Head on over to Philofaxy to read my guest post about an oddity from my collection of Filofax inserts: pocket size Lefax cash tracking pages. I was hoping someone from the Philofaxy community would have more information, and sure enough, they did!
Sometime last year, I started seeing a lot of mentions of Walmart’s Pen + Gear notebooks on Instagram. It seemed a little odd to me that people would be getting all excited about a very basic spiral notebook, but supposedly they were fountain pen friendly! So the next time I was at a Walmart, of course I had to buy one. At 97 cents, this 4×6″ spiral memo book was not a big investment!
I haven’t bought a 4×6″ spiral notebook in years. Even when I used lots of spiral notebooks, I preferred 3×5″ ones. (You can see more about my childhood spiral notebook collection here and here.) The Pen + Gear memo book is no different from any other spiral memo book in terms of its appearance: smooth cardboard front cover, brown cardboard back cover, lined paper… it is what it is.
But as for the paper inside being fountain pen friendly… yes, it is! It doesn’t feel thick or heavy, but it somehow manages to withstand bleed-through almost completely, and has better than average show-through. I’m impressed!
I do find it a bit funny to use a notebook like this with fancy fountain pens and inks that cost many multiples of the notebook’s price. Most people who care enough about writing to use a fountain pen probably also care enough about paper products to want something more aesthetically pleasing than a basic spiral notebook. But for those who like to use fountain pens or markers for everyday jottings, the Pen + Gear memo book will be perfect!
If you do want something that feels a little more upscale or sturdy, Pen + Gear also offers bound journals like this one:
It’s a typical pocket size Moleskine clone with a ribbon marker, back pocket and elastic closure. The exterior is a smooth paper wrapped over the hard cover, and the design is quite pretty, with color-coordinated endpapers and elastic. The branding info is on a sticker on the back, which peels off easily with no residue.
The pages are lined, with lines that don’t go to the page edges. Every page is perforated, which is unusual in these kinds of notebooks. The paper seems pretty similar to the spiral memo book, maybe a wee bit thicker. It is pretty fountain pen friendly, but not quite as bleed-proof as the memo book when I pressed down hard with a flexible nib.
The difference in the paper may be due to the journal being made in Vietnam, while the memo book is made in India. But at $2.68, the journal is still a great value! It’s nice to know there are some solid options out there for notebooking on a tight budget.
When you build up a collection of notebooks over the years, it’s important to remember that sometimes the stash may not stay as well-preserved as you’d like if you aren’t using or at least handling them regularly! I was recently going through some of my boxes of notebooks, trying to decide what to use next as a daily journal. As I was fondling all my precious beauties, I felt that two of them were stuck together. When I pulled them out of the box, and then pulled them apart, I realized how bad it was!
The victims were a Miquelrius “Boarding” notebook that I reviewed in 2013 and a TWSBI notebook that I reviewed in 2015. I’m not sure which one is to blame, but I think it may have been the TWSBI that kind of melted or dissolved or something, becoming stuck to the Miquelrius book in the process. Or perhaps the Miquelrius cover broke down and developed a stickiness, and the TWSBI cover wasn’t strong enough to stay intact when I separated them. Either way, parts of the TWSBI cover peeled away and stuck to the back of the Miquelrius notebook.
I was able to scrape most of the gunk off the Miquelrius, and it should still be useable, though it won’t look very pretty on the back. The TWSBI is also usable inside, but the front cover is a wreck. Its elastic is also a bit loose, but from re-reading my own review, that seems to have been an issue from day one. I do have a second TWSBI notebook in my collection (this one has plain paper, and the other one has squared pages), but it doesn’t show any signs of stickiness or deterioration. Either the Miquelrius notebook is to blame, or there was just some bad reaction between these two particular cover materials when they were left touching for a long time.
It’s unfortunate that this happened to notebooks I can’t easily replace… but I have plenty of other notebooks, so I’m not going to stress about it!
I do plan to go through my other boxes and keep an eye out for other sticky situations. Some of these faux leather cover materials don’t last forever– I had an old Dayrunner planner cover that I had to trash a couple of years ago because it had gotten flaky and sticky. I have a looseleaf notebook where the leather cover is stuck to a plastic insert. I have old Filofaxes where the plastic credit card holder inserts have become brittle with age. Basically, if it’s not leather or paper, it’s some sort of plastic or vinyl that can start to break down. I may start wrapping certain notebooks in some sort of paper to preserve them better, as contact between surfaces seems to make the problem worse. But paper itself can age badly if it’s not acid-free. Even leather can dry out or become sticky if it’s not cared for. Nothing lasts forever! But neither will I… I guess it’s just a race to see whether my notebooks outlast me… a few more decades, I hope!
Not exactly recent news, but I came across a 2020 series of articles on a Japanese lifestyle website where various fashion industry professionals talk about their use of paper planners. The auto-translated text wasn’t that exciting, but I always love seeing pictures of other people’s notebooks!
See more at Begin, including part 2 here, part 3 here, and part 4 here.
Trying to stick with the alliterative titles here! As discussed in my recent post Filofax Fever, I do have a soft spot for Filofax organizers, particularly the vintage ones made of nice leather. I’ve used several of them over the years, and have filled them with a wide variety of Filofax inserts– plain, grid, and lined pages, various calendar formats, maps, dividers, plastic pockets, sticky notes, address/telephone formatted sheets, you name it. I still have some blank Filofax inserts, but I’m not sure I’ll be using them. Why? Because the paper quality is not consistently good for fountain pens.
When I was most actively using my Filofaxes, I wasn’t using fountain pens, and I don’t remember ever having any issues with how the papers performed with the roller ball and ballpoint pens I used back then. Or I just wasn’t as conscious of preferring papers that wouldn’t show ink bleeding through. But in recent years, I got curious when I saw people in online forums talking about using fountain pens with Filofax inserts– some people said they were fountain-pen friendly and others said just the opposite. So I decided to do some testing myself. I went through my stash of Filofax papers, and pulled out some blank sheets from various years. I can’t tell exactly when I bought them, but they all have copyright dates on them, which Filofax updates from time to time, so I can at least roughly determine the dates. (I’ve written the copyright dates in pencil on each sheet to save you some squinting.) But they could be a little off– Filofax didn’t start selling 6-ring pocket organizers until 1994, so the sheet dated 1993 below is probably newer. (Never mind whether it seems absurd to have copyright dates on a sheet of plain paper.) My stock dates from 1991 to 2012, so it’s not totally up to date, but it is interesting to see the variations nonetheless.
The 1991 sheet seems to perform best on show-through and bleed-through. But the 2007 and 2012 sheets might be second best, so perhaps there is some hope that they’ve gone back to making them the way they used to?
Given how much I’ve talked about my continued use of Moleskine notebooks, which also aren’t good for fountain pens, you’d think I wouldn’t care about the Filofax paper. But I’ve discovered Plotter’s inserts, which work superbly with fountain pens. Since I’ve been using my Guildford Pocket Extra Slim Filofax as an organizer for certain long-term notes and lists, I filled it with Plotter papers. I always have fountain pens handy when I’m using it, and I like keeping it (almost) fountain-pen only. If I start using another Filofax organizer, I’ll probably try to do the same. I also like the look, feel, and size of the Plotter inserts, which are slightly taller and narrower than Filofax’s. The downside is that they don’t seem to be quite as widely available in the US, though it does seem like more and more online pen and stationery specialists are starting to stock them.
If you have been using fountain pens with more recent Filofax inserts, let us know how it’s going!
Half the fun of traveling (for me, at least) is hunting for unusual local notebook brands. It can also be very disappointing when the hunt turns up nothing but the same-old same-old: global brands like Moleskine and Leuchtturm and Rhodia, which seem to have crowded out smaller regional manufacturers. Fortunately, there are intrepid artisans everywhere, so it’s still possible to get lucky and find a notebook that you could never buy at home. And notebooks make great souvenirs!
When I went to Chile and Argentina several months ago, I knew I wouldn’t be spending a lot of time in the major cities, so I wasn’t getting my hopes up too much about finding notebooks. But I did manage to snag a couple of South American souvenirs nonetheless.
The first notebook I bought was from several days into my trip. I hadn’t seen any stationery stores yet, but when we stopped for lunch midway through a long drive, I noticed that there was a small store that seemed to sell children’s party supplies and school supplies. I went in and poked around, and discovered some basic school notebooks made by Colon. I didn’t see any pocket size notebooks of the type I usually prefer, so I got this one, which measures approximately 7 x 9.5 inches:
It’s staple bound, light weight, with pretty thin paper. I forget how much it cost but I think it was the equivalent of just a dollar or two. A made-in-Chile basic school notebook that local kids can afford. Not all that exciting, but definitely not something I’d be able to get at home!
My other Chilean find was at a craft market at Punta de Lobos, a popular surfing destination. I was so excited to see a table full of colorful handmade journals, where the friendly proprietor was very patient with my fumbling Spanish! The brand is called Confluye, and they had some really nice journals, photo albums, and watercolor sketchbooks.
I bought a nice little two-pack of pocket notebooks. (I don’t remember the cost of these either, but I’m sure they were more expensive than the school notebook.)
The Confluye notebooks have sturdy kraft covers, colorful stitching on the spine, and recycled paper within. The are somewhat similar to Field Notes or Moleskine’s Cahiers, but the covers are heavier, and the corners are angled rather than rounded, which would help them fit in a notebook cover.
The paper inside is an off-white, with little fibers– what I think of as that classic “recycled paper” look. It feels pretty light and I didn’t think it would be anything special so I almost didn’t bother to do pen tests. But I happened to have a couple of my fattest, juiciest fountain pens nearby when I was taking photos, so I thought, what the heck… and wow, what a surprise! The paper feels quite lightweight, but these fountain pens did not bleed through or even show through at all! No feathering either.
The brand name Confluye means “converges” and their slogan on the paper band means “so your ideas will always have a space to begin,” (more or less). I enjoyed that day at Punta de Lobos a lot, and I’m glad I have these nice little Chilean notebooks as a souvenir. You can find Confluye on Instagram: @confluyecrea
My trip eventually took me all the way down to Punta Arenas, where I had some time to wander around. I didn’t find a stationery store, but I did browse in a fascinating vintage shop called Vieja Patagonia. I was really excited when I saw some old pocket sized notebooks on display, but it turned out they were from the owner’s personal collection and not for sale. I guess this little notebook was used for recording grades or other information for a student’s parents.
Before heading home, I spent a day in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was not feeling great (and it turned out I had COVID!) so I didn’t do a lot of exploring, but I did plan a walking route around several stationery stores that I’d found in Google maps. Unfortunately, every single one of them was closed! I guess it was a holiday that day. It was so frustrating, as I spotted a notebook brand I’d never seen displayed in one of the windows. I didn’t take a photo and now I can’t remember what the brand was. (I did review a notebook sample from the Argentinian brand Brügge once, but I don’t think that was what I saw.) I consoled myself by visiting one of the world’s most beautiful bookstores, El Ateneo… and a pharmacy. I never did manage to buy a notebook in Argentina, but I hope to have another chance someday. I would love to go back and see more of Buenos Aires when I’m not sick! And Chile is worth another visit too.
Every once in a while I spot a notebook that I know would be totally wrong for my personal needs and preferences… but I salivate over it anyway. The Japanese Shibori notebooks below are a perfect example! The dyed patterns and colors are absolutely gorgeous. Alas, I know I’d never use a landscape format A6 size notebook with this kind of binding. But maybe you would!
Other colors are also available, via japanstationery.com
A few months ago, I went down a rabbit hole of reawakened interest in all my various Filofaxes. It turned into a big research project, the results of which I’ll soon share in a series of posts. The research project ended up involving some shopping, so my Filofax collection is now even larger than it used to be! I keep thinking about how I could use more of my favorite Filofax organizers.
I’ve been using my Guildford Extra Slim Pocket Filofax on a somewhat daily basis, if carrying it around and flipping through it sometimes counts. I can’t say I’m writing in it very actively, but it is coming in handy at times as a repository for long-term lists that I want to refer to without having to copy them from one notebook to the next.
I’ve also decided that I am going to use a Filofax for my work notebook next year, as soon as I’d done with the Pagem planner I’m using now. I am enjoying the Pagem, but don’t feel the need to use another one next year. The key thing is that it’s shown me that a pocket-size notebook is not too small for my work notes, and that an un-formatted page will be better for me than a dated planner since I have an odd part-time schedule. I just need a place to keep some checklists and quick reference items, notes about key tasks I want to accomplish on certain days, an on-going to-do list, and notes from meetings. If I was really super-organized, I’d try to make my own customized version of the Japanese bookseller/publisher’s diary that I posted about recently! But I think a pocket Filofax with some Plotter inserts will be perfect. My only hesitation is that the actual writing area of the sheets that fit in a pocket Filofax will be even smaller than the Pagem sheets, but I think the added flexibility of being able to add and move pages will make up for the loss of size.
I have a few Filofaxes that will be candidates for the work notebook, but I can’t help thinking that none of them is quite perfect. That search for elusive perfection has always been part of my relationship to Filofaxes. One of my pocket Chelsea models came pretty close, as did my customized Filofax from the early 1990s, but otherwise every Filofax I’ve had has been slightly the wrong size, or made of the wrong material. Even other brands haven’t quite nailed it– the Raymay DaVinci notebook is a little too small, and my Plotter notebook is a little too wide. In theory, maybe I could cut the Plotter down to be narrower, but I’d also rather not have the exterior metal spine.
There is one more or less current Filofax out there that is so so close to what I’d like, but it only comes in the Personal size, not Pocket: the Filofax Heritage Personal Compact Organizer. Filofax’s website lists it. but I wonder if this model is being discontinued, as it doesn’t seem to be part of the official Filofax store on Amazon, though some are listed for sale on the US site via Amazon Japan.
The Heritage line seems to have been designed to emulate a vintage model, kind of like the one in this eBay listing, but even more minimal. There are no inside pockets, no snap closure, and the shape is slimmer than the standard personal size Filofaxes, thanks to 15mm rings. This makes it a little more substantial than the super-skinny “slimline” models that only have 11mm rings. There is a stitching detail around the edges and the leather has a pebbled texture that looks nice, at least in photos– I’ve never seen one of these in person. It comes with a leather insert that has some pockets and a pen loop on it, but I’d take that out anyway. If I bought one, that is, which I won’t, because what I really wish is that they had made a pocket size Filofax exactly like this but in the size of the Guildford Extra Slim! Or even slightly bigger, if needed, to accommodate the 15mm rings, but keeping the proportions of the Guildford. I think that could have been a perfect Filofax, but alas, it doesn’t exist.
I still have a few months to decide which Filofax or other looseleaf notebook will be my daily work companion. Maybe something perfect will come along!
Every so often, I spot interesting looking Japanese notebooks and planners on Instagram. Without knowing any Japanese, it’s sometimes hard to figure out what the brand is, but sometimes I manage to click around in various hashtags and find at least a keyword or two that might lead to a link I can copy and paste into Google to try to find more information. My latest such search didn’t enable me to buy the diary I was curious about, or even discover its brand name, but it did lead me to some other Japanese products that I found interesting.
I guess it’s not unusual to find notebooks that have a theme relating to a hobby– Moleskine’s “Passion” notebooks, and Smythson’s themed “lifestyle” notebooks, for instance. But I don’t remember ever seeing a yearly dated diary with a fishing theme, like this one.
According to the original poster (via Google translate), “as it has sections specifically designed for fishing, allowing me to record detailed information about my catch, conditions, time, tackle, and so on.” Even better:
“The fishing section includes information about daily fishing, river conditions, fish condition, personal condition, training, research, etc.
In addition, the calendar section records global weather conditions, sea water temperature, rainfall, air temperature, local river conditions, environmental changes, and so on, day by day, without fail.”
Alas, it was discontinued after the 2021 edition, leaving the original poster searching for some other notebook in which to record his 245 days per year (!) of fishing!
I also found a Japanese diary designed specially for bookstore employees and publishers.
This was quite exciting to me, as I work in the publishing industry myself and I’ve never heard of anything like this diary. The contents include:
　Sales support information, annual sales plan table, list of qualification exams and certifications, list of major magazine release dates, how to use sales indexes, basic knowledge of textbook revisions, etc.
　・Various store checklists
　　Store checklists, competitor store survey charts, daily checklists for disaster preparedness　・Book classification
　　C code table, book 36 classification code table, Nippan magazine classification display　・Awards and information:
　　List of Akutagawa Prize winners, List of Naoki Prize winners, book and magazine formats, list of publishers, etc.
It would be great to have something like this for the book industry in the US, though our data and checklists might be a bit different. Books in the US are classified by codes called BISAC and the full list would be way too mind-numbingly long to print in a notebook!
I love the idea of specialized notebooks that will help you keep track of a hobby or job, but I’ve never had the occasion to use one. Have you, dear readers?
In my post about Denbigh notebooks, I linked to a site that had a photo of a Denbigh notebook from the 1960s: Drew Family Diaries. These diaries are worth a post of their own!
Roger Drew created a website to share this amazing collection of diaries kept by members of his family, starting with his grandparents:
The diaries begin in 1914 and mostly describe daily life in Nottinghamshire and Norfolk, England, with occasional mentions of historic events. Roger’s grandfather’s diaries run from 1914 to 1975, and his mother’s cover 1946 to 2016. Roger himself has kept diaries, and found some that he used in the 1970s and 1980s.
The website shares photos of various diaries and provides a summary and index to their contents. While some of the details might not be of interest to people outside the family, the site makes for fascinating browsing, as Roger has done a great job of researching some of the cultural references mentioned in the diaries and turning the collection into a kind of documentary history of everyday life in the 20th century. The diaries record events like the family’s first telephone being installed, and their first TV, which 19 people gathered around to watch Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.
The website also shows various interior pages of the diaries. There is a link where you can see a diary page from today’s date 50 or 100 years ago. Very cool!
As objects, the diaries are fascinating. You see how certain brands or styles of diaries repeat for several years, and then shift, either because different models were readily available or perhaps because the user’s preferences shifted. The “Heiress” diaries from the 1950s are particularly charming!
I’m wildly envious of this diary collection. And not just because I love collecting notebooks! My own grandparents’ lifespans were similar to Roger’s, and I often think about the times they lived through, wishing I’d known the questions I wanted to ask them when they were still alive. My grandmother told lots of great stories about her youth, when she was a “flapper,” and various family members were always saying we should record her on tape, or later, on video. I don’t think anyone did, and as far as I know, she never wrote any of them down or kept a diary. I would love to have a written record of how she lived, even if it was just mundane details about what she ate or bought or watched on TV. That Roger Drew has been able to preserve his family diaries and share them with others is a rare and precious gift.
Many thanks to Roger for allowing me to share some of his images!
