I’ve gotten terribly behind in trying to answer emails from some fellow notebook fans with their questions. Please leave a comment if you can point any of these readers in the right direction!

From Robert:

I am hoping you can help me with my search. I saw someone take out a piece of paper from what looked like a spiral A4 notebook (didn’t catch the brand) and it had, with gray lines, a box around all margins which the horizontal lines connected to. At the top was a thin horizontal box so you could write in a heading. In the top right-hand corner, within the heading box, were three slashes (/) for the date.

Do you have any idea what brand this might be? That is exactly the kind of notebook I am dying for!

I thought I’d seen something like this in a store, maybe by Clairefontaine or Miquelrius, but I haven’t found it again.

From Brett:

Regrettably, I watched the end of the movie “Wanted” with Morgan Freeman.  During his last speech he is holding a folder / binder that looks like a Mead composition book (it’s much larger and doesn’t have the info bubble, just the black & white pattern).  Do you have any insight as to where I can find a similar item? It’s about 9 x 12″.

I wondered if this might be some sort of art portfolio rather than a notebook, but I haven’t seen anything like it.

From Nita:

I was in an A.C. Moore hobby/crafts store in November in NH. I found a black 5.5×8.3, padded cover, blank paper “sketch book” lying loose among the art supplies.

The paper is very like that in the Hand Book artist journal line. (I use them a lot.) This book had a dark blue paper band wrapped vertically around the notebook. It was on sale for $7!

I found a clerk and asked if she knew if there more more somewhere in the store, as there were none in the art supply aisles. She said they were a special purchase and waved vaguely at the rest of the store, saying “They’re in a special display, I guess.”

Agh! I bought the one I’d found and LOVE the paper. The Hand Book journals are my favorite, and this one is so much like them for less cost, I’d buy more if I could.

I’ve searched online and cannot find any mention of a Crescendo Sketch Book (two words on the label).

The rest of the text on the label says, in this layout:

Hand-crafted
Artist quality
Elastic band for closure
Acid-free paper, 110 gsm
80 sheets; 160 pages

Recommended for pen and ink,
colored pencil, drawing chalks,
pastels, graphite and other dry
media and light watercolor.

—
Have you ever heard of or seen these Crescendo books? Any ideas of where I might find more?

Thanks so much for helping me in this notebook treasure hunt!

I’m totally stumped on this one!

From Andrew:

I am an artist and art teacher, and have always kept all kinds of sketchbooks. I recently became addicted to the small Mead notebooks. They look kind of like the Moleskine, but I think the pages are a little thicker.  I find brown and black at Walmart, but wish they had other colors. They do have bright pink and green, but those are too garish for me.
I keep one in my pocket at all times. One has been lasting me about two months. The first few pages are to do lists, but I use the rest mostly for taking notes, and writing down things that inspire me or that I want to meditate on.

He then adds

After a little more research, I learned that the Mead Moleskine knockoff is made only for Walmart and sold only in stores.  Here is some info:http://www.nathan-miller.com/the-moleskine-saga/

I don’t have a Wal-Mart anywhere near where I usually shop and haven’t had a chance to go and see if these are available. Has anyone else tried them, and do you know of WalMart locations still stocking them?

Thanks to all these readers and others who have sent in questions, and sorry it’s taken me so long to post them! I wish I was enough of a notebook guru to be able to answer everything, but hopefully the collective wisdom of other notebook freaks will provide some solutions.