The moleskine phenomenon has been very strange. They’re an extremely popular notebook, often for very silly reasons. I won’t go into the company’s largely bogus claims that its product is the same kind of notebook that Chatwin, Hemingway and a bunch of Left Bank poets used. The very clever marketing of Modo & Modo, the company that brought the notebook (or something very similar to it) back in 1998 after a 12-year hiatus and — most importantly — bought the rights to the name moleskine, has given people the impression that if they get one, they’re tapping into some tradition of creativity.
They are, however, good notebooks, and anything that is a pleasure to write in increases creativity. But there are a number of very common complaints. They are that the covers are not durable enough, especially at the top and bottom of the spine. Another is that the paper is not very good for fountain pens. Flexible pen nibs will result in feathering and will bleed through to the other side of the page. Another complaint is the price. Here in Greece, the small one goes for about 12€ and the large one for 16€.
There are a lot of imitation moleskines by companies trying to cash in on the craze, but they almost always fail to capture all the advantages that moleskines have.
But yesterday I found one that’s even better than the “original”. It’s by GREENAPPLE. More on that later.
It has everything the moleskine has: the elastic band, the pocket at the back, the bookmark; the only thing it doesn’t have is the form on the inside cover to write your name and address, which is hardly necessary anyway. The cover is much more durable, since it’s not oilcloth, but a sort of fake leather, and the binding is much stronger. Even the elastic band is better. If it has any disadvantage it’s that it opens up only slightly less flat than molelskines do. But only very slightly less.
The paper is the same cream colour, and is perhaps a little thicker. Unfortunately, it’s not any better for fountain pens. I inked up my old Waterman Ideal, which has a very flexible nib and a very wet line, and it feathered and bled through. I used my Lamy AL-star, which is an ideal fountain pen for moleskine paper, and it was fine. In the picture it seems to have bled through, but it really hasn’t.
Now, here’s the best part: the price. The small notebook was a mere 3.80€ and the large one only 6.80€. They come in different colours, too. There’s a blue one, a dark brown-nearly black one, and a nice burgundy coloured one.
And here’s the worst part: I can’t find them online anywhere. I’ve been able to find a company that produces Green Apple notebooks, but they don’t seem to have this particular notebook. I’m not even sure if it’s the same one. The logo doesn’t seem to be the same.
If anyone knows anything about this company or this notebook, please let me know. They produce a very good product for a very good price, and deserve to be more widely known.
[...] notebooks under the name Moleskine coasts on the idea that people who write in them are “tapping into some tradition of creativity.” (See [...]
Hi-
The logo on the notebook would make it a product of:
Anshan Green Apple Stationery Co., Ltd.
No. 4 Yongning Road, Texi District
114014 Anshan Liaoning
China
But I have no idea who their distributors are.
Thanks a lot, David.
I was able to find their website however
http://www.greenapple-china.com
Oooooooo, there’s nothing like a good notebook for writing in outdoors. I must see if that exists here in France.
They look very similar to the Notables notebooks sold in the UK.
Looks like a rip-off of the Moleskine (although the yellow cover is usually associated with quadrille Moleskines). I don’t know if they are available here in the US but even if so, I wouldn’t buy one, even at half the price of the Moleskine. For no other reason than it’s just another Chinese rip off of someone elses design.
Looks like.
What do you mean, “looks like”? Things are very simple: someone sees that a certain product sells absurdly well. They try to get in on the action. Simple economics.
Not to mention that the Chinese are the ones already making Modo & Modo’s notebooks.
I’m sure Modo & Modo are absolutely thrilled with your slavish loyalty to their design, especially when you fork over all that money.
But I’m not looking at a picture. I have the thing in my hands. It’s not just another Chinese rip-off. It’s better than the Moleskines.
If using someone else’s notebooks gets in the way of your sense of authenticity, by all means, keep supporting Modo & Modo in their worthy cause of lying to a bunch of fools and raking in the money.
The Moleskine crap is just another example of clever marketing and exploiting the craving of the consumers for a “piece of history” to stick in their briefcase, bag, or desk drawer. I once had a lady friend who would spend a fortune buying Moleskines to commit her many useless thoughts to paper. She ordered by mail because you couldn’t find them here in Athens anywhere back then. From time to time, I got a brand new one from the pile myself to keep for my everyday notes. Quality was OK and I did get used to the feel and look of the thing. Did you get your Greenapple at a bookstore?
Yes, I got it in a store.
I agree with you that there’s a great deal of pretentiousness and silliness to the whole thing, such as moleskine spotting in films, but a lot of people who agree with us still believe that they’re more enjoyable to write in, and that’s pretty significant. Artists seem to like them, although their paper is not the best for pencil. It’s better for pens. There are plenty of excellent hardcover sketchbooks for artists out there, but they tend not to be as convenient in size and they don’t open as flatly. At least not immediately.
So unlike Mark above, I think it’s a good thing if other companies start doing what Modo & Modo did: copy the original. This authenticity question is idiotic.
Does anyone know of an online store that sells these? I can’t find one anywhere.
~S
Hey Thomas. Thanks for sending me over! I’ve practically abandoned the Moleskine in favor of Clairefontaine basic notebooks. They don’t have a hard cover, which is annoying, and they don’t fold flat until I’ve battered them a little, but the paper is divine. Seriously. I’d use it for bedsheets.
I saw what appears to be an identical notebook on sale in the UK stationary shop, Rymans. In fact I bought an A5 size version and it was lass than half the price of a Moleskine. Moleskine are expensive but the smooth paper handles pencil really nicely.
I’ve been a loyal moleskine user for quite some years now. Those little notebooks and I clicked immediately and are inseparable ever since, through good times and bad, moleskine’s been my most reliable and intimate companion through life.
however, I’ve always had an issue about the cost of it. it’s not that i can’t afford them. but i can’t help but feel somehow cheated and dirty about myself every time i cash out this unreasonable amount of money for _a notebook_.
i very much doubt that Hemingway, chatwin, van gogh or who ever the hell used these notebooks a century ago would deign to buy one if not use one if they were alive today. what, this, this notebook every yuppie has nowadays to jot down golf scores and how much the new ipod costs?!
they would have used cheap notebooks, possibly or even probably Chinese knockoffs, yes, because they are artists and generally don’t have money to throw away, and many of them wouldn’t buy them even if they had. mark rhotko turned thought it was immoral to pay more than $5 for a meal, let alone a notebook.
not that i think of myself as an artist, quite the opposite. ergo, all the more reason not to pay so much for my worthless scribbling. therefore, BRING ON THE CHINESE KNOCKOFFS, let’s teach those greedy Italian bastards a lesson!