It’s been fun to get all my notebooks out of storage and start trying to organize them better. Opening each box is like visiting old friends! I thought I’d give you a box by box tour of my collection over the next few months– longtime readers will recognize items I’ve reviewed in the past.

This first box contains non-Moleskine pocket size hardcover and softcover squared notebooks. These are all ones I’ve designated as having some chance of future daily use, as graph paper is my favorite for daily journals. I have listed all the brands below, first with my off the cuff recollection of how I obtained the notebook, and then a link to my original blog post about it. I could identify all the brands just from looking at the spines, but sometimes my memory turned out to be a little off on the rest of the story! These are listed in order from top to bottom in the box, followed by the two on the right.

Ecosystem— purchased at B&N

Nope, actually I received this as a sample for review in 2010: Review: Ecosystem Notebook. I wasn’t really won over by it.

I’m not sure this brand is still active, but B&N.com seems to have some stock. A few also show up on Amazon.

Piccadilly— purchased at Borders

I posted about these being introduced in 2009, and posted about my lined Piccadilly earlier that year. I used at least one or two of these squared notebooks as daily journals, but never did an extensive review until they introduced a softcover notebook. For a brief period I was obsessed with hunting down pocket size Piccadillies at Borders because they were so cheap, but the quality control wasn’t great, so I stopped buying them. And when Borders went out of business, I didn’t see them in stores much– occasionally at B&N but not often, and never the pocket size.

Piccadilly Essentials Notebooks on Amazon

PSN Flash— sent as sample for review

Here’s my 2009 review of assorted samples from this Dutch brand: PSN and Flash Notebooks

These were never available in the US, and nowadays are probably hard to find even in the Netherlands, as the company seems to have cut back its notebook offerings to focus on other office products.

Paperblanks— sent as sample for review

From 2014: Review and Giveaway: Paperblanks Mini Reporter Notebooks

Various Paperblanks notebooks on Amazon, this particular one is the Grolier Mini Reporter, but it did not seem to be available. So many of the Paperblanks styles you see in stores are lined, but I’m always excited when I see their rare squared notebooks!

Brunnen Kompagnon— purchased in Turkey?

Yes, purchased in Instanbul in 2010, and included in a wrap-up of my Turkey purchases in early 2011: Notebooks Bought in Istanbul

Other Brunnen notebooks on Amazon

Fabio Ricci Modena— purchased in Turkey

Another Istanbul purchase, included in the link above. I really want to use this one, but sometimes when I’ve only got a single notebook of a certain type, I don’t want to use it in case I fall in love with it and then can’t get another!

Other Fabio Ricci notebooks on Amazon

Clairefontaine— purchased at Marie Tournelle in Paris, 2016?

I was correct about where I got these two notebooks, but not when. That trip was in 2014, with my various purchases shown off in this post: Notebooks from Paris and Amsterdam

These are not sold in the US as far as I know. I found one on Amazon with squared pages, but it is a larger size. Clairefontaine calls this cover style “Age Bag” or in the US, “Basics,” but in the US they only seem to sell them with lined pages, which is too bad– like other Clairefontaine notebooks, they have very fountain pen friendly paper. You can see the range of notebooks with these covers on Clairefontaine’s website.

Oxford— purchased at FNAC in Paris, 2018

Got that one right. See Notebooks from Europe, posted early in 2019. I haven’t done a full review of this Oxford notebook yet, but it features 90 GSM Optik paper also found in Black & Red notebooks, which is great with fountain pens. It is rare to find Optik paper available in squared rather than the ubiquitous lined.

Oxford has hundreds of products on Amazon. This notebook is from their Essentials line. This particular item is #100101756, which has stitched signatures inside a squared spine– they sell it on Amazon but only in a 10-pack of assorted colors for $45.08. A thinner staple bound version is also available in a 10-pack for $26.29.

TWSBI— purchased from their website

Reviewed in 2015: TWSBI Notebooks

Still available, but still only via TWSBI direct as far as I know.

SenseBook— purchased from Jet Pens

From 2018: Review: SenseBook Notebook

You can still get a few styles of SenseBook notebooks at Jet Pens. Other SenseBook notebooks at Amazon

Kleid Japan— purchased on Amazon

Reviewed earlier in 2019: Review: Kleid 2Face Notebook

Kleid notebooks on Amazon

Art Alternatives Pen & Ink— purchased from Dick Blick (or Amazon?)

Reviewed in 2014: Review: Pen & Ink Squared Notebook. I may also have purchased one from JetPens. I bought the two of them separately because I love this brand but was so disappointed in the heavy dark grid lines inside and hoped it was just an anomaly. Alas, both were the same.

Still available on Amazon, but order with caution: this brand has generally changed to a new design with a diagonal elastic, even though many retailers haven’t changed their product images. Other styles also available at Amazon and JetPens.

Kokuyo Field Book— purchased at Yoseka Stationery

Reviewed in June 2019: Notebook Review: The Kokuyo Sketch Book

Yoseka’s website lists some limited 60th anniversary editions of these notebooks, or you can get a 10-pack for $24.99 at Amazon

Leuchtturm— sent as sample for review

Part of a nice assortment of samples I reviewed in 2014: Review and Giveaway: Leuchtturm Notebooks and Sketchbook

Available at Amazon, along with lots of other Leuchtturm notebook styles.

I love the variety this box represents– all similar in size, all squared pages, and yet all so different! The ones I am most likely to use are the Kleid, Fabio Ricci, TWSBI, Clairefontaine and Oxford notebooks. I used Moleskine squared notebooks quite often and it’s time to work another brand into my rotation again!