Moleskine Classic Red Notebook, Ruled Pocket [Journal]

Product Details

Journal: 192 pages

Publisher: Moleskine (October 15, 2008)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 8862930003

ISBN-13: 978-8862930000

California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.

Product Dimensions: 3.5 x 0.5 x 5.6 inches

Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Customer Reviews

Moleskine Ruled Notebook
In the course of my working life I spent several years as a computer tech, and have consequently learned a healthy caution regarding the frailty of electronic devices. The Pocket Moleskine has been the most reliable PDA I've tried. Compact enough to fit in any pants pocket, the covers are stiff enough to provide a firm, stable writing surface even when standing and yet still pliable enough to be comfortable even in a back pocket. A previous reviewer said he expected a notebook "the size of a DVD case". Two points in response: how many DVD-case-sized pockets do you have, and why didn't you order the larger Moleskine? He also complained that he could only get one sentence on a page in his Moleskine. my own handwriting is of a normal size, and a quick check of my most-recently filled Moleskine shows an average of 130 words to the page.
The Moleskine is filled with good, smooth acid-free paper that can take a wide variety of inks without smearing, discoloring, or bleeding through. The expanding pocket is well-secured and can hold a surprising quantity of loose notes, receipts, business cards, etc. The books themselves are well constructed and durable; mine are exposed to hot, humid conditions and hold up to daily carry and use.
The other reviewer pointed out the price: certainly these are not 79-cent Office Max specials, but for the serious writer, or a person who must record important information through the course of a day and retain it legibly for more than a week, the price is worth it. One hint to extend the capacity of your Moleskine: use the bound pages for things you want to permanently record, and keep Post-It notes inside the covers to jot down quick memoranda. I use the Post-Its for such things as the titles of books or movies I want to research. (Think of the Post-Its as expandable memory for your PDA!)

I first encountered Moleskine notebooks in a bookstore in London this spring, and what lodged in my memory was their marketing claim to be "the legendary notebook of Hemingway," et cetera. I have since learned from various sources that those claims may be a touch exaggerated. But now that I own one myself and am starting to make daily use of it, I'm beginning to see, at least, why Moleskine notebooks have so many fans.
For more than ten years, I've used a calendar/day planner/all-your-information-in-one-place system that isn't just a notebook but has an entire philosophy about how you're supposed to live your life tied into it. I never bought into that aspect of the company, but have grown used to having one reference containing all that stuff between two covers, and with a place for a pen besides. Going from that to a Moleskine, with its one small pocket in the back and no place to put a writing instrument, is definitely a switch. It's the part of the change I'm least sure about. On the other hand, the Moleskine definitely wins for portability, ease of use, style, and handiness-to-have-around in case of brainstorms.
So I'm still not completely sold that this is the best of all possible notebooks. But it's definitely a good one, and I do appreciate both the attractiveness of the design and the quality of the construction. Sure, you can get a serviceable notebook for about a tenth of the price, and a whole "lifestyle system," updated annually, for quite a bit more. It's all a matter of taste, and my taste is starting to run in this direction.