I originally purchased this for my husband as a 3rd year wedding anniversary gift. Men are hard to buy for and a wallet and shoes is not a good gift. He is a writer and I thought it looked kind of old timey shakespearian play write, but when we opened it, it looked like more like a woman's handbag from the outside than a journal. I am not the type to return so I kept it, but it is definitely not for a man. The paper is really cool to write on, and I like seeing it lay on the night stand. Only reason why it I didn't get 5 stars is that you cannot really tell from the picture that it's fem.