Moleskine Mania

Oh no!! I, like many writers (including, at one point, Hemingway) am addicted to Moleskine notebooks. I carry several at all times: One for story ideas, another for my to-do lists and calendar type things. Plus I have one next to my bed for writing thoughts in the middle of the night, and another on my desk for taking notes during phone conversations (even with my family -- it's a hazard of my profession). They're slick, not-too-expensive, perfectly sized, sturdy ... they've gained nearly cult status among writers (and everyone else, apparently).

The owner of the company that makes Moleskines, who is now 69 years old, just announced that he's put Moleskine up for sale. He said: "Moleskine is growing very quickly and it is becoming too big for us. We do not have the capacity to follow it through."

At this point, the Moleskine is so successful, surely someone will snatch it up. That someone just better not change a damn thing about those notebooks! Just the thought of that makes me want to pull a Bruce Chatwin -- when the company that produced Moleskines went bankrupt in the 80s, Chatwin, a travel writer, ran out and bought 100 of them. Right about now, I'm tempted to do the same. My only question is, Why just 100?