I wanted a unique, old fashioned photo album! The photo album comes with the pages and cover undone, so you have to thread the rope through the holes yourself. However, it took me maybe 2 minutes and was super easy to do. The pages are thick and do not rip unlike most photo album pages! The photo album is perfect for me to document our family road trips. We do a lot of traveling when it is warm because we love showing our daughter new places. It holds a lot of pictures, so I should be able to use it for a few trips before having to purchase another one.