See more at 8 Fab Notebooks to Write in ….

But here’s what really sets it apart– thumb-indexed sections, like a dictionary!

One thing I don’t like about the notebook is that the cover overhangs the paper edges by quite a lot. The cover is very flexible so those corners would get bent pretty quickly with active use.

The inside cover is grey paper, with no printing on it.

The first page has one of those odd, somewhat nonsensical Japanese-English slogans: “THE-II : ALL PREPARATIONS ARE COMPLETED.”

There’s some index pages at the front of the notebook:

It’s not the best in terms of opening flat– I was a little worried the binding could fall apart.

From the font used for the stamp on the back, it appears to be made by the same Pilot company that makes pens.

A comparison shot, next to a Piccadilly notebook. The Pilot notebook is wider, approximately 3 3/4 x 5 1/2″.

In the shot below you can also see the difference in the paper color: the Piccadilly has a warm, creamy tone, while the Pilot notebook is a very cool white.

The paper is very smooth, and feels a bit lighter weight than most notebooks, with some bleed-through from various pens:

My second purchase was a very cute little loose-leaf binder by Maruman, again shown next to a small Piccadilly notebook:

This photo above shows something that often annoys me about looseleaf notebooks– the front and back covers are rarely parallel, as the spine has to be wide enough to leave room for the rings, and you can’t fit in enough paper to fill out the thickness. I’ve often tried to solve this by using post-it notes or something else to pad out the covers on the inside.

This notebook has a similar thumb-index look to it, but these are just cut-outs in the black plastic cover which reveal the rainbow-colored divider tabs within. First there’s a black page, then white dividers with colored tabs. I think these tabs must be a Maruman trademark, as I have another binder by them that is at least 10 years old and came with the same tabs.

The notebook includes a small amount of lined paper.

There’s also a clear plastic top-opening envelope.

The spine shows off the rainbow colors:

The looseleaf binding works in an unusual way, swinging to the side to open:

The paper is similar to that of the Pilot notebook: a cool white, nice and smooth but not the best for bleed-through.

The Japanese do make some great stationery! It’s been several months since I bought these and I’m already itching to go back to Kinokuniya and see what’s new there!

Read more at Amazon: Nox

]]> http://www.notebookstories.com/2010/08/11/anne-carsons-nox/feed/ 0 http://www.notebookstories.com/2010/08/05/mucu-notebooks/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://www.notebookstories.com/2010/08/05/mucu-notebooks/#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:13:39 +0000 Nifty http://www.notebookstories.com/?p=3245 Here’s a new brand of notebooks from Japan that I hadn’t heard of before, available at Need Supply Co. I like the stripped-down, utilitarian look.

Found via StreetLevel.com. (Also spotted at Uncrate.com, via The Pen Addict)

A fabulous notebook to record “notes for my daily life”. Designed by Japanese company Mark’s Inc., it has a smooth bright orange cover and comes with an elastic closure band to keep your book safe in your bag.

It has 300 lined pages each headed with space for the date. Whatever you’re doing this week, record it in this cool notebook.

* 16cm x 23cm
* 300 lined pages
* spiral bound
* elastic closure band

See more at Mark’s Inc Notes for my Daily Life Notebook.

From Bobby:
I’m trying to find a notebook that is “normal” sized ~8.5×11 and is cream/light green colored like the computation pads, and have a grid that is very faint to the point where if you photocopied it, it probably wouldn’t show up. (not a deal breaker, but that’s the type of faint I’m looking for). I’d like it with either spiral bound or some other type of binding that allows for laying flat. I’d love some sort of classic retro-y looking cover, but really it’s the guts that count. I’m not really interested in the engineering computation notebooks that are available mainly due to the heaviness of the grids on those notebooks. I guess they figured since its a notebook and you can’t use the grid-through-the-back-of-the-sheet trick, they’d just make them normal darker grid.
This is a stumper! Whitelines notebooks shouldn’t show their grid lines when photocopied, but the greyish paper might not be pleasing compared to a cream/light green. I’ve also seen legder notebooks with greenish pages and fairly faint lines, but not spiral bound. Does anyone else have any ideas for Bobby?

From Howard:

Do you know if there are Moleskine like notepads with legal pad yellow colored pages?  It seems weird, but I find jotting my notes down on yellow tinted pages quite pleasing.

I’ve seen small notepads that have yellow legal paper, but never anything in a Moleskine-like notebook.

From Nena:

I am looking for a really thick notebook – i.e. it has many many pages that is lined. Do you have any suggestions?

I’ve seen very thick notebooks with unlined pages, such as this one, but the thickest lined notebooks I’ve seen are probably these ones from Miquelrius, which have up to 300 pages and are available in squared and lined pages.

From Jeffrey:
I am wondering if you know what the best best book for me would be. I mostly like to draw with technical pens or pretty much put the ink straight on the page. I have one of the Handbook notebooks, I like it, buts its just not quite there. If it had smoother paper, it would probably be it. I like the thickness of the paper in them. What other notebook would you recommend other than the Handbook ones?

If you want something with smooth but thick paper, I would try one of the Moleskine Sketchbooks, or the Pen & Ink Heavy-Weight Sketch Book. Either of those should work well with that kind of pen, I think. I like the Hand Book Sketchbooks best for watercolor, pencil, or magic markers, but with fine-point pens, I love the creamy texture of the Moleskine, and the heavier paper used in the sketchbooks bleeds through much less than the lighter paper used in their other notebooks.

From Claudia:
I am trying to find a softcover notebook with “wide rule” lines and can’t seem to find anything besides the old marble-composition books, and I have a ton of those. Any ideas?

Have you tried Clairefontaine notebooks? I think the lines are usually wide rule and they have various cover and binding options.

Whew! That’s a lot of questions, and I have more on hand that I’ll feature in future posts. Thanks for writing, everyone, and thanks to all the readers out there who may also have suggestions!

This is old store stock from a now defunct shop, and is in BEAUTIFUL CONDITION! Each pad has 60 sheets, and measures 6″ x 9″ – the perfect size for all of your stenographic needs! And that cover art is just TOO MUCH!

More at VINTAGE notebook STENOGRAPHER pad 1960s OLD STORE by dotdotdotshop.

The Primo is a very different product, with some things I like, and some I don’t. Let’s take a look!

Packaging is similar to the regular notebooks: it’s shrinkwrapped in the store, with the removable horizontal paper band. The first obvious difference is the horizontal elastic wrapping around the notebook.

The back has an embossed logo, as usual.

Below you can see how the cover sticks out a bit beyond the pages. It’s flexible enough that the elastic would bend it, but there is a little notch cut into the edge to prevent that. The cover has a sort of rubbery feel with the dots giving it texture. I noticed that it almost seems to pick up dirt like an eraser– after taking these photos, I had the journal knocking around in a bag for a few days and the bright red cover picked up a lot of very obvious dirt smudges.

You can see below how the cover on my notebook was already curling a bit at the corners just from being in the shrinkwrap. You can also see that the spine is rounded and sticks out quite a bit. I wish the cover was trimmed more closely to the pages, and that the spine was more squared-off.

Compared to the standard black Piccadilly notebook, the Primo is quite a bit thicker, with 288 pages of 100gsm paper. It’s still approximately 3.5 x 5.5″. I love the chunky shape of the Primo, it feels great in your hand.

Here’s one of my major beefs with the Primo– once you undo the elastic, it just flaps around on the spine. Vertical elastics can be tucked around the back cover if you don’t want to use them, and I really prefer that. The only possible benefit I could see for the elastic being this way is that maybe you could stick your wrist through it to hold the notebook more securely and not lose it while you’re on a rollercoaster or something. But you know, that really wasn’t something I was too worried about!

The inside front cover is blank. So is the inside back cover, except for a small logo and barcode. There’s no pocket.

Despite the thickness of the notebook, it opens nice and flat.

The paper is great– smooth and heavy, and most of my usual test pens didn’t bleed through at all.

Bottom line, I like this notebook but I don’t love it. I find myself turning it over in my hands, just enjoying the shape, but the minute I un-do that elastic, it bugs me. I may try to do some surgery on the notebook to see if I can remove the elastic– I think I’d rather just have a couple of small holes in the spine. Other factors to consider are that the thickness and the dirt-attracting properties of the cover might not make it the best notebook to carry around, but it is certainly a pleasure to write in, so it might be good for a stay-at-home journal for longer writings.

I neglected to record exactly how much I paid for the notebook at Borders– I think it was $5.99 or $6.99. You can also buy Primo Journals in small, medium and large, in blue, red, and orange, at the Piccadilly online store, for $8.95 small, $12.95 medium, or $14.95 large.

From the product description:

The design of this set of three notebooks is adapted from works by the German artist Marcel Odenbach (b. 1953). The notebooks are packaged in a stylish slipcase, each notebook has a different cover and contains either 64 blank, lined or graphed pages.

They’re 6″ h x 4.25″bw x 1″d, $18.95 or $17.05 if you’re a member. More details at MoMA Store – Odenbach Set of Three Notebooks.