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 … Continue reading Notebook Review: Pen + Gear Memo Book and Journal
As I noted in a recent “using now” post, I recently swapped out my usual Moleskine Sketchbook for a Leda Art Supply pocket sketchbook. If I’m adding something to my daily carry, you can probably guess that I’m going to give it a positive review, but even if the suspense is lacking, let’s take a … Continue reading Review: Leda Art Supply Sketchbook
The Sketch & Draw notebook is another Art Alternatives product that I picked up at Blick. These are inexpensive sketchbooks with toothier paper, similar to what’s found in the Hahnemuhle and HandBook sketchbooks, but not quite as thick. The first thing that really sticks out about this brand is the placement of the elastic closure, … Continue reading Review: Sketch & Draw Sketchbook
I bought this notebook from Soundless Solilquy’s shop on Etsy over a year ago. It just looked like a nice simple notebook with some attractive colors available, so I decided to give one a try. It’s a very cute and handy size that manages to be very pocketable, more substantial than a Moleskine Cahier or … Continue reading Review: Soundless Soliloquy Notebook
The lovely sample below arrived from Vienna, where Paper Republic is based. This is an example of their Noto collection, and it’s quite an international notebook: the Chiyogami paper cover is screen-painted by hand in Japan, the pages inside are made of Swedish paper, the notebook was bound in Budapest, Hungary and then was hand-numbered … Continue reading Review: Paper Republic Notebook
For a few years now, I’ve come across online mentions of these very cool Penguin notebooks, but had never figured out where to buy one in the US. But a few months ago, when I was attending BookExpo America for my day job, I happened to wander through the Penguin booth and stopped when I … Continue reading Review: Penguin Notebook
The About:Blank notebook is an interesting and pleasingly minimal notebook. From their website: “About:Blank is the pursuit of emptiness that is full of possibility,” which is a great way to describe notebooks in general. Let’s take a closer look at the sample the company sent me. The sample I received came nicely wrapped in tissue … Continue reading Review: About:Blank Notebook
I picked up this Noteletts notebook last summer in the Art Brown pen shop. It was the first time I’d seen this brand, and I was excited to spot something new, despite being a little disappointed in the sizes available. My favorite notebooks are always a golden rectangle proportion, and usually about 9 x 14 … Continue reading Noteletts Review
I have quite a to-do list going with various new notebooks to review, not to mention old ones from my collection. Here’s a few of my recent purchases and samples I’ve received that you’ll get a look at in the next couple of months: Simple Diary Rhodia Notepad Kolo Essex Travel Book Tops Designer Notebook … Continue reading Forthcoming Notebook Reviews
There’s lots of discussion amongst Moleskine fans about which pens are best for use on Moleskine paper. Here’s the most exhaustive list of pen reviews I’ve found, at a blog called Sandscribbler. The author’s favorites: Uni-ball Signo RT 0.38 The best Moleskine pen that I’ve found so far. Pilot G-2 05 and the Uni-ball Signo … Continue reading Best Pens for Moleskines
