To the Left of Bill

I love Moleskine notebooks. Because I like to write. I have a lot of things to write about. I’ve always loved notebooks. I’ve always had collections of them lying around. Today I am going to expound on my many notebooks, their uses, and why each is suited for their specific task.

I always like to have some paper handy in case I come up with an idea to write down. I prefer to have a notebook for that purpose but before I discovered Moleskines about five years ago this just wasn’t plausable. The first time I came across a Moleskine was in my senior year of high school. It was the summer before senior year and I was at Barnes and Noble. I was looking at notebooks when I came across this little black pocket size notebook that I thought was absolutely beautiful. The leather-like cover along with its perfect size shape and thickness let me know this was the notebook for me. I use the original Moleskine pocket notebooks for ideas, journaling (the manly form of writing a diary), and anything else that I want to write. Originally I used it for song lyrics as well as the aforementioned tasks. My first one was a squared notebook. It was filled with graph paper perfect for either writing or drawing. This type of paper made it easy for my to ignore the lines when I wanted to write lyrics and draw or I could use the lines as one would use regular horizontally ruled notebook paper. Right now I have one I am using (I’m on my sixth since 2004) and a reserve of two ruled pocket notebooks.

Soon after I started using the regular pocket notebooks I discovered the music notebook. I bought it in 2006 and it hasn’t gotten too much use since then. Mainly because I don’t formally notate music although I know how and because the staff lines are too few and spaced too closely to use as tabs. I use this notebook of an index of finished songs. At least thats what I tell myself. I haven’t used it since early 2007. It contains tabs, chord charts, and keys that particular songs are written in. I actually just looked at it now and I am beginning to remember why I bought it. If it weren’t for this post I might not have ever used it again.

After I discovered the music notebook I found the Moleskine Cahier. I bought two sets of these (they come in packs of three). These notebooks are thin with a cardboard cover and a slit folder in the back instead of the regular accordion folder found on the other notebooks. I used these for different purposes. At first I carried them around when my pocket notebook was too bulky to bring or I knew I wanted to write but that material wasn’t of the quality that I felt should be allowed into my other notebooks. I ended up losing three of them and now I have three left. I have assigned each of them a different function. My black Cahier’s cover is decorated with rub-on letters (I would never decorate my truly important notebooks’ covers) spelling out “Job Book etc.”. As you can guess it holds job listings. The name of the company, the address, phone number, and any other important information about a job I would be applying for. My first brown Cahier is my daily planner. I only used this for school assignments and has become obsolete recently (I’ll explain why in a bit). My second brown Cahier has the same rub on lettering as the black Cahier this one spelling out “Phone Book 2008″. It’s a phone book. This one is also obsolete come 2009 or the last week of December.

Recently I bought a limited edition red ruled pocket Moleskine made for Barnes and Noble. I knew it had to have a special purpose because I will only use black moleskines for my personal writings. Soon after I got it I was offered a job as a programmer but I have to complete a task first. I knew then that the red pocket Moleskine would hold notes on the programming languages I am learning and bits of code and references to programming, my job (if I get it) etc. I’m already on page 61 and I just started using it a week ago today.

Last week I got my hands on a weekly planner and a Volant notebook. The Volant is the notebook I’d been waiting for my whole life. I didn’t think I’d be as impressed with any notebook as I was with the original pocket Moleskines but it happened. The Volant series come in all the sizes Moleskines come in but I got the standard pocket size. They come in packs of two. My two are blue and dark blue. They are softcover notebooks but aren’t cheap looking or feeling. Instead of a cardboard cover they have whatever leather-like coating the regular pocket notebooks have. Let’s just call it Mole Skin. They are thinner and have a little less than half the pages of a regular pocket Moleskine but I have found a special use for it. When I write music I can be anywhere. Inspiration doesn’t hit me when I sit down to write but everywhere I go. I don’t carry my pocket notebooks everywhere because the hard cover makes it hard to stash in the pockets of my jeans. Now that its winter this isn’t too much of an issue, I can always use my coat, but I digress. The Volant notebooks are the perfect way for me to keep a notebook handy when inspiration strikes. My light blue one will be dedicated to lyrics. I don’t know if I want to start using the Volant for my every day writing though. Its tempting. I do prefer to carry my regular pocket Mole instead. But even if I end up writing lyrics in my regular Mole it doesn’t matter because the main purpose of the Volant is to keep all lyrics in one central location instead of having to search for them in hundreds of pages of old Moles. So if I end up writing lyrics in a regular pocket Mole it can always be transfered to the Volant. The only thing I don’t like about them is that they don’t have the accordian folder in the back. They have no folder at all. You’d be suprised how useful that folder can be.

And last I have my weekly planner. It has a bunch of nifty tools in it like time zones and holidays for pretty much every country. It has dialing codes for foreign countries, its got it all. And its a bit thinner than a regular pocket mole. If I get this job it will come in handy for deadlines and whatnot. Even if I don’t I can always use a weekly planner. It has an address book insert too. So when the last week of December comes my three Cahiers will become obsolete and will need to find new niches.

Let me talk about pens now for a moment. When I write in a Moleskine it is a sacred thing. I don’t use just any old pen on my Mole. It has to be special. I don’t like ballpoint pens. The ink is too… well… it just doesn’t have that personal look and feel. I try to avoid gel pens too. They seem to flow out of the pen heavily and produce bold lines no matter how lightly you write. My perfect pen is a rollerball. When a rollerball says it has a fine tip it means it. Right now there are three pens that I use in all my Moles. First is my Silver Fisher Space Pen. The ink can be a little ballpointy at times but the writing is always smooth and it has portability you can’t beat. It looks like a little elongated bullet. Then when you take off the cap and put it on the other end it turns into a full sized pen. I also have a black Space Pen. I like this one because it still looks classy but since its not silver you’re not afraid to get fingerprints on it. Another perk is the detachable clip. Even though its small and should have no trouble in a pocket, I just like to clip pens to my breast pocket. Otherwise its the same pen as the silver one. My third and most used pen is my parker Jotter. I went through a couple Parker Jotters before I settled on the one I have. My first had a pastel green bottom half. I loved that pen. Unfortunately I lost it. Then I got one with a black bottom half. I don’t like the color. But now that I’m looking at it I think I’ll give it another chance. The one I’ve been using lately is all aluminum brushed metal. It writes like a dream even though I put gel ink in it. It originally came with a ballpoint refill but I bought the gel. They don’t have rollerballs for parker Jotters. It doesnt have the same problems I find with gel ink. It can take a little long to dry but I usually don’t have a problem with ink smearing on my Mole’s pages. It never bleeds though either. All in all it behaves like a rollerball most of the time.  The key word is MOST.

Now I have a dilemma. I am debating whether I should use pocket notebooks still or move on to the Volant style notebooks for the niche that the original pocket Mole carved. I could always try out a soft cover pocket Mole. Please comment with your advice. I know there are a ton of Mole freaks out there just like me.