Wannabe writers, rejoice. The ultimate "look at me, I'm a writer!" status symbol is now available at your local Barnes & Noble. That's right... Simply sit down at your favorite coffee house with a piping hot cappuccino (it must be in a ceramic mug, not one of those environment-destroying paper cups with the 10% post-consumer recycled thermal sleeves) and whip out your Moleskine, and you will soon find yourself in the enviable position of having to fight off throngs of crazed women-folk. But what the heck is a Moleskine, you ask, and what is this mysterious power it possesses? Both excellent questions, my friends.A Moleskine (pronounced mol-a-skeen'-a, but if you actually pronounce it that way in America, you're likely to get the tar beaten out of you by a true red-blooded American male, and rightfully so) is a notebook. But it's not just any notebook. It's a special notebook: one which possesses the miraculous ability to attract the ladies. According to the official Moleskine website, it is "the legendary notebook of Hemingway, Picasso, and Chatwin."
All pretentiousness aside, it is a high quality notebook (and sketchbook) available in various sizes and formats. It is available in both pocket and large sizes, and with plain, lined, and graph style pages. Its most identifiable features are the oilskin covers, ribbon marker, and elastic band (to hold it closed). It is also highly prized for its ability to lay totally flat when opened up, something very few notebooks these days are able to claim. They do seem to have developed something of a crazed cult following, and how much of this is related to the ingenious marketing campaign developed by Italian manufacturer Moda e Moda is up for debate.
Regardless of which long deceased writers and painters may or may not have used some iteration of this notebook, there are a handful of still living celebrities who give this little notebook their stamp of approval, including comic fanboy favorite Neil Gaiman (check out his post for Sunday, September 23, 2001).
There is a certain mystique to this handy little notebook. It won't make you a better writer, but it does have a certain inspirational quality to it. Just having one open in front of me makes me want to start writing. Sometimes I start writing and quickly regret having done so. But every once in a while, when the mood and the inspiration hits me just right, I end up with something worth keeping. Occasionally, it's even worth sharing.
For the record, I carry one of the pocket sized lined Moleskines with me just about everywhere I go. Most, if not all, of my blog musings (both here and on my personal blog) have had their origins in one of these notebooks. Because inspiration rarely hits me when I'm sitting on my butt in front of my computer. It usually strikes when (and where) I least expect it.
Plus the chicks dig it.
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8 comments:
A friend of mine gave me three tiny notebooks for my birthday last year. They may have been used by Hemingway, but it's not the notebook that makes a writer.
It's a lot of bleeding pens. Or fingers. Or sentences that begin with "or."
I still use them, but don't hold them up as a source for inspiration any more or less than, say, a beautiful sunset in the city, or a long-legged Russian beauty wandering the cold Baltic beach.
But for that, you'd have to get out of a bookstore.
See for us, the only way we get long-legged russians is in Dostoyevski at the local bookstore.
Dan, you forgot to mention the fact that you cannot just use any old pen in your Moleskine. You have to use an incredibly pretentious pen as well. The pen makes the package. How could you touch sacred pages with a bic? An over-priced roller-ball should do nicely.
Aleks: You seem to have missed my point.
Brandon: This is Serg. Dan is still being lazy. And for the record, my pen of choice for the Moleskine is a Pilot G2. About a buck a pop at your local Staples. That was easy.
Serg: I tend to miss points frequently. I'm not Sharapova, you know. I really just wanted to invoke an image of long-legged Russians and soft sanded beaches into this topic. And I'd agree with you, Pilot G2 pen is my pretentious favorite pen – though they haven't made it this far across the Pond quite yet.
Wow. No G2's? That's a crime.
Let me know if you want me to mail you a package or two.
Yeah its more like Pheasant feather G2 and the inkwell
Serg. In spite of me calling you dan, (which I deeply apologize and ingratiate myself to you to forgive me) that was a great post. Thought-provoking, entertaining, and easy to read. And not one line about watching DVD's of TV shows. Way to go.
No, Brandon, I won't help you move.
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