Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Monday, July 14, 2008
Make Mine Moleskine
I’ve been a Moleskine freak for several years after discovering this addictive little black notebook at a paper goods store in New York. How could I resist their simple marketing line: “The legendary notebook of Hemingway, Picasso, Chatwin.” And me!
I filled my first Moleskine with deep thoughts at a café in Paris so I didn’t feel quite so lonely eating alone. I bought my second Moleskine with a vivid purple cover at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I really wanted a yellow one (suggestive of Van Gogh’s sunflowers) but a colleague beat me to it. I have since tried to find the yellow one online. But alas, the colored covers seemed to be a Van Gogh Museum exclusive…until recently. You can now find them online in limited quantities and several brilliant colors by googling it online.
I’ve been a Moleskine freak for several years after discovering this addictive little black notebook at a paper goods store in New York. How could I resist their simple marketing line: “The legendary notebook of Hemingway, Picasso, Chatwin.” And me!
I filled my first Moleskine with deep thoughts at a café in Paris so I didn’t feel quite so lonely eating alone. I bought my second Moleskine with a vivid purple cover at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I really wanted a yellow one (suggestive of Van Gogh’s sunflowers) but a colleague beat me to it. I have since tried to find the yellow one online. But alas, the colored covers seemed to be a Van Gogh Museum exclusive…until recently. You can now find them online in limited quantities and several brilliant colors by googling it online.
What makes Moleskine so special? The pocket size (lined, unlined or art paper) is perfect for travelers, artists, writers and dreamers. It includes a cloth bookmark to save your pages, an elastic clasp to keep it tightly shut and a delicious little pocket in the back where you can store ticket stubs, pictures, flowers or other little mementos. Oh, and it is politically correct as no moles were killed or skinned in its manufacture.
What people really care passionately about is using their Moleskine creatively. It even has its own blog called Moleskinerie. There is the global Wandering Moleskine Project, and you can see a cool collection of Moleskine art on Flickr. But the best site of all may be Moleskine’s company site, which includes stories and pictures of famous notebook users such as Apollinaire, Sartre, Paul Bowles, Gertrude Stein, Chatwin and Picasso.
So what if my current Moleskine is filled with prosaic work notes, and lists of books, films, music, meals and wines I hope to experience? By turning to a fresh page and applying my pen, I enter the magical realm of “the Moleskine writer.”
Books Glorious Books
I hate driving (see my bio to know why). So when I traded my 15 minute commute to a job 45 minutes away, I decided I needed a way to make the time pass without freaking out in freeway traffic. The solution: books on CD. It’s been a while since anyone read me a story so I was concerned that I’d have a hard time concentrating. However, after 3 months of listening, I’ve discovered a whole new world of books that I’d never considered before. My first book, 1776, by David McCullough was the perfect listen as I drove home in the Bay Area’s winter of 2006 torrential rains. If our Revolutionary War soldiers could plod through battlefields streaking the snow red with their bloody bare feet, then I could surely cope with crawling traffic in my heated mobile cocoon. More recently, I moved on to some recorded mysteries like my first Richard North Patterson thriller, Honeymoon.
I’m tempted to sign up for Simply Audiobooks where for $9.95/month and up, I can have the latest bestsellers sent to me, like Netflix. It sounds like a great deal but the public library is a better one--it’s still free. And, because my local library has limited offerings, I’ve been forced to discover new genres like Chick Lit and History that I wouldn’t ordinarily read. Most libraries also allow you to request books on CD that aren’t in stock and reserve them for a small fee. So, traffic roll on: I’m catching up on my reading.
I hate driving (see my bio to know why). So when I traded my 15 minute commute to a job 45 minutes away, I decided I needed a way to make the time pass without freaking out in freeway traffic. The solution: books on CD. It’s been a while since anyone read me a story so I was concerned that I’d have a hard time concentrating. However, after 3 months of listening, I’ve discovered a whole new world of books that I’d never considered before. My first book, 1776, by David McCullough was the perfect listen as I drove home in the Bay Area’s winter of 2006 torrential rains. If our Revolutionary War soldiers could plod through battlefields streaking the snow red with their bloody bare feet, then I could surely cope with crawling traffic in my heated mobile cocoon. More recently, I moved on to some recorded mysteries like my first Richard North Patterson thriller, Honeymoon.
I’m tempted to sign up for Simply Audiobooks where for $9.95/month and up, I can have the latest bestsellers sent to me, like Netflix. It sounds like a great deal but the public library is a better one--it’s still free. And, because my local library has limited offerings, I’ve been forced to discover new genres like Chick Lit and History that I wouldn’t ordinarily read. Most libraries also allow you to request books on CD that aren’t in stock and reserve them for a small fee. So, traffic roll on: I’m catching up on my reading.
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