It’s really 5 simple characters: $5.99. That’s it. I was walking into Borders back in January and on the discount racks in the atrium I thought I saw a big section of Moleskine® notebooks. It turned out that they were actually Piccadilly. When I saw the price tag I was skeptical, especially since the medium size cost less than a third of a comparable Moleskine®-brand book ($4.99 vs. $16.95). But I was intrigued. So when I got home I checked for some reviews and found Black Cover‘s review here.

Picadilly Notebooks

Though we’ve reviewed numerous other little black notebooks, none of them has been in the Moleskine style. There have been soft-covers, leather covers, wider notebooks, taller notebooks, thinner notebooks…

The Piccadilly, however, has impressed me by being the first we’ve reviewed to make a moleskine (note lower-case!) notebook and, more importantly, improve on the design with a straight spine, better line spacing, a different book mark, and so on.

If you’re curious why you should “note lower-case” in reference to “moleskine”, a moleskine (mall-uh-skeen-uh) is a style of notebook, Moleskine® is a brand that makes them. Piccadilly is also such a brand, and after reading that review I bought one.

Now, I’m not a regular writer in it, I don’t whip it out to record my every thought (most of them aren’t worth writing down), or to log what just happened (my life isn’t that interesting), but I keep it with me whenever I’m carrying a bag (laptop, messenger, or diaper). It’s traveled quite a bit, and it’s proven itself worthy.

Some notes in my Piccadilly

A few Black Cover readers commented that the back pocket is weak and the elastic is useless after a few weeks of use. Well, I’ve had mine ten months and it’s fine. I don’t use the pocket, and I don’t open my notebook 20 times a day, so those problems don’t affect me…which is why it would be absolutely ridiculous (for me) to drop $17 on a brand name, when I can get one just as good.

Some people love their brand. But I’ve never held any brand allegiance. So I feel no shame as I use my $6 “knock-off” (I really don’t consider it a knock-0ff, because the design was around long before Modo & Modo). Also, you can’t tell that it’s not a Moleskine®…

[Note: Moleskine Srl., the company that owns the trademark on the brand, has some ridiculous usage restrictions on the use of the trademark. Luckily I've avoided all of them by not using ALL CAPS.]