Moleskine notebooks
April 26th, 2005
Moleskine notebooks are slightly pretentious, because there’s this whole backstory to them about how they’ve been the legendary notebooks of legions of deep thinkers, provocative writers and sublime artists for over 200 years. By association, then, if you use Moleskine notebooks, perhaps you, too, are a member of the intellectual and creative elite. You, me, Matisse and Hemingway, all kicking back and having an absinthe after a long day of creative fervor.
But let’s face it. You’re probably not. Lord knows I’m not.
However, there’s no getting around the fact that they are really nice notebooks, regardless of your mental pedigree, despite the Levenger-esque breathless copy on the website.
They come in a variety of sizes, from pocket sized to large format, and they offer both a hard cover (oilcloth, or something similar and durable) as well as a soft cover (flexible cardboard). You can get them blank, ruled, with graph squares or even with musical staves. The binding is of good quality and won’t fall apart, while the paper is equally nice. Acid free, it takes solid or liquid ink well, without bleeding, and it feels good to write on.
One of my favorite features, though, is the expanding paper pocket on the inside back cover of each notebook. It’s perfect for all those little bits of paper I seem to accumulate that I want to hang onto, but can’t find a place for.
I like the pocket sized hardcover notebook, myself. I almost always have one with me to write down notes, directions, phone numbers, or whatever else might come up. I tend to use it for information I’ll want to keep around for a while.
I use the pocket size softcover notebooks for more transitory stuff. Meeting notes from work, shopping lists, etc. They’re cheaper and I have less of a mental hang-up about filling them with boring crap.
There’s a US distributor at Moleskine US.