I have always failed to connect with the Moleskine admiration movement. Every time I go to one of those, kinda upscale, stationary stores, it would be kept there. I end up marvelling at the combination of its sheer inflated price and mediocrity and I end up buying a local notebook (of late that has been Paperkraft).
This is very relatable:
> buys a fresh Moleskine every time they come into a store? We have no idea what they do with them
I have known people who keep (as they almost always do not use those) Molsekine notebooks just to keep it. They would drag one around meeting to meeting, keep it on their office desks, or in their home and wouldn't fail to talk about it when a chance arises.
I did buy one years ago and it was such a waste of money. It was fit for none of ball, gel, or fountain pens. Their seams are very fragile and ugly - I can see thread peering out and holes stretched already. I tried their even costlier models and no improvement.
The best notebooks I have used over journalising and note taking since mid-late 1990s (when I was a kid) are:
- A few bought in Venice (apparently a very very old family owned store) - I forget the name.
- A local Indian brand Brahma Books which was sold out to a bigger brand and of course stopped making good notebooks
- A notebook my friend brought me from a Walmart or Costco when he returned from USA (he knew I loved writing on paper and he picked one from shelf which was not at all costly). I asked him and he said it was the store brand and not some other brand and cost few dollars iirc.
Any Moleskine I have seen or touched, or the one I used, doesn't even come close to quality of these. I think purchasing and keeping Moleskine in itself is the bobby and the experience. Maybe.