My honest review of Moleskine Classic Notebook

I have been a fan of Moleskin for at least 15 years. I think for watercolors, the thicker pages on their original blank sketchbooks would be a better option than their regular bullet journal notebooks, which have much, much thinner pages. Just not the right Moleskine for this particular job.

One of my favorite things about the Moleskine is the real leather covers. This is one of my pet peeves of the Leuchtturm1917. Perhaps some prefer a vegan cover, but I love love love the buttery feel and unsurpassed durability of the Moleskine covers. Comparing the covers of my A5 Leuchtturm1917 bullet journal to the Moleskine planner I use at work, the feel of the Moleskine is still something I want to touch and hold, where my Leuchtturm1917 feels kind of tacky and not as satisfying.

I do think the Moleskine journals are narrower than the Leuchtturm1917, which is a bummer. But after using an A5 Leuchtturm1917 for my 2018 personal bullet journal, I have determined that I don’t like the A5 size at all. Yes, it fits in my bag, but I prefer a larger page like the Moleskine Extra Large (7.5×10) format.

Moleskine Pro Weekly Diary has been my work plan for the past 4 years. As long as I choose my pen carefully to limit ghosting, it has always been a great productivity tool for my office work. It is also the "super large" size of Moleskine, about 7.5×10. The oversized size is still easy to fit into a tote bag, but it also has extra space for "breathing" and writing, which I really like.

After my first official complete year of bullet journaling with the A5 Leuchtturm1917, I am in search of a new bullet journal for next year. As I said, I am not a fan of the A5 size, so I am considering the Extra Large bullet journal from Moleskine. Yes, I will have to be careful with my pen choice to avoid ghosting, but truth be told, I have to do that with my Leuchtturm1917, anyway. I will miss the extra bookmarks, but since Leuchtturm1917 doesn’t have this larger size (or the real leather cover), I think I’ll go back to Moleskine.

I just provided XL hardcover bullet diaries in other colors with Moleskine. I think the hard cover of this size they provide is black. You can choose other colors of the XL code, such as blue-green and red, but they are paperback. The paperback may not be that heavy in my bag, but I wonder if it will be too soft to write on my lap when I leave my desk on the road.

Anyway… thanks for the review. I love your site and all of your resources. I just think that watercolors were never a good match for this particular Moleskine. There are plenty of other Moleskines that would be much better suited for painting and markers.