beware any enterprise that requires expensive accessories

[apologies to Thoreau]

So I have noticed a lot of hubbub about Moleskine paper products, these really nice notebooks that Bruce Chatwin made famous. I look at them. They’re nice looking. They feel good. They exude exotic adventure and travel, risk and romance.

MoleskineUS:

Moleskine is a family of notebooks for different functions, pursuits, and endeavors – personal and professional.

Fortunately, impressionable as I am, I never bought any, even when I was reading Chatwin. I have accumulated lots of other ‘blank books’ and kept some travel journals, but I find that those old school composition books are just as good.

composition books @ froogle:

Results 1 – 10 of about 38 confirmed / 155 total results for “composition books”. (0.23 seconds)

Cheaper, by far, available everywhere, and if you really get off the beaten track, you might find something local (rice paper? hand-sewn paper?) that has more than mere connotations of exotica.

I’m too utilitarian for Moleskine, I’m afraid. One argument in their favor, on a practical level, is that if you buy a nice quality journal, you’re more likely to keep it up. I don’t know if that would work for me . . . . I can drop an expensive habit just as easily as a cheap one.

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