hard.

These boards all share the same basic idea:

• a flat surface to write on and to hold fast the loose sheet of paper (I use A6, one can obviously use whatever size they prefer),
• A surface that is not too large (my latest versions are approx A5-sized, even though I use A6 sheets as it leaves more room to rest my hand on while I write), so I can easily carry it around with any book I'm reading.
• A way to hold spare sheets
• A way to hold a few pens, safely as I don't want to risk losing them when I'm carrying it around. I need at least one pen but will sometimes use up to three, including a colored mechanical pencil for highlighting, depending the book I'm reading.

More photos and a few explanation on my blog: A Portable Writing Board