Leigh Reyes. My Life As a Verb.

I have learned that an excellent way to mitigate Notebook Overpurchase Guilt (NOGuilt) is to write reviews of said notebooks. That way, every time I purchase yet another notebook I cannot possibly need, I feel like I am doing others a service. 

(Insert self-justification hurl here.)

Out of such mental contortions a good thing occasionally surfaces. Like the V-book™, which I found in National Bookstore at Shangri-la Plaza. 

V-book A6 unlined journal

The cover is faux leather, embossed with a mandala-ish pattern that crosses from front to back. It closes with a magnetic strap, has 96 sheets of acid-free paper and sports an expandable inner pocket. Those who seek the comfort of black covers are out of luck; the unlined journals come in dark brown and light brown, the lined in green with the phrase “green apple” incised in front. 

V-book, expandable inner pocket

I don’t know why the inner pockets have to be *that* expandable. I’ve only ever managed to fit 2 or 3 receipts in them without making the journal look like it’s had too much for lunch.

V-book and Moleskine

The Moleskine sketch notebook on the right is slightly smaller, and slimmer.

V-book and Moleskine (unlined reporter) writing samples (click to enlarge)

The V-book’s paper can hold its own against the Moleskine’s, and actually performs better in resisting bleedthrough and feathering. Do note I didn’t use the same inks in both (which should tell you that the scientific method and I are not friends).

V-book and Moleskine (unlined reporter) writing samples, back of page (click to enlarge)

While retail for the Moleskine is around Php700, the V-book sells for Php185. The label at the back says National Bookstore is the distributor, so I don’t expect you can find this journal in a competitive outlet. If you were thinking of buying the Scribe, get the V-book instead. (That is, if you have no objections to brown. And mandalas.)

What can I say? I doodle. My brain cannot handle meetings without doodling. As I have at least five meetings a day, I have doodle opportunities the poor one-meeting-a-day person can never hope to have.

Of All the Evenings

I doodled this one over several meetings, using a Nakaya with an EF nib, a Stipula Ventidue with a 1.1 mm nib, and another Nakaya with an elastic super fine nib.

16 Miles lyrics

I washed the edge after the meeting. I think pens are fine in meetings, but bringing out a watercolor brush – well, people might think I’m not paying attention.

The Penalty

The flexible stub on my Danitrio Dragon and Phoenix is delicious to doodle with. It comes to meetings with me all the time. Not for anything as lowly as taking down minutes, of course.

Hope for the disorganized-in-denial is now available at Fully Booked.

Moleskine has released many diary flavors, from weekly vertical to one day at a time to a special edition with an Italian patent leather cover. (Consumer insight: Shiny cover just might be more visible inside bag stuffed with year-old receipts, three kinds of lip balm and keychains dangling keys to forgotten cabinets.) I didn’t get the special edition. It costs more than three times the regular one, and a shiny cover does not stand a chance amidst all the other shiny things in my bag, like pens.

Moleskine Weekly Diary + Notebook 2008-2009

So I bought this one. The Weekly Diary + Notebook 2008-2009. With the “18 month diary” starburst. It’s thicker than the regular Moleskine. I don’t know what to do with the Address Book Insert, but I am certainly grateful for the Hard Cover. I wrote in it yesterday, using an extra-fine nib, because the paper can’t handle anything broader, or wetter. Please, universe, let this attempt at organizing my life work. I already use Evernote, iCal, the Calendar function in Entourage, and occasionally my assistant, and throwing one more into the stew won’t harm.

Or it might. Who knows? It will be an adventure.

We’re shooting at Pinto Gallery in Antipolo. Stairs of stone and cement lead to and from pockets of gardens and ponds. There is a whiff of delightful dereliction about the place, a devil-may-care attitude towards cobwebs and lichen. There are sculptures almost indistinguishable in texture from the grass and soil and wood that surround them. There is a headless, armless Amazon in stone, a man overtaken by snails, a couple in clay staring across the pool to the trees beyond. There is a chapel, with Christ floating on the wall without a cross. There are stands of bamboo, succulent leaves larger than umbrellas, and unclothed wooden saints.

Ah, I thought, a perfect place to shoot my pens.

Blessed be the Tibaldi Iride.

Frog met frog, but nothing came of their encounter.

The new Bexley sleeve filler got a taste of the limelight, in a sawn-off bamboo rod.

And a tiny tribute to the overwhelmed man in the garden.

I’d like to come back here. And sleep.

This was a quick exercise using three different nibs on Moleskine reporter notebook paper: a Bexley fine (bright green ink), a crisp italic from Mr. Binder (spring green ink), and a vintage Parker Lucky Curve nib (burgundy ink). The Bexley fine works out better than the other two, which have a touch more tooth (in the case of the italic, more than enough tooth to qualify as a veritable bite!). For everyday use, a plain vanilla fine or extra-fine nib with a quick-drying ink will let you enjoy your Moleskine reporter notebook more.

PS. Thank you, moleskinerie.com, for featuring my Hello There 2008 image!

I’d give it an A for looks an a C+ for paper performance.

I bought several Moleskine reporter notebooks in Fully Booked, the unruled version. The format interested me: compact, with the binding on top instead of on the left side. Ever since Chiqui introduced me to Moleskines, I’ve always had at least one on standby. The flavor I prefer is the sketch notebook. The paper is substantial, and has a tinge of warmth. I’ve had issues with fountain pen ink beading on the paper surface, but it has become an additional texture to my calligraphic work rather than an intrusion.

I felt let down by the flimsy paper inside, but gave it a shot anyway, creating two detailed calligraphy exercises, using nibs with high flex. As I expected, I got bleeding and feathering – but not as bad as I had feared. Ink bleeds through and makes the reverse of the page I’m working on useless, but at least feathering is kept to a minimum. So if I skip every other page, my work still looks clean.

The vertical format is good for me. My first stroke doesn’t go where I usually put it – on the upper left of the page – and that is an intriguing change.

The Reporter notebook’s paper feels like it will be more amenable to crayon, graphite and collage work. Perhaps there lies another Moleskine adventure.