If we ever got a tattoo, we’d probably try to pick something useful—like the periodic table, or a chart showing basic French conjugations, or conversion formulas between different units of measure. That’s the kind of stuff that you never know how useful it’d be until you have it at the ready.

Pocketknives are like this. If you don’t carry one, you’d never guess how many times a week you could use one. You just stab your packages open with a key, or try to bite the little plastic price tag T-thing off your new shirts, probably putting a snag in them, too. A pocketknife would improve your life, your teeth, and the condition of your new clothes.

We’ve got a feeling that the complete Gormenghast series is the same way—that we’d refer to it a lot more often if we just had it on us all the time. That’s why we’re eying Kingston’s sleek, capless DataTraveler 100. It’s tiny, there’s no cap we’ll have to worry about losing, and it’s cheap enough that we won’t be heartbroken when we lose it on the subway tracks or someplace.

Of course, if you’re dubious about the day-to-day value of carrying a text file of the entire Gormenghast series around with you, you could always use the DataTraveler to tote your dissertation, or some family photos, or work documents from place to place. But be warned: When we’re all hanging out at a barbecue or something, and someone asks “what was it that Steerpike said” about some topic upon which we’re all conversing? It won’t be you who gets to answer.

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