Product Description

This long-standing tradition was continued by writer-traveller Bruce Chatwin who used to buy his moleskines at an old Paris stationery shop in Rue de l'Ancienne Comedie where he would always stock up before embarking on one of his journeys. Over the years he had developed a veritable ritual. Before using them he would in fact number the pages, writing on the inside his name and at least two addresses across the world, and a message promising a reward for anyone finding and returning the notebook in case of it being lost. He even suggested this method to his friend Luis Sepulveda, when he gave him a precious moleskine as a present for a journey they were planning to undertake together in Patagonia. And there was no doubt as to how precious it was, given that at the time even the last moleskine manufacturer, a small family-run firm of Tours, had discontinued production in 1986. 'Le vrai moleskine n'est plus' was the short and curt statement of the owner of the stationery shop where Chatwin had ordered one hundred before leaving for Australia. Despite having literally swept up all the Moleskines he could find, they were not enough. Now, the moleskine is back again. This silent and discreet keeper of an extraordinary tradition, which has been missing for years, has set out again on its journey. A witness to contemporary nomadism, it can once again pass from one pocket to another to continue the adventure. The sequel still waits to be written and its blank pages are ready to tell the story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9752 in Office Product
• Brand: Moleskine
• Model: MB713
• Dimensions: .50" h x 3.50" w x 5.50" l, .31 pounds

Features

• For drawings. 80 pages of fine quality white paper. Imported from Italy. 3" x 5"
• Purchase in quantity today to best build your Moleskine bookshelf. The future is unwritten. Take up your pen and shape it.
• Each Moleskine has a rigid, oilcloth bound 'moleskine' cover, and the acid free paper pages are thread bound.
• They also have an elastic closure and an expandable inner note holder made of cardboard and oilcloth and a removable card with the moleskine history.
• A great way to get things done! Pocket-sized - junk your PDA!

Customer Reviews

Dude I've got to get one of these!
I originally bought this book for a friend of mine since she likes to draw. The notebook small enough to fit in her pocket, so if she ever has a idea pressing in on her she can whip it out and let her creativity take her. There's also a small pocket on the inside of the back cover. Very convient for stashing money or miscellanious (sorry not a great speller) things. I'm thinking about getting the agenda varient to it. Oh! Almost forgot! There's a rubber band that wraps around it to keep everything inside. I've got to get one for myself, and I think I've got my friend hooked on it too. ;p

Legendary deception
The notebook, made by Modo & Modo, a firm created in the 1990's, is fine overall. But the paper quality could be higher-I can clearly see the writing on the other side, no matter what pen I use. I find the elastic band unnecessary and an annoyance upon closing the notebook. The binding and cover are sturdy though. So overall, it's a fine notebook, but nothing exceptional, and thus overpriced. There are other notebooks of similar format with equal or superior quality.

So my friend's enthusiasm for it perplexed me. To hear him, the "notebook" had just been invented; a new tool was available. As if no one had used a notebook before. I soon discovered the trigger for this attitude was the proclaimed "legendary" character of the notebook, with past users apparently including Hemingway, Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, and others. The thought of using the same notebook as such intellectual giants was exciting to him, and unconsciously made him unduly pleased with his notebook.

This claim perplexed me, as years ago I saw Picasso and Hemingway notebooks, and my recollection of them was different. Hemingway was well-known for writing on notepads or in "blue French notebooks" and you can find several references to this on the Internet. On the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum web site, you can also see a picture of Hemingway's notebooks, which look just the way I remembered them, and nothing like the Moleskine notebook.

Another claim by Modo and Modo is appearances by its notebooks in various movies. It claims the Grail Diary in "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade" is a Moleskine. In fact, the diary is a prop made for the movie. You can see pictures and descriptions of it on the Indygear Web site. It has a soft, brown leather cover. The elastic band is loose, sometimes used horizontally, sometimes vertically. So the diary has nothing in common with a Moleskine.

The Modo & Modo claim of legendary history is thus deceptive. Their trademark of the word moleskine is also suspicious. Years ago, many notebooks had an oilcloth, moleskine cover, then the cheaper alternative to leather for a durable cover. These notebooks were not superior to what we have today; it was just what was available then. But there are many instances of people in the past, famous or not, using a moleskine-covered notebook. The trademark is a clear intention to be the exclusive beneficiary of this history. It's akin to getting a trademark on the word "leather", making notebooks, and claiming that anyone who used leather-covered notebooks used yours.

Modo & Modo is evidently using a deceitful, manipulative marketing campaign that plays on people's desire to have something in common with the legends. It claims a legendary history to get people unduly excited and affectionate of its notebook, promote sales, and command a higher price. Falling for this deception is certainly not the way to join the intellectual elite.

Every Artist should carry one
As an artist, I can't predict when inspiration is going to strike and so I have learned to carry a small sketchbook with me everywhere. This one is almost perfect. The paper is heavy duty, the sketchbook is lightweight, and the quality is excellent. The only thing that I could possibly wish for would be that the cover be a bit more flexible. However, I would not want to sacrifice the quality for the flexibility. Every artist should make it a habit to carry one of these around!