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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Moleskine madness and Filofax fun at Kinokuniya bookstore Singapore

Yesterday I went to Singapore and got to go to the massive Kinokuniya bookstore in the Ngee Ann City mall!  Imagine my delight when I discovered they had nearly every Moleskine product made, Filofaxes, Flex, and loads of other cool things!  I don't get to see Moleskine or Filofax products in stores here in Jakarta so I felt like I was blissfully swimming in goodies!

I was astounded by their enormous Moleskine collection. There were numerous rotating stands throughout the store, and a huge table stacked with Moleskine planners and limited edition notebooks (where I could almost hear angels singing!).  They had every notebook from the colorful Extra Smalls to the huge Folio books and everything in between. I was thrilled to get to check out the limited edition Star Wars series notebooks, which look great! They had the Moleskine bags and pens, eyeglasses and other accessories too.

I could hardly get over my joy at seeing all the Moleskine planners in person!!  They had samples available with the shrink-wrap removed so people could look through each type of planner to check out the pages. I  had a great time thumbing through the planner formats I hadn't seen in person before!  They had many of the limited edition planners including Peanuts and Bakin. I especially liked the coppery foil look of the Bakin design which looks extremely cool in person.

I was very happy to see the Moleskine Action Planner, which is a vertical weekly planner in the Extra Large size with a hard cover. I've been wanting to check this planner out ever since I first saw it online.  There is a column on each weekly page for lists with tick-boxes beside each item. I flipped through the planner and was happy to see there are month per page calendars.  It also has extra information pages including international flight times between major cities, very interesting.

I looked at the classic daily planners in large and pocket sizes with soft covers. I use these planners in the hard cover, but the soft cover is a nice option for someone who wants the flexibility and lighter weight.

I got to look at the Panoramic Planner, which is an excellent format but available only in Pocket size. I'd love to see this planner in the Large size.  I also got to see the new Cahier week per page planner. This would be great for someone with minimal scheduling needs, but I wonder how the cahier cover would hold up to a year's use.

I was very excited to look through the Monthly Notebook planners in Pocket, Large and Extra Large sizes. These are great because there is a two-page spread of lined pages between each monthly two-page spread, and loads of lined pages in the back. I wanted to get one of these for this year and by the time I got around to ordering they were sold out. My mom is sending me one for 2012 and I can hardly wait! I will use it as my goals planner to write my monthly and weekly goals and reviews.

I wondered what the staff would think if I joyously wallowed in a pile of planners but managed to restrain myself!!

The store also had some Filofaxes in various sizes and some inserts.  The Filofaxes were all behind locked glass, and since I knew I wasn't going to buy any I didn't trouble anyone to get them out. I noticed the brown Chameleon, A5 Amazonas in brown and red, and the Sketch personal size binders along with several Dominos and Finsburies. Even though I didn't get to handle any, it was fun to check out binders I hadn't seen before.

They also had a selection of Filofax Flex products in A5, personal and pocket sizes. I think Filofax could improve the packaging on these to make it more evident what the product is and how it works. Just looking at it, it looks like a regular notebook.

There were loads of other planners, Asian brands with really cute designs, and a very nice brand of planners called Luxe.  The Luxe planners were daily or weekly in various formats and sizes. One interesting format I'd never seen before was an A5 size book with two days per page, only on the right page with the back of the page blank. The day space was lined, and the daily schedule was at the edge of the page, perforated to tear off! I'm not sure exactly what the purpose was but guessed it's for when you don't want to carry the entire book, you can rip off the little timed section to carry in your pocket to see what your schedule is for today.  I really enjoyed seeing some different formats!

As wonderful as it was to see all of these things in person, I somehow managed to walk out of the store without a single purchase! Mainly because the Moleskine notebooks and planners cost about twice as much as they do in the US, so if I decide to buy any it would be much cheaper for me to order online. Now, should I get the Star Wars notebooks in Large or Pocket size....?

6 comments:

  1. I wish I had too!! Didn't think of it at the time for some reason.

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  2. Oh! you've just been here in Singapore! Wish i could've met you. The Kinokuniya is a lovely place to look at new binders before i buy them online. (Its not just the moleskines that are exp, Filofaxes cost about 40% more too!)

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  3. I was at the Frankfurt Bookfair yesterday and in 15 spare minutes between appointments, I stumpled upon the large Moleskin stand. They had a huge table there displaying all the new products that will come out in 2012!! Unfortunately I only had about 10 minutes and no camera...

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  4. I'm really excited about Moleskine's 2012 planners! They have a huge variety now of formats and sizes.

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  5. I've just ordered from Amazon the large Bakin weekly planner and the large Star Wars journals in lined and blank pages! The prices are great on Amazon right now--I got the Bakin for under 10 bucks and the Star Wars journals for less than 14 dollars each. Couldn't resist! Look for these reviews next month here on Plannerisms! :)

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