Of Objects of Desire and Mole Skins
Monday June 29 th 2009These days when one mentions notebook, many automatically assume the digital variety. But as a creature of habit, I am one who still loves to scribble on paper instead of going hi-tech like using PDAs. I still rely on my trusty old organiser for my schedules and random jottings. There’s nothing like penning my thoughts or reminders on paper. Alright, I must admit that I think faster than I type and I write much faster than I type. You get the idea, no?
I was just looking at my battered organiser the other day and thinking that it looks rather unprofessional of me to carry something like that to a meeting. After all, first impressions do count as they say. So, I decided to “upgrade”. I have always wanted a Moleskine but have never gotten one. I googled and found my PERFECT Moleskine. (Pronounced mol-a-skeen’-a and not Mole Skin!) Here it is, the object of my desire.
Moleskine Academic Weekly Notebook July 2009 – December 2010 18 Month Soft Black Large
Only $9.13 at Amazon.com. According to the official Moleskine website,
The Moleskine Large Soft Cover 18 Month Weekly Notebook is dated from July 2009 to December 2010. Formatted to show the week’s appointments on the left and a ruled page for notes and ideas on the right, this popular planner style is perfect for students and professionals. This Moleskine planner is thread bound and has a soft cover with rounded corners, acid free paper, a bookmark, an elastic closure and an expandable inner pocket that contains the Moleskine history.
I so like! Then, I found at Amazon.com at only $13.57 for this set of gorgeous red weekly planner (large) and a matching read notebook (pocket) perfect for jotting down ideas for my next project or reminders.
Moleskine Weekly Planner – 18 Month Red Twin Set
I am now torn. Shall I get the black professional looking one that will go with everything I have in my closet? Or shall I get the gorgeous in-your-face red one with the little cute one that is perfect for my handbag? Choices, choices……Please help me decide. Please vote. Like now.
More on Moleskine taken from their website
Moleskine® is the heir and successor to the legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two centuries: among them Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Bruce Chatwin. A simple black rectangle with rounded corners, an elastic page-holder, and an internal expandable pocket: a nameless object with a spare perfection all its own, produced for over a century by a small French bookbinder that supplied the stationery shops of Paris, where the artistic and literary avant-gardes of the world browsed and bought them. A trusted and handy travel companion, the notebook held invaluable sketches, notes, stories, and ideas that would one day become famous paintings or the pages of beloved books.
Chatwin’s Story
The notebook was Bruce Chatwin‘s favorite, and it was he who called it “moleskine.” In the mid-1980s, these notebooks became increasingly scarce, and then vanished entirely. In his book The Songlines Chatwin tells the story of the little black notebook: in 1986, the manufacturer, a small family-owned company in the French city of Tours, went out of business. “Le vrai moleskine n’est plus,” are the lapidary words he puts into the mouth of the owner of the stationery shop in the Rue de l’Ancienne Comédie, where he usually purchased his notebooks. Chatwin set about buying up all the notebooks that he could find before his departure for Australia, but there were still not enough.
The Moleskine® Notebook
In 1997, a small Milanese publisher brought the legendary notebook back to life, and selected this name with a literary pedigree to revive an extraordinary tradition. Following in Chatwin’s footsteps, Moleskine® notebooks have resumed their travels, providing an indispensable complement to the new and portable technology of today. Capturing reality in movement, glimpsing and recording details, inscribing the unique nature of experience on paper: Moleskine notebook is a battery that stores ideas and feelings, releasing its energy over time.
Today, Moleskine is synonymous with culture, travel, memory, imagination, and personal identity–in both the real world and the virtual world. It is a brand that identifies a family of notebooks, journals, diaries, and innovative city guides, adapted to various functions. With the diverse array of page formats, Moleskine notebooks are partners for the creative and imaginative professions of our time. They represent, around the world, a symbol of contemporary nomadism, in close connection with the digital world, through a network of websites, blogs, online groups, and virtual archives. With Moleskine, the age-old gesture of taking notes and doing sketches –typically analogue activities– have found an unexpected forum on the web and in its communities.
