I’ve always liked the idea of having a notebook; the kind made of paper (I like the electronic versions that you tap into too, but more about those later). I like the look and the feel of notebooks, and the idea of having get acres and acres of blank pages, just urging me to spill my thoughts.

Then there’s the feeling when you look back on your work (provided you don’t have trouble deciphering your own chicken scratch). Of course, not everything you scrawl will see the light of day, but there is always that gem of an idea waiting to be shared. And it will be locked safely on organic two-dimensional space.

I picked up the New York Times Magazine a few weeks ago and found a fascinating article on the Moleskine Notebook. Even though I must have purchased every exotic book of blank paper under the sun over the past thirty years, I had never got a Moleskine; until now.

The Moleskine story seems to be a wonderful example of good marketing (with the likes of Van Gogh and Hemingway rumored to have been Moleskine users), and has even spawned a blog dedicated to the ways people use their Moleskines (The moleskinerie). Well now I’ve got a Moleskine and I’m giving a try; I’ll let you know how it works out.