Moleskine Passions Book Journal [Diary]

Moleskine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 5, 2010 | Series: Moleskine Passions

Moleskine Passions Book Journal

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.

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Product Details

• Diary: 240 pages
• Publisher: Moleskine (February 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8862933193
• ISBN-13: 978-8862933193
• California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,678 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Arts, Crafts & Sewing > Craft Supplies > Paper & Paper Crafts > Paper > Drawing Pads & Books
  • #86 in Arts, Crafts & Sewing > Drawing

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A nice concept, but not well executed..., April 23, 2010

By 

Carter's Mom (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Moleskine Passions Book Journal (Diary)

(What's this?)

For me this product really misses the mark. The book looks like an old fashioned address book with lettered tabs. For each letter of the alphabet, there is room to review 6 books. So you may review only six books that start with the letter T and just as many (six) books that start with the letter X -- does that make much sense? Each page contains an area to list the following information: title, date read, author, nationality, first edition, publisher, year, quotes, original language, awards, notes, opinion and rating. The sections for quotes and opinion are the largest but still too small for me to really fill in as much as I would like. There is no way to add pages in any section as this is a bound book. The book is the size of a standard paperback novel -- so just not large enough to write anything of substance. If this product were an application for my Blackberry or an iphone, I think I would love it. I'd have a list with me that would remind me of authors I liked anytime I walked into a book store. I'd have more space and the option to review as many items under each letter of the alphabet as I liked and I could include books that I would like to read or received as recommendations from others. The quality of the product for the price is fine, but I couldn't recommend it.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Over-Thought by Moleskine, April 27, 2010

By 

Amy Scarfone "Amy" (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Moleskine Passions Book Journal (Diary)

(What's this?)

I'm a big fan of Moleskin products, in general, and so my first impression was "Where was this when I was working on my PhD a few years ago?" However, on further examination, I realized the product was lackluster. Here's why:

1. Assumptions. Moleskin's designers assume the user wants to organize what she reads in alphabetical order and predetermines a set amount of pages for each letter. This is useless. Both scholars and general book lovers have favorite authors that will likely fill more than the allotted pages, while other sections go unused. In addition, this "feature" eliminates many other ways or organizing your reviews (e.g., year read, year written, genre, etc.).

2. Gimmickry. Rather than provide us with a bunch of silly stickers with symbols and exclamations, how about making the books more flexible by including blank, color-coded stickers that we can self label to organize our books? The provided stickets just ratchet up the cost of production with little value added.

3. Page Layout. Here again Moleskin was heavy-handed in dictating how we should use the product and organize our information. In my opinion it privileges bibliographic information over note taking. If I'm going to haul a book around that's the size of a paperback, I want it to be for notes, not a list I can easily keep on my computer or smart phone. I carry paper for its flexibility. Let it be flexible.

The product isn't all bad, of course. This is Moleskin, so the journal is of very high production quality (e.g., great paper, nice binding, ribbon dividers, etc.). I just wish Moleskin would have scaled back the features by about 80% to make the book more flexible. I'd love the top 1/4 of the page given over to bibliographic data, the remaining 3/4s for notes, and flexible divider tabs that can be attached anywhere in the book with blank stickers for labeling them.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This wasn't designed with heavy readers in mind., May 9, 2010

By 

Donna "book nerd" (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moleskine Passions Book Journal (Diary)

I'm a big fan of Moleskine journals, and I've never found a book journal yet that's satisfied me. So as soon as I saw this I knew I wanted one. Unfortunately this book doesn't look up to the premise.

The book information pages don't have enough open space for me to structure my own notes, I'd prefer far fewer fill-in-the-blank categories. I only need title, author, date read, and maybe publication year, the other things are unnecessary at best. If I ever cared to note the nationality of the author, original language of the book, or awards it won (in the cases where any of those apply), I could easily do so in a more reasonably sized notes section. Including fields for so many specific (and often rarely-used) categories is a waste of valuable page space.

The alphabetical tabs in the book pages are a terrible feature. I read over 150 books last year, and none of them started with X. I didn't read any X authors, either. I read only one book that began with V, but 25 S books - which is more than the journal could hold. Those small tabs are also not a very sturdy option, several of mine are bent already after less than a week of fairly gentle use. The pages are numbered, so it would have been easy to just let those who need quick access to specific book pages create their own index or table of contents using some of the blank pages. Then everyone would have been free to list their reading by their own preferred method, such as reading date, genre, or subject, rather than making us all deal with alphabetical organization.

I liked the section at the back that lets us create our own tabs, because many book journals are too structured. While the Moleskine falls into that trap on the book detail pages, I'm happy that it lets us create some of our own sections at the end. For example, many journals include pages for book club notes or shop addresses even though I don't need those. With the tabbed sections, people who want those sections can have them, but I'm free to use my nice, blank pages for shopping lists, loan tracking, and drafting reviews longer than the book detail pages allow for.

The three bookmark ribbons are a great feature, but I could do without having book titles that don't really reflect my taste stamped into the cover. The cutesy colored stickers are also unnecessary. If Moleskine creates an updated version with no alphabetical tabs and a freer book page layout, I'd buy at least one copy a year for myself and probably give several as gifts. But the current organization is to limited for me to consider it for long-term use.