mOses nOghbaudie said:
Here's why the Moleskine rocks:
- It lays flat when open.
- It has a pocket built in.
- It has a bookmark built in.
- It has a elastic strap to keep it clsed built in.
- It is strudy.
- It is portable.
- It comes in MANY shapes, sizes and types.
Good features, all, Moses, but in my opinion, blythe, there is nothing inherent in the Moleskine which warrants its legion and legendary lust factor. It's kind of like the Dr. Bonner of notepads -- Dr. Bonner is soap and it is just soap, but it is hugely popular soap because something about the crazy little sentences combined with the squeeze bottle (when it was gaining popularity, liquid soap was still a domestic rarity) have made it a fringe-culture icon that is actually mass culture. The marketing clicked.
Now I have no idea what the 'F' type of notepads Hemingway or anyone else actually wrote on, or whether or not their loyalty to said notepad was on the order of the worshipful stance taken by present-day Moleskiners. Or even whether it should matter to anyone. That's moot. But the packaging and marketing of the notebooks -- coupled with its adequate but not supernatural features, have found a solid niche.
Probably has something to do with the fact that its very retro design is itself a counterpoint statement to the technological input devices that are shunned by many of the hipster-pda-ish ilk and intellegentsia who gravitate toward the product.
That said, the company's vertical offerings meet varied needs -- if you do "go Moleskine" you are greeted with enough options in size and content to "stay Moleskine" and you needn't make a decision the next time you go to the stationers about which brand to buy.
Personally, in choosing a notepad, I am seduced primarily by the paper, not the container. For a long time I favored Rhodia pads, which has its own cult of followers and is favored by artists and by writers who prefer to sketch and outline their notes. Pop a Rhodia in your shirt pocket and the distinctive burnt-orange cover flap will, I can almost guarantee, lead to a conversation in a coffee shop or subway station. People who use Rhodia feel themselves, like Moleskiners (even moreso, I think, because it is a smaller bunch), to be part of a select cult of afficianados. For better or worse, Rhodias are distinguished also by perforated paper and graph-grid lines, both of which I found limiting.
I have now settled on Clairefontaine which I was told by a stationer is somehow related to Rhodia -- same company, or something. I do not know for sure. In any case, Clairefontaines are spiral bound (which I prefer -- lays flat) and unperforated (I like the permanence) and the size options are excellently varied. The paper is superb -- pencil, pen, marker -- even cheap pens -- glide along the surface with smudgeless clarity.
Anyone who comes to rely on noetpads ultimately, I think, wishes to become loyal to a brand in the interests of being able to create an aesthetically clean and symmetrical archive as each successive pad gets filled and retired. In that regard, Moleskine is as good an option as any.
but the paper is acid-free, holds ink really well and is great to write on. Buy one and write a bit in it, then wirtie in the other notebook you're using now and I think you'll notice a difference. Yes the size, the elastic band and inner pocket (etc.) are all nice but until you write in it, it *is* just another notebook.