I’ve reviewed and mentioned the Pen & Ink brand sketchbooks several times on this site (see here, here, here, and here.) They are the closest substitute for a Moleskine sketchbook with the heavy-weight card stock paper, and they’re affordable and well-made. But I’ve never reviewed their other notebooks with standard weight paper. Squared notebooks are … Continue reading Review: Pen & Ink Squared Notebook
I can’t believe it’s taken me over 2 years to review these notebooks. I first heard of Design-Y in early 2012, when they were receiving quite a bit of buzz on fountain pen blogs. If you’re not familiar with this brand, here’s the background: they are handmade in Japan by a Mr. Yoshino. He uses … Continue reading Review: Design.Y Notebooks
A reader asked for more details about the notebooks in my “What I’m Using Now” photo. I haven’t been updating that photo as often as I should, though for the most part, it’s still accurate most of the time. The red and blue notebooks are HandBook Artist Journals that I have been slowly filling with … Continue reading What I’m Using Now (and Recently)
Here’s another old-time favorite of mine: These are pocket sized notebooks made by Boorum & Pease and Esselte in the 1980s, with lined pages and a textured black hard cover. I look at these now and see them as a sort of proto-Moleskine. I was always looking for a nice “little black book,” in a … Continue reading Boorum & Pease/Esselte Black Notebooks
The folks at Paperblanks were kind enough to send me some samples after seeing my review of their “Old Leather” notebook. I am so glad they did, as I really love the notebooks they sent. Though there are things about them that are not 100% what I tend to look for in notebooks for my … Continue reading Review and Giveaway: Paperblanks Mini Reporter Notebooks
It’s always fun to review new products that are just hitting the market. Papernotes is one such brand, started in November 2013 and based in the Philippines. They sent me two of their Classic Series notebooks to review: The brand has launched offering these medium size notebooks, in 6 colors, all with lined pages. The … Continue reading Review & Giveaway: Papernotes Journal
This review makes me sad! I’m going to cut to the chase and say this is a GREAT notebook, but it seems that SiS Original, the online store that sent me this sample has just gone out of business! Now I feel very bad that I wasn’t able to catch up and write the review … Continue reading Review: Conceptum Notebook
I am really quite depressed. I keep poking around in stores, looking at their stock of Moleskines to see if anything’s changed with how they’re making them. At one point several months ago, I’d had a glimmer of optimism that maybe there had just been a blip in their manufacturing rather than an overall decline … Continue reading Moleskine Monday: I May Never Buy a New Moleskine Again
Nuuna is a new brand of notebooks made in Germany by Brandbook. (I’ve reviewed some of Brandbook’s products designed for custom promotional uses, but this is their entry into products for the retail market.) The kind folks at Notebook Maniac (who have a great selection of other notebooks too) sent me a couple of samples … Continue reading Review & Giveaway: Nuuna Notebooks
This is another notebook I bought about 3 years ago and then immediately shelved. When I first examined it after buying it, I pretty much hated it. I bought it because it was cheap and I’d never tried a softcover Piccadilly, though I’d liked using some of their hardcover ones with graph or plain paper. … Continue reading Review: Piccadilly Softcover Notebook