I had a fun find over the weekend. I was in a small art supply store that happened to have a nice selection of notebooks, including some gorgeous sketchbooks from Bison Bookbinding, which I’d never heard of. I think this store must have decided to focus on these more unique items instead of more generic brands like Moleskine, as the larger selection of Moleskines they once carried had dwindled down to a few random ones on an out of the way shelf. But I was thrilled that among those stragglers were 3 old Modo & Modo pocket sized squared notebooks. I almost jumped for joy when I picked them up and saw the nice tight corners with no cover overhang, and that je ne sais quoi that differentiates them from what Moleskine is churning out now. And they weren’t even over-priced– $12 each, less than they list for now. They weren’t marked, so I was expecting the store to be one of those places that jacks up the price– I’ve seen some places asking $15 for the standard pocket size notebooks.

I was very pleased with my find. It’s happened in a couple other places, often dusty and cluttered office supply stores where artsy fancy notebooks aren’t their bread & butter. Every time I find some “original” Moleskines, I think it will be the last time, but I keep having these nice surprises. I’m sure there are still more gems out there to reward patient searchers!