This weekend, I decide to give the spiral notebook a try. So I bought
a relatively cheap (under $4) one from Bob Slate stationer: heavy-
weight paper, unruled, 80 pp, with a Harvard University insignia on
the cover. But after writing in it for about 8 hours, I had to go back
to the Moleskine XL Cahier.

I was thinking of switching to spiral because the spiral lets you fold
the notebook back on itself and still lay it flat on the surface. You
can't do that so easily with a Cahier. So I tended to use the Cahier
spread open. This took up more room, and forced me to shift the Cahier
around as you go from writing on the left-hand page to the right-hand
page.

But what I learned during my experiment with spiral-binding is that
this is a small inconvenience compared to an inherent awfulness of
spiral bindings. With a spiral-bound notebook, the pages tend to catch
on the spirals as you turn them; I found myself pulling and jigglng
pages to get them to turn completely. So while the spiral binding
makes it possible to fold the notebook completely back on itself, it
also makes the more basic action of turning pages much more awkward
and disruptive to the flow of your thoughts.

And then there is the cover. The cover of the Bob Slate notebook is
rigid cardboard, with a rather garish yellow color and design. Now I
really appreciate the flex of the Cahier's cardboard cover. The flex
is just right. And whether in black or buff, the Cahier has
understated elegance and grace.

Finally, the paper. The difference between the bleached white pages of
the Bob Slate notebook and the soft, creamy yellow pages of the
Moleskine cahier is like the difference between flourescent office
lighting and candlelight. The feel of the paper is different too. The
Moleskine Cahier has a different friction when you write on it, and
for me, the friction is just right.

My cheap fling with the spiral-bound notebook is over. I've returned
to the notebook I have enjoyed using, and actually used, far more than
any other over the last two years: the string-bound Moleskine XL
unlined Cahier. It remains a joy to write in, to peruse, and to carry
around.