poor Moleskine reviews on amazon?

[Stephen Schaefer]

hey all,

I read the following review on Amazon.com
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00069DKWK/qid=1115780636//002-0138113-5096009?v=glance&s=hpc&n=507846)
and was wondering if this person's criticisms were founded or
misleading, especially the part about the paper. Considering the
promotion of these notebooks on 43folders, i assume someone has
something to say about this.


sps
------------------------------

>>
The notebook, made by Modo & Modo, a firm created in the 1990's, is
fine overall. But the paper quality could be higher-I can clearly see
the writing on the other side, no matter what pen I use. I find the
elastic band unnecessary and an annoyance upon closing the notebook.
The binding and cover are sturdy though. So overall, it's a fine
notebook, but nothing exceptional, and thus overpriced. There are
other notebooks of similar format with equal or superior quality.

So my friend's enthusiasm for it perplexed me. To hear him, the
"notebook" had just been invented; a new tool was available. As if no
one had used a notebook before. I soon discovered the trigger for this
attitude was the proclaimed "legendary" character of the notebook,
with past users apparently including Hemingway, Picasso, Matisse, Van
Gogh, and others. The thought of using the same notebook as such
intellectual giants was exciting to him, and unconsciously made him
unduly pleased with his notebook.

This claim perplexed me, as years ago I saw Picasso and Hemingway
notebooks, and my recollection of them was different. Hemingway was
well-known for writing on notepads or in "blue French notebooks" and
you can find several references to this on the Internet. On the John
F. Kennedy Library and Museum web site, you can also see a picture of
Hemingway's notebooks, which look just the way I remembered them, and
nothing like the Moleskine notebook.

Another claim by Modo and Modo is appearances by its notebooks in
various movies. It claims the Grail Diary in "Indiana Jones and The
Last Crusade" is a Moleskine. In fact, the diary is a prop made for
the movie. You can see pictures and descriptions of it on the Indygear
Web site. It has a soft, brown leather cover. The elastic band is
loose, sometimes used horizontally, sometimes vertically. So the diary
has nothing in common with a Moleskine.

The Modo & Modo claim of legendary history is thus deceptive. Their
trademark of the word moleskine is also suspicious. Years ago, many
notebooks had an oilcloth, moleskine cover, then the cheaper
alternative to leather for a durable cover. These notebooks were not
superior to what we have today; it was just what was available then.
But there are many instances of people in the past, famous or not,
using a moleskine-covered notebook. The trademark is a clear intention
to be the exclusive beneficiary of this history. It's akin to getting
a trademark on the word "leather", making notebooks, and claiming that
anyone who used leather-covered notebooks used yours.

Modo & Modo is evidently using a deceitful, manipulative marketing
campaign that plays on people's desire to have something in common
with the legends. It claims a legendary history to get people unduly
excited and affectionate of its notebook, promote sales, and command a
higher price. Falling for this deception is certainly not the way to
join the intellectual elite.


>>>

[Brian Carnell]

You might find this interesting:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A1113346

"The consumer should bear in mind that Modo and Modo's claims are based
on the Moleskine's original design, and not the Modo and Modo product."

I like my Moleskine but clearly the Modo and Modo marketing campaign is
extremely deceptive.

[LeftBlank]

Marketing is marketing. I think the paper is fine and the notebooks
have a good feel.
The elastic holds it shut and is a selling point, as is the bookmark.
Were these the
originals used by the various artists and writers -- no, but they are
a reasonable
facsimile. The pocket in the back is quite nice. Yes, it is just a
notebook. But a lot of
getting organized, and a lot of writing, is about set and setting, and
for me, these notebooks
have been useful for creating a setting. I use them for special
creative projects, and there
are any number of Web sites that focus on this -- see www.moleskinerie.com.
But I don't know that you want to burn through a bunch of them for a
GTD system - they
are pretty expensive if you're using them for perishable lists. And as
for 43folders.com,
they do have a financial relationship, selling moleskines through Yahoo.

[John SJ Anderson]

> But the paper quality could be higher-I can clearly see
> the writing on the other side, no matter what pen I use.

The paper has a nice "feel" to it, and the color is nice (it's an
off-white/cream, so you don't get the glare issues you do with bright
white paper), but I have noticed a bit of a bleed problem when using
thicker point pens (0.7mm is sometimes okay; 1.0mm is a problem). Gels
seem to be more of a problem than ballpoints.

As for the elastic band complaints, it doesn't look like it would be
that hard to remove it in a reasonably clean fashion -- stretch it
out, get a razor blade in there, and bing-bam-boom, Robert is your
father's brother.

cheers,
john.

--
genehack.org * weblog == ( bioinfo / linux / opinion / stuff )

[Michael Gmail]

On May 10, 2005, at 10:15 PM, Stephen Schaefer wrote:

> I read the following review on Amazon.com
> (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00069DKWK/
> qid=1115780636//002-0138113-5096009?v=glance&s=hpc&n=507846)
> and was wondering if this person's criticisms were founded or
> misleading, especially the part about the paper. Considering the
> promotion of these notebooks on 43folders, i assume someone has
> something to say about this.

It doesn't take a whole lot of research to determine that Hemingway
et al didn't use actual Modo & Modo Moleskine brand notebooks--in
fact if you read carefully it's clear from the little "history" sheet
that comes with them. Personally I don't have a problem with a little
clever marketing, but I guess I can see how someone who bought into
the "legend" a little too enthusiastically might be miffed. As for
the paper quality, I only have one pocket-sized notebook that I
picked up just to see what the fuss is all about, and it's nice but
nothing extraordinary. Ink does show through, but just barely. The
partially sewn binding (not sure of the correct terminology--the
pages are sewn together but the entire bundle of pages is glued to
the cover) is OK. All in all I'd have to agree that it's a nice
notebook, but overpriced for the actual value. But then, I hardly use
it (I'm more of a tear-off legal pad kinda guy), and there do seem to
be a lot of enthusiastic users on this list, so maybe they'll have a
different opinion.

Michael


--
<http://globalocal.blogspot.com/>

It's not sinister. It's just marketing.
- Jeff

[Bryan Ewbank]

I've been disappointed in my Moleskine; it fell apart (cover pulled
away from binding) within a few months. It now sits in a drawer. :-(

[LeftBlank]

Mine haven't fallen apart, and while the writing is visible, it's not
really because
the ink is bleeding through. It doesn't interfere with the writing on the other
side -- you can just tell there is something on the other side. But to each his
own -- it's a quality product in my view, though it wouldn't take much
-- crappier binders, thinner paper, for the quality to go down.

[gordon hurd]

Why anyone would buy a notebook just because some marketing copy
claimed Hemingway, et. al. used it is beyond me. Seems like trying to
find out what kind of laser printer paper Stephen King prints his
novels on (or something like that)...

On 5/11/05, Michael Gmail <mgr...@gmail.com> wrote:

[LeftBlank]

It's the mystique, baby. Drive this car, you'll be cooooool. You may
decry the idiocy but it works. Sadly.

[bigdragon]

Hey all,

There are some good points raised here: It's so tempting to be in some
'secret' band of creative types, to have chanced upon - unknown and
unexpected - a great secret. I feel that a lot of the 'Moleskinesque'
webpages that we see are no more than covert viral marketing ploys. And
they work - I've gone out and bought a Moleskine myself. But real
artists / dreamers / poets / philosphers / diarists / notetakers and
plain old compulsive paper-purchasers, well they write because 'its' in
them; the urge to be, to release on paper, some part of oneself. But
the page can be lonely too and it's only natural for us to want to face
that off-white challenge in the company of others - even if we only
know that those others are out there in time and space. Hey, thanks for
the marketing to let me know that I don't need to be alone!

Perhaps (hopefully) what people are really excited about is the idea of
thinking and writing when all they seem to be doing is raving as if the
notebook had just been invented?

[LeftBlank]

I've used many kinds of notebooks. Some are kind of cheap and crappy and don't
hold up over time. I'm thinking spiral bound type stuff.
There are many notebooks similar to the moleskine line in some respects,
and I've used those occasionally. I've picked them up in odd little
stationary stores,
but then when I've gone back to find the same type, well, they simply aren't
mass produced, or I forgot the brand or whatnot.
So if people have found a brand of notebook that is widely
distributed, consistent in
its quality and does the job, then so be it. I know that some people
are uncomfortable
with marketing and being subjected to it, but it's a fact of life.
Look at all the people
buying iBooks and upgrading to Tiger. Mac is marketing, marketing is Mac.
Do you have an ipod instead of an iriver? Marketing.
Do you yearn to drive a hybrid car? There's some marketing for a
certain kind of person.
And GTD is, of course, a lovely viral marketing scheme.

[Emily Price]

It seems like the moleskine-liking side of the group really hasn't
jumped in much on this one yet. I definitely understand a lot of the
arguments people have made--Moleskines are certainly expensive
compared to drugstore notebooks, but when you compare them to similar
high-quality notebooks or sketchbooks, they don't look quite as bad.

As for the thin paper, its never really been a problem for me. I
mostly use pencil, which works just fine. Ballpoint and other
non-liquid pens do show through a little bit, but I don't find it
distracting. My fountain pen works nicely without bleeding through. I
do have a few fiber-tip pens that bleed through the paper, but I just
try not to use them with the Moleskines. The upside of the thin paper
is that you get a lot of pages in a pretty small notebook.

One features that differentiates them from a lot of other similar
notebooks is the wonderful pocket. I'm quite a packrat, so I
absolutely love the pocket. That alone is almost worth paying the
premium.

Contrary to what someone else said, I find them to be quite durable. I
have one for almost 3 years that I carry with me almost constantly and
its still in great shape except for a little purely cosmetic wear at
the top and bottom of the spine. It's certaintly in no danger of
falling apart.

My favorite things about the Moleskines, though, are that they're
pretty easy to find repeatedly and that they come in a wide variety of
styles. I hate falling in love with a product only to discover when I
need a new one that they no longer make them or they've been subtly
changed. And I like that I can have books for a variety of different
purposes that all match. I have a planner, a gridded notebook, and a
sketchbook that I carry with me and an address-book style that I use
to keep track of new and interesting words I come across. I love that
I can have the right book for each of these purposes and still have
them all match.

Finally, I find Moleskines to be just the right size. Big enough to
write in easily and to get a fair amount of information on one page,
but small enough to be extremely easy to carry.

There's a lot of great things about Moleskines that have nothing to do
with their (admittedly quite silly) marketing campaign. Anyway, thanks
for hearing out the other side of the camp.

- Emily

[LeftBlank]

I just spent five days in the hospital after a trip to the doctor led to
the emergency room and I happened to have a small
moleskine with me. I used it to write down doctor's numbers, symptoms,
things I wanted to ask or remember. The back pocket served as a wallet
-- my health card,
credit card and some money to buy newspapers and sundries.
I wouldn't want my wallet lying around the hospital but nobody would
think to bother with a notebook, I suspect. It was handier than index cards
to have around, and quite comforting, something familiar.