Moleskine Debacle
15 Jan
A little bit ago, I’d put a Moleskine on my holiday wish list. My boss, the gentle giant he is, bought me one. I was so ecstatic and so pleased with my new little notebook that I went out and bought myself the holiday color a month planner. This, sadly, was a mistake.
The moleskins I’m used to getting are beautiful, minimalistic affairs. Their pages are soft to the touch and nice to the pen. They’re a color that invokes soft and mellow feelings. The binding is a soft leather, usually black. Any variety you chose gives you a blank canvas to write your thoughts, stories, or observations in.
Reading Carefully
I am sure that some little sod back at that corporate office thought their description was accurate. I knew the booklets were going to come in 12 largely bright and cheery colors. I knew that there was going to be a bit of a size difference between what I’d normally handled. The booklets were going to be very small at 9cm by 14cm. That’s fine. The specs of the item include that, so I can consider myself an educated consumer.
But wait… let’s go over that written description, shall we?
An individual Volant daily planner for each month of the year. Light and practical to carry, easy to collect. The 12 months are packed in a gift box that protects, organizes, and preserves.
What I should have read from that is that these tiny books will come with a page a day that are broken apart with hourly labeled lines. What I am actually looking for is less of a planner and more of a diary. I should move on and find another product. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep moving. I hit buy.
My Mistake
When I received the product, my first impression was how small the box was. This was okay, I was expecting it. The very first thing I did was write my name in the book labeled 1 for January. Then, I flipped through the rest of the book. Oops.
Imagine my horror when I discovered that the first fifteen pages of every book was filled with fluff. Calendars for 2010 and 2011 were shoved into the front. Conversion tables, world-wide holidays, travel logs, and time zones. While the ability to see international sizes for men’s and women’s clothing (shirts, pants, shoes) is really pretty cool, I’m not sure if I need it in a glorified diary.
While this may not seem that bad, it sure distracted me from the purpose of my book. I felt ripped off. I’d had almost been better buying one of the tiny little books and writing the dates on it myself. Sure, it may have cost a bit more, but I’d have gotten a product closer to what I wanted.
I have been using the little books, as I can’t return them because I wrote in them. The paper is wonderful. The binding is great. The size is perfect to pop in a pocket so I never leave the house without it. The first fifteen pages? Lost to me.
Look below to see my pain:
I tweeted with you about this but.
I personally love the 3.5″x5.5″ lined notebooks. I use them and scribble all the time, waiting for the bus, on the bus, on the metra, in meetings when I probably should be paying attention to other things… I used them exclusively when I went on a hiking trip in Japan (unlined) to document the adventures (there were doodles involved).
I saw these planner books in a store, open for someone to flip through, and I agree that the wasted space is annoying, but also the format felt ‘wrong’ to me.
Of note, I feel the same way about their ‘city’ books. I saw the Chicago one and thought about getting it to use to document my travels here, but then when I flipped through it, it’s full of ‘helpful’ crap. I’ll just get a regular unlined, paste in a map I print off Google, and draw instead.
You should have told me the comments were busted. I’d have taken care of that bugger.
The little ones are absolutely awesome. Next year, I may just make my own yearly log. I’ll miss the little printed dates on the top. For some reason, that gives me structure. I’ve never been able to keep up with a diary that didn’t have the days labeled.
I haven’t even looked at their city books. Are they really so useless?
Yeah, I love most of the Moleskine books (have several in different formats, but these are mostly useless. They take a minimalist approach with just about everything and then do this kindof stuff. If I wanted a dayplanner I might get it, but honestly that’s what iCal and other things are for (in my book).
I do think that Moleskine needs to describe some of their notebooks better, this is just ridiculous.