Moleskine Monday: What Do You Think of the Passions Journals?

Frequent commenter David wrote to me with some thoughts on the Moleskine Passions Journals:

When I first encountered the film, food, kitty and wine notebooks I thought, “‘Molie’s marketing people are nuts!” I found the design of the pages and data layouts way too rigid. Then I opened up the gardening journal. It’s quite different. This thing is cool; full of interesting information and a flexible layout that leaves you room to add tons of your own data, sketches, reflections, and organic ruminations. We are only now getting out from under the snow here in Boise so the Moleskine Passions Gardening Journal is almost empty but we’ll be filling it up over the seasons.

Hope others will be able to share their experiences with this journaling tool. I have not been able to locate any other sites where this notebook is being actively discussed, not even on gardening blogs.

I haven’t given this particular product line much coverage here, as I’m personally inclined to be in the “the design is too rigid” camp. But sometimes structure is a good thing, right? What do you think? I’d love to know which of these journals our readers have used and how they like them…

11 thoughts on “Moleskine Monday: What Do You Think of the Passions Journals?”

  1. Although I had not tried all fo the Passion Journals, I am also rather a member of the “the design is too rigid” camp.
    I had looked at the Movie Journal and I found that there is not sufficient space for me where I would need it. And I skipped the idea again.
    However, I am using the MSK template for the Movie Passion Journal whenever I have seen a movie in the theatre (going to see one again tonight). The MSK template allows me to fill it in electronically on a PDF file and therefore I have more space available compared to when I handwrite the information. The MSK is also available in large size which I prefer over the pocket size.

    It seems Moleskine has added addtional features in the different Passion Journals. That is good.

    Another thought of mine is that all the information I would write in the Passion Journal, I already do so online which allows me to share the information, ie Book or Movie Reviews or comments. This would be “hidden” in a Passion Journal otherwise.
    It seems Moleskine® is brining out more and more of the Passion Journals (Recipes, Wine, Books, Style, Music, Wellness, Baby, Gardening, Travel, Dog, Cat). Maybe I should check them out again ….

  2. I’ve been looking at the recipe journal for about a month now. It’s part of the Moleskine Passion series, and I just love the look of it. I cook a lot, and being able to write down recipes that I make up on the spot or even ones that I use a lot would be so perfect. Plus, it’s small enough that I can use it as a cookbook when I want to recook something written in it. I am not a big fan of giant cookbooks with tons of pages…

  3. I bought the recipe journal with all intentions of using it and making it a lot like the recipe journal video moleskine put out – Once I got it and it was hard to fine – I had to mail order it – I never did.

    I don’t know if I didn’t know where to start or once I got it I changed my mind or it was just perfect ‘as is’… I’m not sure but it’s untouched still

    Not the first time thats happened, not the last :)

    Tracy

  4. Try to find a copy of the gardening journal that you can open and peruse. I think you will find it is quite different from the rest of the series. If you garden, your opinion is improtant: Is this notebook a useful gardening tool, superfluous, or worse, silly?

    Need more madness from Moleskine? Most of you know they’ve released a new series of pens, shoulder bags, eyeglasses, and boxes but there’s news on the tablet front, too. See the Molie iPad app at the iTunes store. It’s free. Heck, when was the last time you got anything free from Moleskine?

    david boise ID

  5. The problem with things like this is that you may like the idea but not the execution. I love the idea of the Wellness book, but I guess tracking your blood sugar isn’t cool. But honestly, what would it have hurt to leave a space for it? You wouldn’t have to use it if it wasn’t important to you, and lack of space for it means diabetics must go elsewhere.

  6. I haven’t seen any of the Passions line in person, but I’ve seen lots of buzz about it online. Many people echo the sentiment above, that they will run out of certain sections way before others (for example, there is only a month’s worth of Food Journal entry space in the Wellness Journal? I can’t confirm personally).

    Anyway, my general opinion is, Moleskine has gotten far away from their original style of zero formatting. Their products used to be a blank slate for us to fill as we saw fit. Now many of their products, like the Passions line, are very structured. Maybe this appeals to a broader audience, I don’t know. But I’m sure there will always be a core of users who prefer an empty notebook to fill as we see fit, without direction or instructions.

    Just my opinion.

  7. Last week I saw “Books”, one of Moleskine Passions Journal, at one of the shops and I am really happy about discovering it. I am a book blogger and a total notebook addictive, so that is the best journal for me. I love taking notes for my book blog and this journal is going to be very useful for taking my notes in an organized way.

  8. I have the “Books” edition of the Passions range. http://notesinabook.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/moleskine-passions-book-journal/

    Great notebook, but sometimes I feel that an ordinary notebook tailored specifically to my needs would be much more useful (and satisfying), not to mention creative. Both the passions range do a good job of saving you the trouble of organising your record keeping, make memories, and are “ready to use” as such.

    Nice range. But I would never have the use for them all.

  9. I saw the Baby Journal on-line, and having a good friend that is pregnant, I ordered it for her (and I was dying of curiosity to see it myself) I’m in Australia, so I had to have it shipped in from the US as there were no retailers here stocking them at the time. I understand the theory that they should stick to blank notebooks – but these prompt related subject matter books have been making a mark in the market and I suppose Moelskine wanted to capture a part of it. Anyway, back to the Journal… As far as a Baby Journal goes – it;s fantastic. In fact, I would have to say that ALOT of thought and reaserch wne into it and the information included in it (either that or a woman designed it, ha ha) I am actually jealous that they were not around when I had my little one. Compared to the other Baby Jounrnals on the market – this one is by far the best I have seen, they make a great gift, and in my humble opinion – worth the $

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