I’ve been a Moleskine freak for over a decade after discovering this addictive little black notebook at a paper goods store in New York. How could I resist their simple marketing line: “The legendary notebook of Hemingway, Picasso, Chatwin.” And me!

I filled my first Moleskine with deep thoughts at a café in Paris so I didn’t feel quite so lonely eating alone. I bought my second Moleskine with a vivid purple cover at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I really wanted a yellow one (suggestive of Van Gogh’s sunflowers) but a colleague beat me to it. I have since tried to find the yellow one online. But alas, they seemed to be a Van Gogh Museum exclusive…until recently. You can sometimes find them online  on Amazon. I did and bought the six pack. They make exquisite gifts! (But I’m never giving away my yellow one!)

What makes Moleskine so special? The pocket size (lined, unlined or art paper) is perfect for travelers, artists, writers and dreamers. It includes a cloth bookmark to save your pages, an elastic clasp to keep it tightly shut and a delicious little pocket in the back where you can store ticket stubs, pictures, flowers or other little mementos. Oh, and it is politically correct as no moles were killed or skinned in its manufacture.

People are passionate about using their Moleskines creatively. It even has its own blog called Moleskinerie , you can follow on twitter or youtube .  But the best site of all may be Moleskine’s company site, which includes ideas, stories and news, showing why it is the preferred notebook of artists like Picasso and explorers like Bruce Chatwin.

So what if my personal Moleskine is filled with prosaic work notes, and lists of books, films, music, meals and wines I’ve enjoyed or hope to experience? By turning to a fresh page and applying my pen to its intimate pages, I enter the magical realm of “the Moleskine writer.”

Do you Moleskine?

Great Moleskine item in Brain Pickings (another of my favorite things!)