Only recently have I heard of Moleskine – an artistic-style notebook brand. I was intrigued but held off being too interested because of price – they’re fairly expensive. When I found out they’re available in the BYU bookstore I gave in. I thought I might as well try them.

I purchased a set of three of the Cahier – small, gridded paper with a soft, brown cover. Here are my first impressions:

Likes: The size is good. I got the small size because I wanted to be able to carry it in my pocket. I’m taking a cue from my co-worker Ben on this one – he carries his in his shirt pocket. Pocket-size means I can take it everywhere and use it when inspiration strikes. The spine is stitched instead of stapled. This lends a nice handcrafted quality to the notebook. And I like having the grid lines when I want to sketch so I get good proportions, alignment, etc.

Dislikes: The grid lines are way too dark. There wasn’t a sample open at the store so I just had to commit to the purchase before seeing the grid lines. Now I wish I had just purchased the notebook with blank pages – the grid lines are that dark. And they were very expensive. 3 notebooks cost me over 7 bucks and they’ve only got a few pages in them.

Conclusion: I’ll use these until they’re full – no sense in wasting them. And then I think I’ll actually make my own. I can purchase grid paper with much lighter lines. I can wrap it in heavyweight stock for a cover. I can stitch or staple it myself. It will be much cheaper and much better. I’ll write a follow-up when I get to that point.

Aside: Along with the notebooks, I bought a nice pen – Zebra Sarasa 0.7. I really like it. At $1.50 it was a good deal.