What are waste books?

Waste books - an idea taken from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799). Lichtenberg was a very early blogger, writing down his thoughts, plans, reflections and ruminations on all matters in his waste books, which he kept from 1765 until his death. He also borrowed the name from the contemporary English practice of businesses writing down their daily takings in 'waste books' prior to being entered in neatly written, permanent ledgers. Lichtenberg gave each of these books a letter from the alphabet; at the time of his death he was filling up book L.
Amongst his very many achievements Lichtenberg was responsible for significant discoveries in the physics of electricity (most notably the Lichtenberg Figure which records electrical discharge patterns), and the invention of the standard European paper size (e.g. A4, based on the ratio of 1: square root of two).
However, it is his waste books, and the aphorisms these contain, that he is best known for. Indeed, Sigmund Freud and Ludwig Wittgenstein both considered Lichtenberg to be a significant influence on their work.
I can't hope to provide material as good as Lichtenberg's in this blog, but hopefully there will be some things of interest to some people. Of course, the only way to finish this first post is with something from Lichtenberg:
"The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted." From Notebook H, 1784-88