I first encountered Moleskine notebooks in a bookstore in London this spring, and what lodged in my memory was their marketing claim to be "the legendary notebook of Hemingway," et cetera. I have since learned from various sources that those claims may be a touch exaggerated. But now that I own one myself and am starting to make daily use of it, I'm beginning to see, at least, why Moleskine notebooks have so many fans.
For more than ten years, I've used a calendar/day planner/all-your-information-in-one-place system that isn't just a notebook but has an entire philosophy about how you're supposed to live your life tied into it. I never bought into that aspect of the company, but have grown used to having one reference containing all that stuff between two covers, and with a place for a pen besides. Going from that to a Moleskine, with its one small pocket in the back and no place to put a writing instrument, is definitely a switch. It's the part of the change I'm least sure about. On the other hand, the Moleskine definitely wins for portability, ease of use, style, and handiness-to-have-around in case of brainstorms.
So I'm still not completely sold that this is the best of all possible notebooks. But it's definitely a good one, and I do appreciate both the attractiveness of the design and the quality of the construction. Sure, you can get a serviceable notebook for about a tenth of the price, and a whole "lifestyle system," updated annually, for quite a bit more. It's all a matter of taste, and my taste is starting to run in this direction.