Moleskine
23 October 2004, late afternoon
Write Impressions is a stationary shop down the road from where I live. While wandering Bloor West looking for a bathroom mat I stopped in to see what the store had to offer up. I left with a small card for Shima, with a simple quote by Goete: There is nothing more important than today. The store sold Moleskine notebooks, which I glanced at quickly before coming home.
Today I wandered Bloor street again. The streets were full of people today. It must be the sun. During the fall and winter people really do start to miss the sun; I know I did. I walked alone towards Jane, and then turned right back around and walked back. Every so often I would duck into a shop to see what sorts of things they were selling.
I ended up back at Write Impressions. I really wanted to get a notepad. I think Mezan’s subtle suggestions to get a Moleskine left some impression on me. I stood there looking at them for quite some time, and ended up buying the large ruled notepad. I must say it is a well crafted notepad.
I’m still not sure what I will do with it. I am thinking of keeping a journal—a real journal, one without hyperlinks and valid markup. So much has happened that I don’t want to forget, and at the same time don’t think I want to share with the whole world.
On an unrelated note, I find that I have been posting nothing but links here for the past few weeks. Though I will be the first to admit I have an aversion to overtly personal weblogs, I suspect that what makes weblogs so interesting to read is the personal nature of them. To this end, I hope to start posting to this web site at the same rate I was earlier in the summer.
I was definitely looking at the large ruled notebook. I write fiction and want someplace to write when I am not carrying a laptop, but I find that unless it feels special, I won’t use it for that.
I was trying to think today why it is that yours is one of my favorites weblogs. I read Neil Gaiman and Caitlin Kiernan – Neil provides tons of interesting links but is also really funny and shares a lot of cool stuff about the writing industry. Caitlin’s (she’s also an author) blog is moderately personal and shares a lot about the industry, as well. Most of the blogs I like most are personal and offer unique insight, and I was trying to figure out what it is that draws me to yours.
You aren’t terribly personal, but you share enough to get a sense of who you are. You always post tons of links that interest me, I love the pictures and the talk of photography. I enjoy the sketches, your nights out and all that, and the movie reviews. But I still can’t put my finger on it, the thing that keeps me coming back here everyday. But I am sure I’ll follow it in whatever direction it goes.
by Ben on October 24 2004, 3:26 pm #
Thanks for the nice words Ben. I’m glad to see people enjoy the site.
Also, for those in Toronto, Pickto in the distillery district sells the smaller ruled notebooks for 15 dollars CDN, which is 5 dollars less then the place that I bought my notebook from. They don’t sell the large notebooks however.
by ramanan on October 24 2004, 9:01 pm #