Editing The Pen Addict 4/transcript (section)

== Notebook Alternatives ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So what I found, I found the dome paper, which is much smoother. But what a lot of people want to know is they like the look of the Moleskine and the feel and the design of the Moleskine. What can they get that's comparable to that in look, feel, and design, but with a better quality paper? And that's where your brands like Rhodia and Quo Vadis.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There's one that I really enjoy that I have a few of, and I'm going to butcher this pronunciation, but I'm going to give it a try. It's called Loik Term 1917.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, my word. I think that's how you say it. Loik Term. Something like that. I'm sure. Everything, all my pronunciations, I do get emails and comments on. So they say, hey, you got that one right? Or, oh, no, you didn't do something. You were so far away. Like, not to digress too much, but one of my bad habits, and I know this good and well, it's not Uniball Sino. It's Uniball Signo. I just can't bring myself to say Uniball Signo, so I say Sino.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But anyway, I'm getting off track here. A lot of people look for that Moleskine replacement. Either from, some people are price averse. I mean, they can be pretty expensive.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, but the Moleskines are expensive. That's what I'm saying. Oh, I see what you mean. A replacement. I see what you mean. I think you meant the replacements are expensive. But no, Moleskines are expensive.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, so the two things that people look for when they're trying to replace their Moleskine is something that costs less or something that works better. A lot of the options that work better are in the same price point. Don't get me wrong. Not all of these are lower price points. There's a brand that I don't see much anymore, but was real popular for a few years called Piccadilly. They made a little black notebook. He took the covers. If you took the branding off, it looks exactly like a Moleskine. Right. They sold for about half the price. They sold at a retail chain in the U.S. here called Borders.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, we have Borders. Yeah, they're kind of hard to come. They're a bookstore, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. They actually went into bankruptcy here. So there are no more.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, no, that's the same.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So the Piccadilly brand was real popular for a while because it was about, I'd say it was about half the price. And quality-wise, I couldn't tell any difference. I did some side-by-side comparisons, and they were very good. So on top of that, I'd say the most comparable to Moleskine in style, quality, and price are going to be the Rhodia, the Oik Term, and the Piccadilly, if you can find them.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Would you have a personal preference out of those three?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I say the Rhodia just because of the availability.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I'm looking at trying to get my hands on one of those. I like the orange covers.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Number one, they're on my list. They're cool-looking. They're very well-designed, and the paper is very high-quality. It's a very, very different paper than you'll find in the Moleskine if you ever get to use one. Okay. It's a very smooth paper. Now, that's not to say it's not without problems. If you're using heavy inks like a .7 gel ink pen, it does not dry quickly at all. Oh, that's interesting. So that's why it works good for me because I use the fine-tip gel pens that don't have that issue. But for you as a left-hander, you actually might run into issues with that and maybe even with the fountain pens. There's drying time considerations to be considered.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I mean, this is why I do have an issue with breaking pens in is I adjust in two ways of writing, between writing so I'm stroking my hand from left to the right of the page to actually wrapping my whole arm around the book, my right upside down. Yeah. And I seem to naturally change to that movement quite a lot because obviously I've been too used to – because where I've preferred fountain pens for years, I'm too used to smudging. So it seems that my hand just knows where it needs to be. Right, right. Yeah, so the Rodeo is something that I wanted. Do they do spiral bound? They do.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, see, that's an interesting thing. They're not as readily available. They make one called – I think it's called The Meeting Book.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Which if you can find that, it's got a good story behind it. Basically the founder of Claire Fontaine, which is the parent company. I think that's how it's set up. I might have my facts wrong here. He basically designed it. Like you're saying, hey, I wish I had this layout for these podcasts that I do. He said, hey, I wish I had this layout for these meetings that I run. And lo and behold, they now sell that product. Hmm. So – but there's a couple – they're not as prevalent. But Claire Fontaine does sell a lot of spiral bound. And the paper is the same, if not better.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You see, spiral bound appeals to me. But the practicality is not very good being a left-handed person.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's true. That's true. It's like the Doan notebooks that I use. I use one called the Doan Idea Journal and – excuse me, the Doan Idea Notebook. I'm going to get killed. I can't remember. It's the Idea Journal. It's pretty much eight and a half by 11. It's a large spiral bound.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, Idea Journal.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Large spiral bound and just beautiful, super thick chipboard cover. Like I could use the – rip off the cover and use it as a throwing star and probably do some damage. I mean it's serious business. I like that you went to throwing star as the first portal call. Yeah. The cover is thick and pointy and I could probably put an eye out if I decided to.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so just kind of circling back around. A lot of people are looking for the Moleskine replacements and those are a few ideas. On the other side of the coin, I use a lot of smaller pocket-sized notebooks. So you've got your Moleskine that's hard bound. Some of them are pocket-sized, but a lot of them are more traditional journal size, say five by seven or larger, that are desk notebooks.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Throw it in your backpack. Something you can't necessarily put in your pocket, your pants pocket or your shirt pocket and go. And I use a lot of field notes for that. I use the Dome Paper Utility Journal for that. So I don't know. That might even be a whole other episode. I know we're getting long here already. And I feel like there's so much paper to talk about and what are people's favorites and why they use it.