JoshD - part of the problem is that notebooks were once cheaper but Moleskine have raised the bar and the marketing for these once simple things. I don't have any information about the amount of money they're making, as it happens, so it was really my opinion, but based on costs of notebooks I've bought all my life, production isn't that expensive.

Bearing in mind my old artists' sketch books and such like made from cartridge paper took a good beating too - although I found the softer books take more abuse than harder books - very Taoist - those older sketch and notebooks seemed to have disappeared or changed their image and name and increased their pricing. That ain't good. Maybe it's because fewer people write these days - maybe people can't remember how to. Maybe they never did.

As of today, £8.99 is $17.22, for my reporters notebook, and nobody whinge to me about exchange rates. Even bookfactory.com produces lab books cheaper. My old books for lab work were much cheaper and took chemical spills as they should. They weren't acid-free for long.

Moleskines are tough, pretty and not the most expensive, but the marketing sticks in my throat. Maybe I should have thought before making wild claims about the money they're making. Americans are the biggest market of all - they invented the whole idea and the whole branding thing. Moleskine are a little like Leica - claiming credit for things they don't deserve in a nifty little way. Any photographer who claims Leica is responsible for his or her pictures just likes kit. And Leica play on that, in a huge way. And Moleskine play on their association with writers to imply that they're responsible for great writing.

I couldn't care less about people's definitions of marketing and branding - products should speak for themselves. Shame they can't, I suppose.

I own two moleskines and some of their little notebooks. Very nice. Very dull after you open them and use them for a week. They're notebooks. Big deal. I get pretty bored with camera discussion rather than picture discussion, too. The fact that I'm sitting here writing this means that the Moleskine replicants have already taken over, though. :)