Moleskine Crisis

[Justin Lilly]

I opened the back of my moleskine today to glance over my arabic notes
(have to write from right to left) and much to my dismay, the cover
has separated from the spine. Can I fix this? I've only used 1/4 of my
moleskine and I'd really like to get more use out of it. Are there any
alternatives to moleskin that can more aptly survive the back pocket
of a college student? Thanks in advance.

-justin

--
Justin Lilly
University of South Carolina
http://www.justinlilly.com

[argonic]

Try the Moleskine Cahier or Volant notebooks. They have softcovers,
and have 1/3 the sheets so they easily fit in a back pocket or even
shirt pocket.

[rattter]

Have you any tape?
For future use may I suggest a pack of 3 by 5 or 4 by 6 spiral
notebooks?
You can get a pck of five for less than the price of a single
Moleskine.

[Justin Lilly]

I must say that I'll probably stick to moleskines if I can find one
that holds up, if for no other reason than the feeling of sheer
elitism that washes over me the second I pull it out.

[Norm]

I haven't seen your notebook, but it sounds like something you could repair with some elmer's glue, applied carefully.

--
                   :: Norm ::
bringing you uninspired signatures since 1995

[Dave Conrad]

I've run into this problem quite a bit. I have a tendency to stick
them in my back pock and this really breaks the spine down quick.
There's some stuff you can get at most art supply stores called "Yes"
glue. It's what a lot of book-binders use and it's bomb proof. Use an
old paintbrush and just lather up the the spine and the inside of the
cover, close, put the strap on and let it sit over night. You'll be
better off than when you started.

dave

--
Dave Conrad

[madwill...@gmail.com]

<geekalert>At my desk both at home and at work I have a roll of clear
2" wide heavy-duty packing tape. It's both thick and clear enough that
I use it for makeshift binding work and it works wonderfully. It won't
crack or peel the way you might expect.

I use it to create on-the-fly flip-books by binding 3x5s together.
When they're spaced out right it's as flexible as a spiral wire
binding, and a bit more durable (not to mention compact.)

Plus, it makes a great poor-man's lamination for printed cards with
semi-permanent information.

You should be able to bind the cover back on by laying it out flat and
taping across the inside of the cover and the 1st page, both on the
front and back. Then you'd have to work the binding a little bit and
perhaps set some giant ancient codex on it to break it in.

$0.02

</geekalert>

[Brian Short]

On 9/13/05, madwill...@gmail.com <madwill...@gmail.com> wrote:
<snip>

> I use it to create on-the-fly flip-books by binding 3x5s together.
> When they're spaced out right it's as flexible as a spiral wire
> binding, and a bit more durable (not to mention compact.)

<snip>

Are you laying out a long piece of tape and then laying the cards
directly on the tape, and then folding the strip up? (sort of like a
"japanese book"
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/moleskine/japanesebook.html)
Or are you binding the cards more like a normal book?

--
-Brian

--------------------
Photos - http://www.bshort.org
Blog - http://www.bshort.com

[Jeff Shell]

This happened to me too, after about a half year of back-pocket life.
It's longer than any other notebook has lasted, but it still causes a
bit of dismay. My life when I got the notebook was quite hectic
(personal and office moves, amongst other things), so it got more use
in early months than in recent, and I too am about 1/4 - 1/3 of the way
through. With constant use, it probably would have been more full.

So it's now retired. I picked up a pocket reporter notebook, because my
big frustration with the regular pocket ruled book was that it was hard
to write while walking. But I don't know if I want to keep carrying
that around in the same way that I carried the previous notebook -
leaving it to back pocket abuse.

So when I picked up up that notebook I also picked up some Cahiers.
They're about 1/3 the size. The Cahiers just have a paperboard cover
though - not that nice sexy moleskine cover (I think the volants have a
soft moleskine cover at the same size of the Cahiers). So they're not
quite as protected, but at their smaller size they're probably easier
to fill up, easier to carry in a back or side pocket, and you can get
yourself to that "new notebook smell" quicker.

[drew...@gmail.com]

I just checked out my Moleskine. As long as you haven't broken the
stitchery, it looks like it's just a matter of glueing it back on.

Did the pastedown (board paper) come loose too? Or is it just the
spine cover?

If so, don't forget to put some weight to compress your moleskine as
you glue the pastedowns onto the board. Also consider some tissue
paper between your pastedowns and the other endpaper.

Since it's meant to be utilitarian, don't worry if it's not pretty or a
perfect binding. Just glue it up! If you have PVA (modern bookbinding
glue) great! If you have traditional horsie glue, great! (maybe not
for the horse). And if all you got is Elmer's, great! Just glue it up.