These readers need help finding their dream notebook:

From Austin:

I stumbled upon your website recently while looking for any interchangeable compartment notebooks there might be out there and was wondering if you might be able to point me in the right direction.

I have a couple of Moleskines, but they are just a bit too pricey for me to use on a very regular basis, as I am a student and do use up pages, even for minor side notes, quite quickly. As such, I was hoping to find a nice notebook which has removable and replaceable inserts, preferably with a hard cover.

Are there any that you know of?

The Kolo Travel books are a nice hardcover option, but they aren’t cheap. The X17 notebook I reviewed isn’t available in the US. And the DayRunner Life Tracker system, which is supposedly the US version of X17, seems to have disappeared from the shelves and every online trace leads to a dead end. What else can we suggest?

Related to the last question, Elizabeth asks:

I’m hoping you might know how to find refills for the life tracker. I so love this journal!!!!! I like the way the inserts work. I have the larger journal. I’m looking for the plain, grid, and lined paper. I did see some refills for the small journal on amazon. They don’t have a good variety and they are the smaller size.

As noted above, I have no idea!

From “Desperate in Massachusetts”:

I’m desperate. Pilot Varsity pens are my main weapons. I’ve scribbled through many many moleskines and other notebooks since the millennium. However, the moleskine bleed through is slowly driving me crazy. I’ll give up my moleskine but not my Pilot Varsity fountain pens. What notebooks won’t bleed through with Pilot Varsity fountain pens?

I use a Pilot Varsity fountain pen in all my reviews and haven’t had much bleedthrough on most notebooks. Rhodia/Clairefontaine paper seems to get the highest marks from fountain pen users for no showthrough or bleedthrough, but there should be other options too.

A reader from the UK asks:

I’m looking for A4 narrow-lined (minimum 40), ±200 page bound notebooks. Slightly frustrating that none of the manufacturers state rule count (av. being 33).

Any suggestions, particularly for UK products?

Snowy is looking for refills:

Have been searching high and low for diary paper refill.
Anyone knows where to get 8-holed diary paper refills 8.7 x 14.1 cm or 3.43 x 5.55 inches?

Most inserts that I’m familiar with are 6-hole, so I’m stumped here.

From Steve:

I’m looking for a notebook that contains a blank/generic calendar. By that, I mean something with a few dates per page, but the dates are not accompanied by the days of the week, if that makes sense. This way, It would work for any year. I’d like to use it as a little cheater notebook to remember peoples’ birthdays.

Standard Diary makes one that has a day per page.Collins Debden makes one with 3 days per page, but retail availability seems to be in Australia and New Zealand, mainly.

And Lynn asks:

just wondering if you know of any notebooks that are bound and have brown craft paper i
in them?

I have seen some like this at Paper Presentation on 18th St. in NYC, but I don’t remember the brand and I’m not sure if they still carry them. Anyone else have any ideas?

Thanks for all your questions and help answering them!