The mockery did nothing to hurt sales
September 3, 2024 11:23 AM Subscribe
It became commonplace to contrast the old technology with the new. The original Moleskine had launched at the same time as the Palm Pilot, the first hand-held digital organizer, and had, from day one, faced competition from increasingly powerful devices. The laptop, the BlackBerry, the iPhone, and the iPad all seemed to offer far greater functionality than their paper antecedent, but a stubborn constituency of users refused to move over into the digital sphere, and numerous peer-reviewed studies soon showed that their obduracy made sense. Something about the act of writing by hand, and the production of a physical object, makes the older technology more effective than the new. Sebregondi had, unwittingly, prompted serious inquiry into the workings of the human brain. from Moleskine Mania: How a Notebook Conquered the Digital Era [The Walrus] [via]
I used Moleskine's excellent day planner notebooks for over a decade until the pandemic with its rash of ever-changing zoom meetings made it a liability to use a paper calendar, so I very begruntledly moved to a phone calendar. It's been 3 years and I still miss those Moleskine planner books. The leathery cover, flat binding, and thick smooth paper were soooo nice.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 11:35 AM on September 3 [2 favorites]
posted by nouvelle-personne at 11:35 AM on September 3 [2 favorites]
I've tried for years to be a notebook person, but I've never made it last for more than a few months. At this point, its just easier to bash something into Drafts on my iPhone, and I don't have to deal with my garbage handwriting. I've still got a small stack of Moleskines and rip-off Moleskine like-notebooks half-full of old journal entries and other random detritus from my twenties lying around that I can't make myself part with.
posted by SansPoint at 11:38 AM on September 3 [4 favorites]
posted by SansPoint at 11:38 AM on September 3 [4 favorites]
Moleskines are very sexy things, indeed, but I get way more utility out of a silly cheap €4 college notebook I bought in Germany one year. Lots more pages and not only lies flat with the spiral binding but can lie down folded on itself, taking up less space on a desk. And grid lines! Why do Americans hate gridded notebooks?
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:44 AM on September 3 [12 favorites]
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:44 AM on September 3 [12 favorites]
I was a Moleskine fan, till I got tired having different books for different themes, and then ran across Travelers Notebooks, probably linked by someone here on MeFi. Haven't looked back.
posted by dhruva at 12:02 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
posted by dhruva at 12:02 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
^ Kokuyo Campus soft ring notebooks are the stuff.
The soft rings fix the one fault with their classic notebooks, the small metal rings getting smashed and the sheets get stuck.
Amazon Japan doesn’t ship that to the US but you can drop ship via tenso.com…
posted by torokunai at 12:18 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
The soft rings fix the one fault with their classic notebooks, the small metal rings getting smashed and the sheets get stuck.
Amazon Japan doesn’t ship that to the US but you can drop ship via tenso.com…
posted by torokunai at 12:18 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
If you are friends with someone in the tech sphere, ask them to grab you a stack of the Moleskine knockoffs companies infallibly give away at conventions. I've got stacks of them. Not as nice as the real deal, but free is a huge equalizer.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:27 PM on September 3 [9 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:27 PM on September 3 [9 favorites]
The non-standard dimensions, a couple of centimetres narrower than the familiar A5
…
From 2005, Leuchtturm, whose specialty had been stamp collectors’ albums, took on Moleskine, matching them for quality while offering—the vulgarity!—a range of colours;
and A5 paper. A5!
posted by HearHere at 12:27 PM on September 3 [7 favorites]
…
From 2005, Leuchtturm, whose specialty had been stamp collectors’ albums, took on Moleskine, matching them for quality while offering—the vulgarity!—a range of colours;
and A5 paper. A5!
posted by HearHere at 12:27 PM on September 3 [7 favorites]
I will cop to having been one of those people who for a time bought a Moleskine on every visit to a store that had one. Some of them got filled up. Then I got a subscription to Field Notes and still very much like those pocket-sized books (and they have gridlines and dots and whatnot; I personally dislike using regular ruled paper for taking notes.) I suspended the Field Notes subscription when the customs situation became overly onerous and anyway I have more of those little notebooks than I will (probably) ever use. [I did buy the Wilco special edition and whenever I go to the states I usually order up a handful of the ones I like, especially the letterpress editions]
Via this article I found out about Stalogy , which looks great. And let me put in a word too for a national producer, Mishmash, who makes excellent quality stuff and ships to most destinations. I particularly like their log-cover & refills
posted by chavenet at 12:29 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
Via this article I found out about Stalogy , which looks great. And let me put in a word too for a national producer, Mishmash, who makes excellent quality stuff and ships to most destinations. I particularly like their log-cover & refills
posted by chavenet at 12:29 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
I really tried to get into using notebooks. But the binding was too binding for me, and the format of near A5 too small.
A little over 20 years ago, I bought a black leather cover folder of sorts to look more professional at a sales meeting. The design was to hold sheets of A4 paper with a little space on the opposite internal cover for some narrow pockets. The business card plastic window destroyed itself long ago. The pen holder pocket within the spine was always too narrow, but I recently discovered to my joy it can hold a thin 15 cm metal ruler.
The original design used packs of A4 sheets gummed on the top edge, another iteration of a cheap backing cardboard still sits within, and then I just clamp 20 or 30 sheets of A4 to that cardboard, with a couple of metal clips
Inside the left cover I keep four 0.5mm pens in black blue red and green, three mechanical pencils at 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9mm, and a mechanical eraser pen thing.
Putting a title and date on the top of every sheet just like I was taught at primary school. I have refilled this folder with thousands of sheets of A4 (I prefer 100gsm plain paper)
It has travelled almost everywhere with me, from countless meetings to numerous workshops, and was always in my bag ready for sketches or notes.
After filling, each sheet is grouped with others of the like project, and long term filed accordingly.
I tried to buy a second folder awhile ago back up. But the original is still going strong.
posted by many-things at 12:29 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
A little over 20 years ago, I bought a black leather cover folder of sorts to look more professional at a sales meeting. The design was to hold sheets of A4 paper with a little space on the opposite internal cover for some narrow pockets. The business card plastic window destroyed itself long ago. The pen holder pocket within the spine was always too narrow, but I recently discovered to my joy it can hold a thin 15 cm metal ruler.
The original design used packs of A4 sheets gummed on the top edge, another iteration of a cheap backing cardboard still sits within, and then I just clamp 20 or 30 sheets of A4 to that cardboard, with a couple of metal clips
Inside the left cover I keep four 0.5mm pens in black blue red and green, three mechanical pencils at 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9mm, and a mechanical eraser pen thing.
Putting a title and date on the top of every sheet just like I was taught at primary school. I have refilled this folder with thousands of sheets of A4 (I prefer 100gsm plain paper)
It has travelled almost everywhere with me, from countless meetings to numerous workshops, and was always in my bag ready for sketches or notes.
After filling, each sheet is grouped with others of the like project, and long term filed accordingly.
I tried to buy a second folder awhile ago back up. But the original is still going strong.
posted by many-things at 12:29 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
I love me an A5 notebook, but the one I got the most mileage from in the pre-smartphone era was the Rhodia no 11, gridded and top-fold, about A7 in size. Fit in the pocket basically like a phone does today, I now realize. That notepad drove some people crazy! How could I keep anything in order in that miniscule thing? But I did.
posted by St. Oops at 12:33 PM on September 3 [7 favorites]
posted by St. Oops at 12:33 PM on September 3 [7 favorites]
A habit picked up from my days of field research, but I've always preferred Rite in the Rain to Moleskin.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:48 PM on September 3 [7 favorites]
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:48 PM on September 3 [7 favorites]
Thanks-- keep the notebook recs coming! I'm in the market for a small/medium one with multiple sections for a new job where I'm going to have to take lots of notes on a variety of different topics.
posted by indexy at 12:54 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]
posted by indexy at 12:54 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]
Mol-skin
Mol-skeen?
Mol-skyne?
Mol-è-skin-è?
Molly-skinny?
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:00 PM on September 3 [11 favorites]
Mol-skeen?
Mol-skyne?
Mol-è-skin-è?
Molly-skinny?
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:00 PM on September 3 [11 favorites]
Ṃ̷̲̐̈́ọ̴̖̞̈̈́͂̽l̶͔̝͙̄̋̾ê̷̼̊͝s̸̭͆k̸̭̻̇͘i̷̲̒n̵̢͔̲̐͌͝e̵̝̬͍̕
posted by indexy at 1:11 PM on September 3 [22 favorites]
posted by indexy at 1:11 PM on September 3 [22 favorites]
Interesting backstory to a product I was aware of and not a fan:
> The leaflet opened with a lie (the new Moleskines were not “exact reproductions of the old”) ...
Indeed. The reason I'm not a fan is that the paper is not particularly fountain-pen friendly, which I am guessing is a departure from that of the vrai moleskine of Tours.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 1:12 PM on September 3 [12 favorites]
> The leaflet opened with a lie (the new Moleskines were not “exact reproductions of the old”) ...
Indeed. The reason I'm not a fan is that the paper is not particularly fountain-pen friendly, which I am guessing is a departure from that of the vrai moleskine of Tours.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 1:12 PM on September 3 [12 favorites]
Ha, I always suspected there was something off about the Moleskine story - if they were this essential part of everyday life in the glorious past, why and how did they suddenly appear in modern times as if reborn? And here is the story plainly told.
I guess I am a hipster, because I prefer Rhodia and Clairefontaine and Midori notebooks. Moleskine paper has too much bleed if you use a fountain pen (or any marker with wettish ink). Muji's cheap and cheerful notebooks are pretty good too. I get through a 280 page A5 notebook in about 9 months of bullet journaling, another one or two my diary, and I have a notebook for garden notes and one for cidermaking notes and a gym notebook... Nonetheless, am now at the point where I have several years of unused notebooks stashed and won't be buying any more, no matter how beautiful, until I have used up some of my backlog.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:12 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
I guess I am a hipster, because I prefer Rhodia and Clairefontaine and Midori notebooks. Moleskine paper has too much bleed if you use a fountain pen (or any marker with wettish ink). Muji's cheap and cheerful notebooks are pretty good too. I get through a 280 page A5 notebook in about 9 months of bullet journaling, another one or two my diary, and I have a notebook for garden notes and one for cidermaking notes and a gym notebook... Nonetheless, am now at the point where I have several years of unused notebooks stashed and won't be buying any more, no matter how beautiful, until I have used up some of my backlog.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:12 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
I love Moleskines, and I love fountain pens, but at present I love Moleskines slightly more than I love fountain pens, so I journal with good ball-point pens. Maybe when I fill the current Moleskine I will look for a more fountain pen-friendly journal.
posted by JohnFromGR at 1:20 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]
posted by JohnFromGR at 1:20 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]
I buy or try out "paper replacements" every couple of years when something comes along in the category. Before there was even an iPad I used an iPhone app you could scribble into with your finger similar to the Palm Pilot's Graffiti input format. I tried a bunch of iPad apps, and a reMarkable, and the Kobo equivalent of a Palm tablet, plus a few obscure Kickstarter things.
Digital notebook replacements have a problem similar to digital books, in that there's a spatial piece to them that I haven't seen addressed, partially because e-ink displays are so slow and the capacitive touch interfaces on tablets don't have any tactile feedback or adequate point resolution to replace the experience of finding my way back to a frequently referenced passage or the roughly correct part of a book.
So I guess I'm saying I still think digital has some ground to make up. And also that I find the marketing around notebooks to be frequently insufferable, but as I get older I get better at remembering that if we stopped doing things or enjoying things because someone else doing it or enjoying it was insufferable, we would not have many things left to do.
posted by mph at 1:28 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
Digital notebook replacements have a problem similar to digital books, in that there's a spatial piece to them that I haven't seen addressed, partially because e-ink displays are so slow and the capacitive touch interfaces on tablets don't have any tactile feedback or adequate point resolution to replace the experience of finding my way back to a frequently referenced passage or the roughly correct part of a book.
So I guess I'm saying I still think digital has some ground to make up. And also that I find the marketing around notebooks to be frequently insufferable, but as I get older I get better at remembering that if we stopped doing things or enjoying things because someone else doing it or enjoying it was insufferable, we would not have many things left to do.
posted by mph at 1:28 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
While I can't argue with the branding success (even as I do not gotta hand it to them), the article's penultimate paragraph gets to the heart of my continued use of (non-Moleskine) notebooks:
And the iterations keep coming. For the longest time, my notes and journaling were housed in a variety of bound notebooks, usually A5 or B5-ish (for me, the cachet of the mottled composition notebook will always outweigh that of the black oilskin cover).
But in recent months, I've turned to a ring-bound system despite never clicking with such systems before. What seemed to do the trick was finding a narrower diameter rings Japanese option than traditional European/US Filofax/Dayrunner style organizers—no, not in the stylish (and expensive) Jotter but in Muji's simple, hardboard-covered 20-ring A5 binders. True, my shopping options for Japanese Industrial Standards-conforming papers are limited in the US, but with a simple punch and guide, I can use whatever paper I want.
Many of my handwritten notes are indexed in a larger digital notebook that spans a system of nested folders in an Obsidian.md vault and includes notes that I have typed directly. And whenever I work at the keyboard, I always have a notebook next to it on the desk (or resting in my shirt pocket) on which to scribble out ideas to help get thoughts flowing when I hit some sort of block.
Most recently, I've been trying a method shared by an account on Instagram of sketching out thoughts and feelings in the form of abstract and geometrical shapes if matters are too much for or otherwise beyond immediate words.
posted by audi alteram partem at 1:31 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
Writing a diary made me happier; keeping things-to-do lists made me more reliable (which, in turn, made those around me happier), and I learned never to go to a doctor’s appointment, or a meeting of any kind, without taking notes of what I heard. But there appeared to be creative benefits too.I have gone through countless iterations over decades combining various analog and digital notetaking and knowledge management methods, including handwritten journals since before I was a teenager, which was years before the launch of the Moleskine or the dominance of notebook use in popular culture (carried to such heights as the Obama White House).
And the iterations keep coming. For the longest time, my notes and journaling were housed in a variety of bound notebooks, usually A5 or B5-ish (for me, the cachet of the mottled composition notebook will always outweigh that of the black oilskin cover).
But in recent months, I've turned to a ring-bound system despite never clicking with such systems before. What seemed to do the trick was finding a narrower diameter rings Japanese option than traditional European/US Filofax/Dayrunner style organizers—no, not in the stylish (and expensive) Jotter but in Muji's simple, hardboard-covered 20-ring A5 binders. True, my shopping options for Japanese Industrial Standards-conforming papers are limited in the US, but with a simple punch and guide, I can use whatever paper I want.
Many of my handwritten notes are indexed in a larger digital notebook that spans a system of nested folders in an Obsidian.md vault and includes notes that I have typed directly. And whenever I work at the keyboard, I always have a notebook next to it on the desk (or resting in my shirt pocket) on which to scribble out ideas to help get thoughts flowing when I hit some sort of block.
Most recently, I've been trying a method shared by an account on Instagram of sketching out thoughts and feelings in the form of abstract and geometrical shapes if matters are too much for or otherwise beyond immediate words.
posted by audi alteram partem at 1:31 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
Your arrogance is astounding . You lost your moleskin notebook???? A God damn mole lost his fuckin skin .
posted by HeroZero at 1:31 PM on September 3 [6 favorites]
posted by HeroZero at 1:31 PM on September 3 [6 favorites]
I have a stack of the long since discontinued mini musical staff paper Moleskines. When I was single I would journal in them all of the time, in tiny block letters that (sort of) fit inside the staff lines. I would also jot down musical ideas. This was, of course, before smartphones were a thing, so I got lots of use out of them from a time-killing perspective. I love the look and the feel, the durability and the elastic strap that keeps them closed. A friend had one, and I went WHOAH WHAT IS THAT and, well.
I feel about Moleskines (and other paper notebooks) the way I feel about Instax / Polaroid cameras - the end result is an actual, physical manifestation of the moment captured. No intermediary duplicative or transformative process. Just a thing, captured and created, of its time. Very pure.
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:32 PM on September 3 [6 favorites]
I feel about Moleskines (and other paper notebooks) the way I feel about Instax / Polaroid cameras - the end result is an actual, physical manifestation of the moment captured. No intermediary duplicative or transformative process. Just a thing, captured and created, of its time. Very pure.
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:32 PM on September 3 [6 favorites]
Mnemosyne notebooks from Maruman in Japan are my gotos. I get mine from Jetpens.com, but there are other retailers. They lay flat, and the paper works just fine with fountain pens (if that's what you're into).
posted by tommasz at 1:47 PM on September 3 [5 favorites]
posted by tommasz at 1:47 PM on September 3 [5 favorites]
Moleskine: great form factor, terrible paper. I have a lot of filled notebooks/sketchbooks that swipe its form factor though. A lot of my to-do/journal books are from Paperblanks, who makes little hardcover notebooks with covers based on old books, with sparkly accents. They make me feel like a wizard every time I use them, and I like that. I’m especially partial to the “Midi” size, which is pretty much the same as a Moleskine.
posted by egypturnash at 1:48 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
posted by egypturnash at 1:48 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
If you want something straddling the line between digital and physical notebooks, I used to be all-in on the Rocketbook ecosystem. (I might go back, I find the e-ink tablets kinda sluggish.)
They've got a special matte plastic material which, if you use Frixion pens, erases with water, so they're pretty reusable.
Secondly, the page has a border which helps a phone app auto-correct perspective for an easy "scan". If you categorize the page by marking a checkbox, you can sort the scans into destinations (e.g. "email this to my work email", "upload to Google drive" etc.) There was decent OCR as well (enough to get a title from the page and maybe search for a few keywords).
It's not for you if you are chasing the perfect paper and ink combo, but Frixion ink comes out nicely on the Rocketbook paper (maybe a bit wet), and there are quite a few varieties of Frixion pens available, so it's not too terrible.
Since the notebooks last basically forever, it wouldn't surprise me if they eventually charge for the app, but so far it looks like they're getting by on the margin from the notebooks.
posted by Anonymous Function at 1:49 PM on September 3 [5 favorites]
They've got a special matte plastic material which, if you use Frixion pens, erases with water, so they're pretty reusable.
Secondly, the page has a border which helps a phone app auto-correct perspective for an easy "scan". If you categorize the page by marking a checkbox, you can sort the scans into destinations (e.g. "email this to my work email", "upload to Google drive" etc.) There was decent OCR as well (enough to get a title from the page and maybe search for a few keywords).
It's not for you if you are chasing the perfect paper and ink combo, but Frixion ink comes out nicely on the Rocketbook paper (maybe a bit wet), and there are quite a few varieties of Frixion pens available, so it's not too terrible.
Since the notebooks last basically forever, it wouldn't surprise me if they eventually charge for the app, but so far it looks like they're getting by on the margin from the notebooks.
posted by Anonymous Function at 1:49 PM on September 3 [5 favorites]
I love the look and the feel, the durability and the elastic strap that keeps them closed.
I have found, to my dismay, that over time the elastic strap of a Moleskine or any other similar notebook will lose its elasticity and get all floppy and useless.
A metaphor for ... something, I'm sure
posted by chavenet at 2:02 PM on September 3 [6 favorites]
I have found, to my dismay, that over time the elastic strap of a Moleskine or any other similar notebook will lose its elasticity and get all floppy and useless.
A metaphor for ... something, I'm sure
posted by chavenet at 2:02 PM on September 3 [6 favorites]
If remembering ideas is important to your job, then having a place to put them that doesn’t fall apart and can be easily archived and accessed is invaluable. Someone recently asked me a question about a project from 2009 and I was able to go back and scan my solution-brainstorm page for them. It would have been far less convenient to track down such a random note in my digital records.
Moleskine sold this idea really well. That said, most Moleskine products just aren’t very durable for the price and the paper could be better. My sketchbooks are Leuchtturm or Rhodia, whose bindings and covers are higher quality. However, I’m back in school and use Moleskine Cahier unlined XXL notebooks for my class notes, mostly purchased on sale.
posted by Headfullofair at 2:11 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
Moleskine sold this idea really well. That said, most Moleskine products just aren’t very durable for the price and the paper could be better. My sketchbooks are Leuchtturm or Rhodia, whose bindings and covers are higher quality. However, I’m back in school and use Moleskine Cahier unlined XXL notebooks for my class notes, mostly purchased on sale.
posted by Headfullofair at 2:11 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
Yep, I'm another Moleskine sucker. There are far cheaper notebooks of basically the same quality but there's just something about those covers I love. I've been using them as notebooks for work for a long while. I do wish they had other colours though! They do their agendas in red and I really wish they had plain red notebooks.
posted by signsofrain at 2:17 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
posted by signsofrain at 2:17 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
Never owned a Moleskine but I do like the Field Notes notebooks. They're my go-to camping journal, especially the all-weather ones released recently. Paired with a Space Pen I'm all set to journal my outdoors adventures. Small, light, but enough pages that I don't have to be brief even on an extended trip - and short enough that I can devote one journal to each trip, without feeling that I am wasting empty pages.
I used to use a larger Field Notes steno book for conferences. I used a Pigma Micron pen, and it was a joy to write on the smooth paper with that pen. Field Notes really does care about that paper. The steno book cover is practically thick enough to use as a hammer. It's a super durable, very nice steno book.
Unfortunately after I picked up an iPad I started using the Notes app there for my conferences, and as a result my handwriting has utterly gone to shit. Last time I used the steno book for a conference was in 2012. I can type quickly on the iPad, but I can't write in the steno book or notebooks like I used to. My hand cramps after a pretty short time and my writing went from mostly uniform (albeit tiny and chicken-scratchy) to a friggin' mess. The only real solution is to write more, longhand, but I am headed to a conference in about 2 weeks and I am packing my iPad, not my half-filled steno book... on the plus side my notes are now instantly searchable, and can be shared with others in one click.
(On the downside, I often have to EDIT my notes before sharing, because I tend to include a lot of snarky asides that might be best kept to myself)
posted by caution live frogs at 2:31 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
I used to use a larger Field Notes steno book for conferences. I used a Pigma Micron pen, and it was a joy to write on the smooth paper with that pen. Field Notes really does care about that paper. The steno book cover is practically thick enough to use as a hammer. It's a super durable, very nice steno book.
Unfortunately after I picked up an iPad I started using the Notes app there for my conferences, and as a result my handwriting has utterly gone to shit. Last time I used the steno book for a conference was in 2012. I can type quickly on the iPad, but I can't write in the steno book or notebooks like I used to. My hand cramps after a pretty short time and my writing went from mostly uniform (albeit tiny and chicken-scratchy) to a friggin' mess. The only real solution is to write more, longhand, but I am headed to a conference in about 2 weeks and I am packing my iPad, not my half-filled steno book... on the plus side my notes are now instantly searchable, and can be shared with others in one click.
(On the downside, I often have to EDIT my notes before sharing, because I tend to include a lot of snarky asides that might be best kept to myself)
posted by caution live frogs at 2:31 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
I got my shit together re: planning and note taking, etc. back in the mid 2000s thanks to Time Management for System Administrators. Part of that process was me giving up on digital task tracking and note taking.
The Quo Vadis TextAgenda was my go to for years, but I eventually moved over to bullet journals, which is what I still use, although these days I'm not buying Bullet Journals™. I use pencil and Gelly Roll pens with them and am more than happy.
I also love Rite-in-the-Rain products, which I used while I was trying to get out of IT and doing archaeological fieldwork and then wooden boat building.
posted by ursus_comiter at 3:08 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
The Quo Vadis TextAgenda was my go to for years, but I eventually moved over to bullet journals, which is what I still use, although these days I'm not buying Bullet Journals™. I use pencil and Gelly Roll pens with them and am more than happy.
I also love Rite-in-the-Rain products, which I used while I was trying to get out of IT and doing archaeological fieldwork and then wooden boat building.
posted by ursus_comiter at 3:08 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
I have had a love affair with stationery and pigment-producing tools since childhood. I will try any and all notebooks and pens. Here are some scattered personal opinions about notebooks:
Leuchtturm Semikolon: Love the colors, the ribbon, the feel of the cover. Lies flat. I really, REALLY hate wide-rule, though, so I probably won't buy again.
Hobonichi yearly planners: I've been buying these since 2020, and I still love them, despite the recent paper change (I hate the new paper). I got a Weeks for the first time this year, and I am using it more than I expected.
Clairefontaine Art Deco notebooks: Clairefontaine is by far my favorite paper. The covers are very pretty as well. Back before you could get anything you wanted from anywhere in the world on the internet, I used a sketchy third-party retailer to buy huge B5 notebooks from France for college classes. But as I said, I HATE wide rule (and I don't like grid paper), so I wrinkle my nose a bit every time I open it.
Rhodia dot-grid notebooks: These are my overall favorite for everyday note-taking. The paper is Clairefontaine but without the wide rule. Also come in cute colors.
Midori M5: Really underwhelmed by these. I like the lie-flat, but I didn't love the grid or the paper quality.
And that's all just ones I have on my desk...
posted by petiteviolette at 3:18 PM on September 3 [7 favorites]
Leuchtturm Semikolon: Love the colors, the ribbon, the feel of the cover. Lies flat. I really, REALLY hate wide-rule, though, so I probably won't buy again.
Hobonichi yearly planners: I've been buying these since 2020, and I still love them, despite the recent paper change (I hate the new paper). I got a Weeks for the first time this year, and I am using it more than I expected.
Clairefontaine Art Deco notebooks: Clairefontaine is by far my favorite paper. The covers are very pretty as well. Back before you could get anything you wanted from anywhere in the world on the internet, I used a sketchy third-party retailer to buy huge B5 notebooks from France for college classes. But as I said, I HATE wide rule (and I don't like grid paper), so I wrinkle my nose a bit every time I open it.
Rhodia dot-grid notebooks: These are my overall favorite for everyday note-taking. The paper is Clairefontaine but without the wide rule. Also come in cute colors.
Midori M5: Really underwhelmed by these. I like the lie-flat, but I didn't love the grid or the paper quality.
And that's all just ones I have on my desk...
posted by petiteviolette at 3:18 PM on September 3 [7 favorites]
Interestingly, I just got an email from reMarkable that they are having an event tomorrow.
I’m big on digital paper, but bounced on the reMarkable 2. We’ll see what they bring next.
posted by m@f at 3:19 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
I’m big on digital paper, but bounced on the reMarkable 2. We’ll see what they bring next.
posted by m@f at 3:19 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
I make a work diary of notes and things to do... I am not a good organizer. So I write down a list of all my projects, then make notes to the list through the day as they are finished, or sent off for review, etc. The next morning I write down the same list again on another sheet of paper with the date at the top and repeat. I will 100% forget stuff if I don't do this.
I use spiral notebooks from Target that cost a dollar-something.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:30 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
I use spiral notebooks from Target that cost a dollar-something.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:30 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
Letts of London ride or die
posted by St. Peepsburg at 4:40 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 4:40 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
It all depends on what you want to do. I've used Molesklne squared paper to take meeting notes, and record general work thoughts for nearly twenty years now, about one book per year. My writing has deteriorated over that time so they are mostly impressionistic sketches of my consulting days. I find they lay flat nicely and look like I must be writing important stuff in them. That last bit may be wishful thinking though
posted by mdoar at 5:28 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
posted by mdoar at 5:28 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
How it started: spiral-bound drugstore notepads
How it went for a while: Moleskine
How it's going: Leuchtturm 120G.
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:29 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
How it went for a while: Moleskine
How it's going: Leuchtturm 120G.
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:29 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
I just got a Rhodia and I'm liking it so far. It works well with the Pilot G-2 1.0s that I like.
posted by wintermind at 6:02 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]
posted by wintermind at 6:02 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]
I miss the Moleskine City Notebooks, they were great for traveling.
posted by praemunire at 6:25 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 6:25 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
Happy 2025 planner season for all who celebrate, be it moleskine or anything else!
(Tangent: Hobonichi is the brand I actually pay attention to, and to come back to the FPP, somehow this year's launch excited even more people than expected that launch day took out the website because of the volume of orders. Paper planning/notebooking is back with a vengeance, it feels like)
posted by cendawanita at 6:32 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
(Tangent: Hobonichi is the brand I actually pay attention to, and to come back to the FPP, somehow this year's launch excited even more people than expected that launch day took out the website because of the volume of orders. Paper planning/notebooking is back with a vengeance, it feels like)
posted by cendawanita at 6:32 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
I have finally settled on the perfect working combination...a cheap, standard 8.5x11 inch single subject, spiral-bound, college ruled notebook for the random notes I have to take at work, and Apple Notes for the important stuff I have to have with me at a moment's notice. I tried Moleskines, and they are nice, but they don't fold back. And I try to write as much as possible with the Pentel EnerGel-X Retractable Liquid Gel Pen, 1.0 mm, because I love that thick line and the pen is as smooth as they get.
But I'll probably retire by the end of next year and probably won't need the paper notebook as much. It'll be time to think of a new system...
posted by lhauser at 6:44 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
But I'll probably retire by the end of next year and probably won't need the paper notebook as much. It'll be time to think of a new system...
posted by lhauser at 6:44 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
oh, my recs, if anyone is interested:
Rhodia/Clairefontaine (same company, but Rhodia's aesthetic is those bright orange covers and nothing else - French): fantastic if you like smooth and bright white papers, and a great writing experience if you like that sort of texture. Sizing options clearly oriented for students and office workers. They have a meeting notebook that's really sensibly laid out imo, esp if you're desk-bound.
Leuchtturm: have dot grid papers, also heavy. I confess I haven't really played with Western producers for so long, because they tend to favour heavier paperweights esp if they're fountain pen-oriented. Rhodia is the only one I would even consider because their coating makes up for this fact - it ends up a tiny smidge lighter, so easier to carry too. Standard European sizing, so you won't find cute portable sizes so much.
Moleskine: the batch variability is too apparent, it's hard to recommend if you use wetter nib pens because one notebook might be fantastic but the next exact same might not. No issue if you use ballpoints though, so the utter variety in notebooks might scratch an itch.
Field Notes: not my style, but it is very much the vibe if you're out an about imo. I'd go for it if it was.
Muji: if you don't mind being spendy for no-brand, discreet notebooks. Japanese papers in general tend to prefer lighter weights with proprietary coating of some kind - the best overall performance in the market, no matter the price point, imo.
Daiso: if you don't mind the random and boring covers, these are dead cheap. I love their B6 ones when I find some. The other end of the price point range to Muji with the same aesthetic.
Kokuyo/Campus lines: all the foolscap/looseleaf needs. Love these if you like ring binders too. fwiw one of the few lines readily available overseas that has their own range of tools... like 6-hole punchers etc if you want to make your own binders. I have seen b6 looseleaf under them.
Midori (inc Traveler's Notebook): also another brand that has their own array of tools and other planner guff, but the TN line is visibly sequestered away from the rest of the Midori line for some reason. But this would be a brand family that would have an array of product sizes, and TN is one you can browse if you like random sizing where the length is standard but they run narrow (eg the Standard TN is basically A5 but with a width that's reduced by a quarter).
Stalogy, Life, Take A Note - some of the Japanese ones that's beginning to be available overseas. A shoutout to Life - why... must your name be so... generic. Love their plain notebooks. Oh wait, Take A Note is Taiwanese! (Taiwan takes a lot of their aesthetic cues from Japan atm - it's a whole geopolitical thing)
Hobonichi: saved this for last because when it dropped the Techo around the 2000s, it's like a slow-moving fire. One of the things it induced in the market is an appreciation of the Tomoe River paper (though the original maker had to close shop, so the new paper has a different mix of wood fibre and coating) where it's the thinnest out of most papers in the market but with a high tolerance for wet nibs. So now you will find SO MANY small presses outside Japan that does their own notebooks with the same paper (check your local fairs, especially if you're in a fairly active urban area), usually in response to what they didn't like about the Hobonichi planners (uh... their extreme commitment to being Japanese, inc but not limited to, tiny grid sizes, Japanese quotes in every page, holiday info, cultural info, map of Japan, and other random things). But it's definitely got the best mix of what you need as a planner/diary/agenda person that wants your own flexibility, in terms of product sizes and pages combo. Next to Leuchtturm, these are the best family of products if you do bullet journalling imo because they commit to numbered pages.
These other Tomoe River Hobonichi offshoots of the West: all of them responded differently to what they consider gaps in the Hobonichi offering, in terms of what sort of planner sections and layouts, so you might as well take a look. The ones I know: Papertess (Germany), Sterling Ink (America), AuraEstelle (Canada).
posted by cendawanita at 7:03 PM on September 3 [15 favorites]
Rhodia/Clairefontaine (same company, but Rhodia's aesthetic is those bright orange covers and nothing else - French): fantastic if you like smooth and bright white papers, and a great writing experience if you like that sort of texture. Sizing options clearly oriented for students and office workers. They have a meeting notebook that's really sensibly laid out imo, esp if you're desk-bound.
Leuchtturm: have dot grid papers, also heavy. I confess I haven't really played with Western producers for so long, because they tend to favour heavier paperweights esp if they're fountain pen-oriented. Rhodia is the only one I would even consider because their coating makes up for this fact - it ends up a tiny smidge lighter, so easier to carry too. Standard European sizing, so you won't find cute portable sizes so much.
Moleskine: the batch variability is too apparent, it's hard to recommend if you use wetter nib pens because one notebook might be fantastic but the next exact same might not. No issue if you use ballpoints though, so the utter variety in notebooks might scratch an itch.
Field Notes: not my style, but it is very much the vibe if you're out an about imo. I'd go for it if it was.
Muji: if you don't mind being spendy for no-brand, discreet notebooks. Japanese papers in general tend to prefer lighter weights with proprietary coating of some kind - the best overall performance in the market, no matter the price point, imo.
Daiso: if you don't mind the random and boring covers, these are dead cheap. I love their B6 ones when I find some. The other end of the price point range to Muji with the same aesthetic.
Kokuyo/Campus lines: all the foolscap/looseleaf needs. Love these if you like ring binders too. fwiw one of the few lines readily available overseas that has their own range of tools... like 6-hole punchers etc if you want to make your own binders. I have seen b6 looseleaf under them.
Midori (inc Traveler's Notebook): also another brand that has their own array of tools and other planner guff, but the TN line is visibly sequestered away from the rest of the Midori line for some reason. But this would be a brand family that would have an array of product sizes, and TN is one you can browse if you like random sizing where the length is standard but they run narrow (eg the Standard TN is basically A5 but with a width that's reduced by a quarter).
Stalogy, Life, Take A Note - some of the Japanese ones that's beginning to be available overseas. A shoutout to Life - why... must your name be so... generic. Love their plain notebooks. Oh wait, Take A Note is Taiwanese! (Taiwan takes a lot of their aesthetic cues from Japan atm - it's a whole geopolitical thing)
Hobonichi: saved this for last because when it dropped the Techo around the 2000s, it's like a slow-moving fire. One of the things it induced in the market is an appreciation of the Tomoe River paper (though the original maker had to close shop, so the new paper has a different mix of wood fibre and coating) where it's the thinnest out of most papers in the market but with a high tolerance for wet nibs. So now you will find SO MANY small presses outside Japan that does their own notebooks with the same paper (check your local fairs, especially if you're in a fairly active urban area), usually in response to what they didn't like about the Hobonichi planners (uh... their extreme commitment to being Japanese, inc but not limited to, tiny grid sizes, Japanese quotes in every page, holiday info, cultural info, map of Japan, and other random things). But it's definitely got the best mix of what you need as a planner/diary/agenda person that wants your own flexibility, in terms of product sizes and pages combo. Next to Leuchtturm, these are the best family of products if you do bullet journalling imo because they commit to numbered pages.
These other Tomoe River Hobonichi offshoots of the West: all of them responded differently to what they consider gaps in the Hobonichi offering, in terms of what sort of planner sections and layouts, so you might as well take a look. The ones I know: Papertess (Germany), Sterling Ink (America), AuraEstelle (Canada).
posted by cendawanita at 7:03 PM on September 3 [15 favorites]
I can’t remember when I first started using Moleskines, but just checked my shelf and confirmed I was visual journaling in a Moleskine in 2008. Sadly found that the paper had changed and I ended up steering away from them. I bought a special one a couple of years ago to commemorate a trip to New York with a friend, got personalization etc but I’m a long way from filling it. . Every so often I will pick up a Moleskine and give them another try, but my go-to books now are: Bullet journaling: Leuchtturm or Scribbles That Matter. I fill about 2 per year. General notetaking/planning of writing projects: Pen & Gear composition book from Walmart (handles fountain pen ink surprisingly well! And budget-friendly) or one of those beautiful Paperblanks that make writing feel like an occasion. Sketching/Travel journaling: Stillman & Burn Zeta series sketchbooks (sturdy and will take a light wash; paper is thick enough that my Pentel Pocket Brush pen doesn’t bleed through. There’s a size that’s great for my jeans pocket or purse.) I have ADHD and the act of writing longhand makes it much more likely that I’ll either remember something or be able to find it later.
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 7:50 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 7:50 PM on September 3 [2 favorites]
Thoroughly support cendawanita's recommendations. I like Midori but the paper is noticeably "toothier" than the French papers or most of the other Japanese ones. I would caution people on Tomoe River because that very very thin paper is such a different experience if you're not used to it, you really want to try some before you go big.
Another thing to think about is binding and thickness (pagecount). If your notebook has many pages, it had better have really good lie-flat binding, because otherwise it's so annoying to have an unusable area of page near the spine where it curves. This is important to me because all other things being equal I like notebooks where I can label the back of the spine and there's some decent heft to the thing.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:31 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
Another thing to think about is binding and thickness (pagecount). If your notebook has many pages, it had better have really good lie-flat binding, because otherwise it's so annoying to have an unusable area of page near the spine where it curves. This is important to me because all other things being equal I like notebooks where I can label the back of the spine and there's some decent heft to the thing.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:31 PM on September 3 [4 favorites]
Currently rocking a Roterfaden Calendar Layout 3, which is a great layout for me to see my week and have a lil weekly to-do list, despite some useless-to-me built in German holidays.
One thing I'd love to find is a planner of a similar size (B6 in this case) with a yearly calendar's worth of looseleaf paper that can be removed and put back in, purely so I can type things out on my typewriter. This is a bit of an affectation, as I can't imagine I'd gain a ton in productivity/organization, but hey this is partly an aesthetic experience and I like typing.
I already use a Leuchtturm Peka springback binder to have this feature for journaling on letter-sized paper.
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 9:26 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
One thing I'd love to find is a planner of a similar size (B6 in this case) with a yearly calendar's worth of looseleaf paper that can be removed and put back in, purely so I can type things out on my typewriter. This is a bit of an affectation, as I can't imagine I'd gain a ton in productivity/organization, but hey this is partly an aesthetic experience and I like typing.
I already use a Leuchtturm Peka springback binder to have this feature for journaling on letter-sized paper.
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 9:26 PM on September 3 [3 favorites]
I have a couple of problems and my problems are Archer & Olive, Paperblanks, and spending most of my time on an iPad Pro that nearly ensures that I do very little with the treasured products that I own from either company.
But they're great, anyway....
posted by verbminx at 1:36 AM on September 4 [3 favorites]
But they're great, anyway....
posted by verbminx at 1:36 AM on September 4 [3 favorites]
As a lefthander I prefer to write with ballpoint pens (Bic Crystal medium, by choice) and almost always use a Moleskine with plain paper as my work notebook. I like the form factor, the coloured covers, and the paper. My latest notebook is a Leuchtterm, which is also very nice, and I could conceivably switch between the two. Moleskine notebooks is one of the things that I usually put on my Christmas list.
posted by plonkee at 2:18 AM on September 4 [1 favorite]
posted by plonkee at 2:18 AM on September 4 [1 favorite]
I became a fountain pen fan before Moleskine came out, so it was an exercise in frustration to see these nice, cool notebooks not be fountain pen friendly (or wet ink in general). But it did seem to launch a lot of companies producing notebooks of higher quality--it showed there was a market.
I went from Moleskine to Leuchttrum to Rhodia, then realized I was losing track of stuff I was sticking in pockets. I hit JetPens for a notebook cover, which is persistent, and a soft-covered A5 notebook (my current go-to is the Midori MD Dot Grid). The cover has lots of pockets, so my notebook use has expanded. I currently take five to work.
posted by MrGuilt at 7:37 AM on September 4 [4 favorites]
I went from Moleskine to Leuchttrum to Rhodia, then realized I was losing track of stuff I was sticking in pockets. I hit JetPens for a notebook cover, which is persistent, and a soft-covered A5 notebook (my current go-to is the Midori MD Dot Grid). The cover has lots of pockets, so my notebook use has expanded. I currently take five to work.
posted by MrGuilt at 7:37 AM on September 4 [4 favorites]
It's been a long time since I was any sort of notebook person, and it feels like those days mostly vanished once the pandemic hit and I wasn't taking physical notebooks to physical meetings with physical people anymore.
Even in my personal life, I have a proliferation of notes and some challenges around where to store them--I have stuff scattered across multiple different services, each one edging closer towards self-hosted open-source options--but the vast majority of my notes aren't actually notes, they're spreadsheets. I have tons and tons of spreadsheets, most of them for incredibly arcane or niche aspects of my life. I cannot imagine ever trying to keep track of any of this stuff on paper; I use formulas and conditional formatting everywhere and maintaining any of it manually just seems so obviously a non-starter. I've even started looking into self-hosted relational databases with nice UI (basically, Airtable equivalents) so I don't have to think about coding my own web interface to a MySQL-based CRUD app every time I want to start tracking something new and complex.
And yet, for all this, I still have a stack of Leuchtterms I bought during the pandemic thinking I could use them for notes and illustrations and whatnot. Clearly there's a small part of me that likes the idea of notebooks, even though I basically never use them nowadays.
posted by chrominance at 10:16 AM on September 4 [3 favorites]
Even in my personal life, I have a proliferation of notes and some challenges around where to store them--I have stuff scattered across multiple different services, each one edging closer towards self-hosted open-source options--but the vast majority of my notes aren't actually notes, they're spreadsheets. I have tons and tons of spreadsheets, most of them for incredibly arcane or niche aspects of my life. I cannot imagine ever trying to keep track of any of this stuff on paper; I use formulas and conditional formatting everywhere and maintaining any of it manually just seems so obviously a non-starter. I've even started looking into self-hosted relational databases with nice UI (basically, Airtable equivalents) so I don't have to think about coding my own web interface to a MySQL-based CRUD app every time I want to start tracking something new and complex.
And yet, for all this, I still have a stack of Leuchtterms I bought during the pandemic thinking I could use them for notes and illustrations and whatnot. Clearly there's a small part of me that likes the idea of notebooks, even though I basically never use them nowadays.
posted by chrominance at 10:16 AM on September 4 [3 favorites]
Michael's Artist's Loft notebooks have very good paper for the price and come with a variety of covers, sizes, and have blank, lined, and dot grid. Not as elegant as more-expensive notebooks, but if they cost more I'd be a bit precious about using them, which defeats the point. I sometimes cut down a manila folder and glue it in for a pocket.
plonkee, as a fellow southpaw, I recommend checking out some of the ballpoint pens JetPen recommends for us. If you happen to have a Japanese bookstore nearby, that's another good source for pens. I got my dad (also a port-sider) a selection for Father's Day, and he was pleasantly surprised at how much nicer they are than his accrual of ballpoints from banks, etc. - he definitely thought it was a silly thing to think about before he tried better pens.
posted by momus_window at 3:04 PM on September 4 [3 favorites]
plonkee, as a fellow southpaw, I recommend checking out some of the ballpoint pens JetPen recommends for us. If you happen to have a Japanese bookstore nearby, that's another good source for pens. I got my dad (also a port-sider) a selection for Father's Day, and he was pleasantly surprised at how much nicer they are than his accrual of ballpoints from banks, etc. - he definitely thought it was a silly thing to think about before he tried better pens.
posted by momus_window at 3:04 PM on September 4 [3 favorites]
I’ve ever been able to develop a habit of using a notebook, but I loved buying them to sell at our art supply store. My wife started using the Blackwing notebooks, which have a built-in pencil holder.
An annoying thing about stocking notebooks is that the major brands are mostly distributed through book distributors, so the margins were terrible and worse if you tried to keep pace with Amazon.
posted by jimw at 10:26 PM on September 4 [2 favorites]
An annoying thing about stocking notebooks is that the major brands are mostly distributed through book distributors, so the margins were terrible and worse if you tried to keep pace with Amazon.
posted by jimw at 10:26 PM on September 4 [2 favorites]
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posted by wintermind at 11:33 AM on September 3 [1 favorite]