Moleskine Journal

I do keep a journal, an honest to God, paper journal. I’m not religious about it at the moment, but I have been known to be. At times I make entries several times per day, every day, and then there are times when months have gone by without any entries. There are those extremes, and everything in between.

There are only two truly consistent things about my journal entries; first, I always write with a fountain pen, and second, since I discovered the Moleskine (mol-a-skeen’-a) notebooks, I don’t want to use anything else for my journal.

Why the Moleskine? Firstly, it’s the right size for me - I use the “large” version, which is approximately 5″x8.25″ - it just fits in the back pocket of my jeans, and even better, easily fits in the side pocket of my cargo shorts in the summer, or in the inner pocket of my jacket in colder weather. Secondly, and most importantly, it is easy and comfortable to write in the entire way through the journal. All of the other note books that I’ve used throughout my life have been uncomfortable or inconvenient to use when writing in the middle or end of the book, because of the way they are constructed or bound. The Moleskine using a thread-bound binding that allows the pages to lay flat, regardless of where in the notebook you are, which makes it equally convenient and comfortable for writing on the left-hand pages as on the right. Then the notebook is covered with “Moleskine”, an oil-skin like covering, from which it obviously get’s it’s name, and gives it a durability that is unmatched. Inside the back cover is an accordion pocket, spanning the entire inside length of the cover. In this pocket I typically carry spare cash, a printed copy of my Amazon wish-list, several blank 3×5 cards, and a sometimes a CD. Admittedly, the CD is a tight fit.

And why do I use a fountain pen? This is difficult to pin down, but I guess it started out as more “romantic”, as a way to use the “low-tech” to counteract the high-tech, high-stress world that I lived in at the time. Now I just enjoy the act and process of writing at a fundamental level. I’ve even been thinking about learning how to make my own ink, and even to try to make my own writing paper.

~ by Thor on November 19, 2006.