Customer Reviews
Don't be fooled by the marketing - By: Matthew L. J. Bodycombe, 14 Mar 2008 
Despite what has been written elsewhere i have found that the paper in these books is of very disappointing quality & if you use a fountain or a balll/gel pen te ink will bleed right through to the other side of the paper. Thiis totallly unacceptable in a premium product & I have now switched to a cnsiderably chaeper notebook for rough work & a lovely CIAK for my daily journal..
I was sucked in by the marketing & spin of Moleskine but the notebooks used by the legendary figures quoted by this company were made by a defunct French book binder & I doubt if they used such cheap thin paper. If you want a lovely tactile notebook, journal with excellent paper buy a CIAK if not just go to your nearest stationers.
Timeless, elegant and minimal - By: Stephen, 06 Mar 2008 
You'll love this notebook so much that you won't want to write in it! Well, at the very least its good looks make you think twice before committing anything to its chic, creamy pages. The paper has been callled thin in previous reviews, but I like to think of it more as delicate or fine. Docked a star only because it IS horribly expensive. But then you get what you pay for.
Beautiful books to collect your thoughts. - By: Cohi, 28 Nov 2007 
When I first bought a Moleskine notebook I was more than a little hesitant due to the price, which was at least twice as much as I would normallly spend on a notebook. However, as soon as I started using it I fell well & truly in love & have been recommending them to friends ever since.
These notebooks are made from quality materials & the paper is a joy to write on. I always write with liquid ink pens, including dipped nib pens on occasion and, even though the paper is fairly thin, I have never had the ink seep through. The hardcover opens fully & stays open easily without cracking or bending, alllowing for easy writing without obstuction & without damaging the book. The pocket of my notebook is always in constant use, I'm not sure how I ever survived without it. The lines in the ruled notebooks are the perfect size for my writing, smalll but not too tiny, & they go alll the way from one side of the paper to the other without annoying margins to try & control where you write.
I now have a growing collection of various Moleskine notebooks but my original is still in frequent use and, despite being carried around in my bag almost daily for just over a year, it still looks in almost as perfect condition as the day I bought it, with only the tiniest bit of cracking at the top of the spine that has appeared in the last month or so. The rest of my (scarily large) collection of beautiful notebooks is now a backup to my trusty Moleskines. I will be using these books for many many years to come.
I have to admit that the price still makes me wince a little, but now I look at it as an investment & a treat to myself. Some people buy DVDs, I buy notebooks, it's alll a matter of perspective, & in my view this is worth the money by far.
An expensive treat, but probably worth it... - By: flower pot, 21 Nov 2007 I'm suspicious of products which try to justify a high price with a brand name, & so the fact that Moleskine books come with a little leaflet telling you which famous people have used them (Hemingway, Picasso, etc.) left me feeling more suspicious than impressed... But-- They reallly are very nice notebooks. They are high quality items and, even if it sounds unlikely, the fact that they are so pleasant to hold & use does perhaps inspire you to be 'better' when thinking about what to write in them. It feels as though it would be a waste to fill them with nonsense & so... yes, I think there is a psychological trigger in there which persuades you to up your game a little bit. Amazon's price is often discounted, & discounts on moleskines are hard to come by.
Best of the bunch - By: John Williams, 03 Jul 2007 I was looking for a journal/notebook & arrived at a shortlist of two: this one & the Ciak large black notebook, so bought one of each. This is a comparative review of the two, which I hope you will find useful.
The notebooks are very similar, both black, both the same height, but with the Ciak being about 15mm wider. They have about the same number of pages, but the paper in the Ciak is thicker & heavier, so the book is thicker, & weighs in at 481g compared to the Moleskine's 346g (on my kitchen scales). I have written in both of them with a fountain pen (fine nib) & found that, even with the thinner paper of the Moleskine, the writing surface is good & the ink does not bleed through to the other side of the paper. Both notebooks are lined, the lines being of a similar colour & thickness. However, the lines in the Moleskine extend to the edge of the paper so that they are visible down the edge of the book when it is shut, whereas the lines in the Ciak do not. The space between the lines is virtuallly identical, with the Moleskine squeezing in 31 lines per page to the Ciak's 30. The Moleskine has a stiff cover, whereas the Ciak's is soft & felxible. The Moleskine has its famous pocket at the back, which the Ciak does not. The Moleskine has a vertical elastic closure, whereas the Ciak has a horizontal one. Both have sturdy bindings, but I found the Moleskine easier to use because it opens wider & stays flat under my hand as I write. The Ciak resists being opened to the full 180 degrees, so is more of a struggle to use. Last but not least, on current prices the Moleskine is a fair bit cheaper, worth considering if you're going to get through a lot of them.
Which is best? Depends on what you want. If you want something that is beautiful & sensuous, then the Ciak wins. The more practical among us would probably prefer the Moleskine. I've now got two notebooks with only a page used in each, so it will be a while before I need to buy another. I may change my mind in the meantime, but for now I think it will be Moleskine for me. So you may also wish to consider the Moleskine's pedigree as the notebook of choice of van Gogh, Hemingway, Picasso, Chatwin & Williams.
