Today I’m reviewing yet another variant on the basic black notebook that has become so ubiquitous. This time, it’s the Scribe Plain Notebook.
An initial impression of this notebook might suggest that it’s just like a Moleskine, but I actually found it more similar to the Pen & Ink notebook I reviewed here, or some of the PSN notebooks reviewed here. The cover is a little thicker than a Moleskine, with somewhat more rounded edges. It almost seems slightly padded, and you can see in the photo below that the elastic leaves a slight impression in the cover. The cover isn’t quite as stiff as many other notebooks– you can actually flex the whole notebook a bit while it’s closed, which is pretty much impossible with Moleskine or Piccadilly.

All the standard features are present and accounted for: paper band, elastic closure, logo stamped on the bottom of the back cover, expanding pocket inside back cover, ribbon marker.

It opens quite flat. Another detail to note is the little bit of cord edging at the spine (I don’t know the bookbinding term for this, can anyone help me out?) This is also present in the Pen & Ink notebook and the Rhodia Webnotebook.

As for the paper… despite the 80 GSM weight, it feels a bit thin and pens show through more than in some other comparable notebooks. The Uniball Vision Micro and Pilot Varsity fountain pen feathered slightly.

Other fountain pen users have also commented that the Scribe notebook isn’t ideal (see here and here)– the experience of writing in them may feel nice at first, but the bleedthrough is problematic. But other than that, this is quite a nice notebook, and the slight flexibility might make it a favorite for those who like to carry their notebooks in a back pocket.

Specs:

3 1/2 x 5 1/2″, though the cover says A6

96 pages, 80 GSM paper

I’d like to thank Marian at Scribe for sending me a sample, since these notebooks are only sold in the Philippines.