Attention, Readers! I am had a major code fail. If you have sent me comments or questions via the ASK THE DESK comment form, they fell into the Internet abyss due to a stray letter in my form code.
It has be fixed!
Please resubmit your comments and questions and I humbly apologize if you feel I have been ignoring your urgent needs. This is particularly true of any giveaway winners who may have used the form to send me their address.
Thank you for your understanding.
Hot News:
Nock Co. Reviews and Previews:
Postal Enthusiasm:
Pencils:
Pens:
Ink:
Paper and Notebooks:
This morning, Lifehacker featured a great post asking readers to contribute their favorite pencils in the comments and, boy howdy, are there some great pencils featured. Is your favorite pencil listed?
But, lo and behold, they had a related link for their Five Best Notebooks. While I don’t agree on all accounts, its a great follow-up to this morning’s post and gave me another notebook to add to the ever-growing grid: Whitelines.
Last week, I posted on Instagram the current state of my daily notebook. Its the Piccadilly A5 notebook I’ve been using for several months and its reached critical mass. Its bulging with taped, glued and stuffed-in bits of paper ephemera and I only have about 20 pages left. The time has come to select the next daily notebook.
Its hard for me to just leap and make a purchase, so I nerded out in a big way and made a spreadsheet of all the potential candidates. My general criteria includes: hard cover and A5-ish size. I listed the pages by sheets to be consistent. If you’re used to seeing it as pages, just double the number. Some notebooks did not list the paper weight in any place I could readily find and I used the description for color used by the manufacturer or retailer. Some say cream, some say ivory and some didn’t describe it at all so I had to make an educated guess. So, here’s the candidates:
| Brand | Size | Page count | Available in? | Paper Weight | Paper Color | Additional Features | Notes | Price |
| Moleskine | 5×8.25 | 120 sheets | blank, lined, graph | unknown | cream | pocket, vertical elastic | thin paper | $18.95 |
| Leuchtturm 1917 | 5.79×8.23 | 124 sheets | blank, lined, graph, dot grid | 80g | ivory | pages are numbered, lots of cover color options | $18.95 | |
| Rhodia Webnotebook | 5.5×8.25 | 96 sheets | lined, blank, dot grid | 90g | ivory | orange or black, fountain pen friendly | pricier than most, smaller book available in rainbow of colors (Rhodiarama) lined only | $25 |
| Piccadilly Essential | 5×8.1 | 120 sheets | lined, blank, graph | 80g | cream | black, 8 color covers in lined editions only | $5.99 | |
| Ecosystem | 5.25×8.25 | 96 sheets | lined, blank, graph | unknown | bright white | bright cover colors available | lines are far too dark | $14.95 |
| PaperThinks | 4.5×6.5 or 7×9 | 128 sheet | blank, lined | unknown | white | recycled leather covers, lots of colors available | flexible covers | $17.95 or $22.95 |
| Quo Vadis Habana | 6.25×9.25 | 80 sheets | lined (5.5mm) or blank | 85g | white or ivory | black, red, anis, or raspberry covers | larger than most | $20 |
| Palomino Blackwing | 5×8.25 | 80 sheets | blank, lined, graph | 100g | white | also available in “luxury sketchbook” with 120g paper and orange cover (+$2) | $16.95 | |
| Palomino Luxury | 5×8.25 | 80 sheets | lined or blank | 90g | white | distinct orange spine and embossed rope along spine on cover | $17.95 | |
| Ogami Stone | 5.5×8 | 64 sheets | blank | unknown | white | grey, white, tiffany blue or black covers | stone paper (repap); covers are board material rather than leatherette | $16 |
| Monsieur Notebook | 6.5×8 | 96 sheets | blank, lined | 90g | ivory | real leather covers, 8 color options | other formats available like dot grid and sketchbook but in fewer cover options and sizes | $26 |
| Ciak Soft Leather | 5×7 | 112 sheets | blank, lined and multicolor | unknown | white | horizontal elastic, soft recycled leather covers | multicolor page option available, sketchbook blank measure 6×8.5 (+$2) | $24 |
| Miro | 5×8 | 80 sheets | lined or blank | 90g | cream | colored page edges: lime, blue, black, red or pink | white or black leatherette covers | $13.99 |
| Exacompta Basic Journal | 5.5X8.25 | 100 sheets | lined | 100g | white | metallic silver or gilded edges | lines seem very widely spaced | $16 |
| Exacompta Forum | 4.7 x 6.7 | 96 sheets | lined, graph, blank | 64g | white | perforated tear-away corners, 8 pages of maps and tables | lined version appears like an undated planner, designed to be used as refill with Exacompta Club leatherette covers | $16.5 |
| TWSBI Notebook | 5.25×8.25 | 120 sheets | blank, lined or graph | 75g | white | spiffy red ribbon bookmark, lay flat construction | a smaller and larger version are available | $12.99 |
| Baron Fig | 5.4x 7.7 | 96 sheets | blank, lined or dot grid | 65# text (approx 90g) | not sure | lay flat construction, gray bookcloth only | Kickstarter project that ends on Oct. 3 | $20 |
| Poppin | 5×8.25 | 96 sheets | lined or blank | unknown | white | soft cover leatherette, 9 color covers available for lined, red or black cover for blank | other sizes available, blank book has margin across the top of pages | $9 |
I’m still debating. The low price of the Piccadilly is hard to beat though the paper is not as lovely as the more expensive options. The Ciak offers colored paper which seems like it might be kind of fun. The Palomino folks now have a kraft covered 90g notebook under their less expensive Forest Choice brand. The Palomino Luxury (with orange spine) and the Blackwing Luxury (all black) are two different lines — I got a bit confused when I built my grid about the difference between them. There are also the highly decorative Paperblanks notebooks with the pleasing cream stock. I quite like the looks of the simpler Pocket Companion series ($14.95) as a good daily user option.
What’s your notebook of choice? Did I miss any in my chart?
UPDATE: I revised the grid with recommendations and items I forgot as well as providing live links to each product via the company web site or trusted reseller.
I’ve been waiting with bated breath for the Nock Co. product launch, a collection of pen and writing tool cases created by my pal Brad Dowdy of The Pen Addict and Jeffrey Bruckwicki from Old Fourth Tailoring. Well, today’s the big day!
There are seven products in the initial Nock Co. line. Here’s a quick highlight: the Hightower which is designed to hold three pens and a pocket-sized notebook like Field Notes; the Brasstown zippered roll case which is a 6-pen roll that fits into a zip pouch; the Lookout which is a 3-pen holster case, and the Chimneytop which is a single piece zipper pouch that will hold six or seven writing tools or other daily carry items. There’s also the Maryapple and the Sassafras which are variations on the pen + notebook concept (either two slots for notebooks or slots on both the left and right for pens).
The color options for all the products are navy exterior with a gray interior, orange-on-orange (Brad’s favorite colors!) and gray with a sky blue lining. Sadly, there are no green options…yet. All the products are made from heavy-duty 1000 denier nylon exterior coated with a water-resistant DWR and lined with pack cloth.
There is also a special Kickstarter edition of the Hightower in peacock blue.
The most appealing Kickstarter option is the $75 option which will get you one of each of the initial seven products offered. That’s essentially $10.75 per case which is ridiculously cheap. Most of the pen cases sold on the market start at $15 and go up from there.
Nock Co.’s Kickstarter products are expected to start shipping in January of 2014. And of course, all the products are made in the USA.
I finally received my Uppercase Eclecto Notebook a few weeks ago. Shipping from Canada to the US was a lot slower than I had anticipated, over two weeks and there was a delay processing the order so in the end it took about 3 weeks to get two notebooks.
I was super excited to get them because they looked so beautiful on the site but I wished there had been a bit more detail on their site prior to ordering. The book looked a lot more substantial on the Uppercase page but when it arrived, it was actually quite thin. I would guess there’s about 60 sheets in the book. The site made me think there would be closer to 100 sheets per book.
The spine is wrapped with a decorative kraft paper spine printed with gold metallic foil which looks super cool. The edge of the paper on the back cover is die cut into a rounded scallop.
The cover is covered with a printed sheet of clear acetate with the Uppercase “U” in black in the center. The acetate provides protective layer above the paper stock cover sheet but the ink used to print the graphics will scratch or chip if handled much.
Inside, there are two lined sheets between every sheet of make ready. Make ready is the uncut press poof sheets that have been trimmed down in interesting ways for the notebooks. They look like they are great places to doodle, add taped or glued ephemera or just leave as lovely decorative pages. I was delighted that some of the decorative make ready sheets in my volume included florals and knitted images. The lined sheets are a soft warm white with narrow-ruled blue lines. Along the spine edge of the lined pages, the decorative star pattern is printed in blue, adding to the unique look. The paper feels like good quality but I have not had a chance to test it with writing tools yet.
My instinct is to recommend these notebooks to anyone who loves the Uppercase magazine or who might like to use a small notebook for collage or journaling purposes. It would also make a delightful gift. But, if you want is a good daily notebook, this is probably not for you.
($15 each plus shipping, via Uppercase)
(related post: Eclectonotes from Uppercase)
And its here! The new Field Notes Drink Local edition arrived in my mailbox last night. The packaging with the subscriptions making the 6-pack of beer-inspired notebooks look like an actual 6-pack is absolutely stunning though I recommend assembling the carton BEFORE imbibing as it does require a little thought. LOVE!
I wanted to get it captured before disassembling the shrink wrap and effecting its MIB appearance so I have not had a chance to pet the “soft-touch” covers or closely admire the letterpress coaster which is inside the shrink wrap. This is just some visual stimulus to join the subscription service today and get your 6-pack before they sell out. They’ve gone fast in the past but I think these are going to set a new record.
I’ll do a more in-depth look later but I wanted to share some sneak peeks now while there are still sets and subscriptions available.
Subscriptions are $97 for one-year. Individual 3-packs are available in “Ales” or “Lagers” for $9.95 per set but they will not ship with the limited 6-pack packaging. Extra sets of beer coasters can be ordered as well: set of 4 for $3.95.
