Moleskine #14: "Inspiration"

"Legendary notebook of Hemingway, Picasso..."?! Damn, you better write something worthy in these notebooks.

My friend asked what's so good about these and I'll explain briefly.  Everything that we use for function worls as it is.  A pen works the same but why do some people pay $money$ for a pen such as Cross or some other brand [the only name I can think of].  Clothes too fall in this category--jeans costing more than $40, sunglasses more than $100, etc etc. Basically, it either just feels or looks good.  A person can justify why they spend so much money on their personal clothes/accessories on their own.

The same for these types of notebooks. And yes, I do have 14 total--1 used as a pocket portfolio, 2 filled out as a notes journal, 1 filled out daily planner, 1 as a scrapbook with my girlfriend, another as a sketchbook, 1 as clinical journal [for nursing], 1 as a workout log journal; as of now I'm on my 3rd notes journal, another daily planner for 2009, and this one right here is a new category: visual notebook where I cut and paste things from magazines. The remaining are on my shelf unopened and waiting to be used.  

Price wise, they are pricey for my a notebook but in my opinion, they are built very nice. If you pay attention to detail then it does matter. The ones I like are the hardcover notebooks so that it'll protect the pages and not get bent. There's a cloth bookmark to keep your place for the next entry and there's a pocket in the back to keep things [for me, I keep blank checks and business cards]. The most important of them all to me is that the pages are stitched to the notebook's spine. Meaning, unlike other cheap notebooks, the pages will not fall off.

So figures now: small notebook is about $10.95 and the larger ones are about $17.95. Pricey but just do it. Scroll down at the end of artcle for how to get it cheaper.

Cut and paste. Cut and paste. Annotate. Repeat.
"Inspiration"
The first page of my visual notebook.
I include anything that inspires me--photo clippings, articles, tutorials, and quotes.

Article "The Art of Selling" featured in Professional Photographer Magazine. Opposite photo is from an article from American Photo Magazine covering commercial photography Austin Bradley.
Snips from American Photo's annual Image of the Year. I took clips from photographers including Annie Leibovitz and Maki Kawakita--two of my favorite photographers.
A clip taken from American Photo Magazine where a short article covers Matthew Ralston's book beautyLight. He has two versions available: one in trade ($50) and the limited edition version [which is also massive and includes a signed print] selling for $2,500.  Amazon it.
I write "I hope one day I'll have a book that will be in both deluxe collectors edition and trade version."

So back to the price and getting it lower somehow.. the answer is BORDERS! They occasionally come out with 20, 25, and 30% coupon on items over $10. So wait for these coupons [google "Borders coupon"] and be on the lookout.