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.

So, let’s take a look…

The basic package is very similar to other notebooks on the market– size is supposedly 3.5 x 5.5″, though it’s actually slightly larger. I measured it as 3 11/16 x 5 5/8″. The paper band runs vertically, similar to the Rhodia Webnotebook, rather than horizontally like Moleskine and Piccadilly.

The back cover features the usual stamped logo. In the photo below, you’ll also notice that the elastic is quite thick and substantial, as is the ribbon marker. It feels as though it would be more durable than the thinner ones on most other notebooks. You can also see a bit of the cover texture below. The notebook is softcover, but a bit stiffer than a Moleskine, and the cover material has less texture to it. Again, it feels a bit more substantial than the softcover Moleskine, which tends to get beat up on the corners pretty quickly.

The inside front cover is a bit more decorated than other brands. You get a bit of information about about the notebook, and space for your name and contact info. It also notes that there is a unique ID number inside the back cover, which can be used to trace the owner if the notebook is lost.

I rather like the leaf pattern in the background– I love books with fancy endpapers, and I wish more notebooks were made that way. It’s like having a jacket with a really cool lining: style that is for your own enjoyment, not just to flash around to others. I’ve actually customized notebooks with pasted-in endpapers when giving them as gifts, but as far as I’ve seen, TeNeues Coolnotes is the only brand that really has fun with that space.

The fun leaf pattern continues on the inside back cover, where the standard expanding pocket also appears.

Here’s a closeup of that identification number. I wonder how much this feature will really be used– if someone found a notebook would they really bother to go to a website to reconnect it with its owner? And wouldn’t it be simpler for all concerned for the owner just to put some form of contact info inside the front cover? Maybe some people don’t want their contact info to appear there, but if you’re concerned about privacy, why would you be registering the notebook with Ecosystem in the first place?

This is about as flat as the notebook will easily open– not as flat as Moleskine or Piccadilly. You can sort of see below that every page is perforated, which is a nice touch many other brands don’t have. The perforations are quite fine, and I don’t think pages are likely to come loose unintentionally unless you really, severely abuse the notebook and bend it right on the perforations a lot.

As for the paper, it’s pretty smooth– not as smooth as Clairefontaine or Moleskine, but smoother than at least some of the Piccadillies I’ve used. And it performed much better than average in terms of holding up to bleed-through.

But the paper ended up being the main reason I will probably not actually use this notebook. When I first saw the paper, I noticed that the squares were a lot smaller than most graph paper notebooks– only 1/8″, rather than the more typical 3/16″. The lines also seem a bit dark, and the overall effect ended up being really distracting when I wrote in the notebook. Maybe I’d get used to it, or maybe it would be better if I used thick pens all the time, or had larger handwriting, I don’t know. But if the unlined paper has the same texture, I think I’d be quite happy with it. The notebook has 192 pages, and though the paper weight is not specified, I’d guess it’s probably 80 gsm, as it bulks up about the same as a Piccadilly.

Ecosystem notebooks are available in quite a few options: small and large sizes, hard cover, flexi cover or cahier-style, various colors, and lined, plain or graph paper, as well as planners. They also offer some insert booklets like calendars and to-do lists that can be tucked into the back pocket, adding a bit of Filofax-like customizability to the notebooks– this is a great touch, though the notebook I received doesn’t seem built to accommodate extra pages like that without starting to appear really overstuffed. (Moleskine’s planners that come with the little index page booklets are made with a bit of extra room in the spine so the covers will still lie flat.)

The small notebooks retail for $9.95. So far, I believe they’re only available at the Ecosystem website or in Barnes & Noble, though I believe I heard somewhere that they were going to be expanding their retail distribution. Given that this is a US-made, 100% post-consumer recycled paper product, with specs comparable to or arguably better than a Moleskine, this seems like a very good price.

So, bottom line, it’s actually a very nice notebook and a good value, and their eco-friendly, local manufacturing is very admirable. But I can’t help saying it: their marketing still drives me nuts!

All the standard features are present and accounted for: paper band, elastic closure, logo stamped on the bottom of the back cover, expanding pocket inside back cover, ribbon marker.

It opens quite flat. Another detail to note is the little bit of cord edging at the spine (I don’t know the bookbinding term for this, can anyone help me out?) This is also present in the Pen & Ink notebook and the Rhodia Webnotebook.

As for the paper… despite the 80 GSM weight, it feels a bit thin and pens show through more than in some other comparable notebooks. The Uniball Vision Micro and Pilot Varsity fountain pen feathered slightly.

Other fountain pen users have also commented that the Scribe notebook isn’t ideal (see here and here)– the experience of writing in them may feel nice at first, but the bleedthrough is problematic. But other than that, this is quite a nice notebook, and the slight flexibility might make it a favorite for those who like to carry their notebooks in a back pocket.

Specs:

3 1/2 x 5 1/2″, though the cover says A6

96 pages, 80 GSM paper

I’d like to thank Marian at Scribe for sending me a sample, since these notebooks are only sold in the Philippines.

You know how they say if you really love something, you let it go? That’s how much this notebook addict loves notebooks. She found all these fabulous items while traveling in France and Germany, and she sent them to me, to share with all the rest of you notebook fans. There are so many, I won’t even attempt full reviews of all, but there are plenty of photos below, and you can see larger versions of them on Flickr.

My favorite was the notebook below, from Rationella. I’d seen the brand mentioned online and was very excited to try one– it’s a Swedish brand, though this example was purchased in Germany. It’s got a clothbound cover that makes it similar to the HandBook Journal (shown here in blue), but it’s slightly smaller and thinner, and includes a pen loop. Rationella’s website says their products are produced according to “old bookbinding traditions,” and that comes through in this notebook– it just seems like a really nice, tight, good quality product.

Below is a German notebook, this one slightly taller than the usual pocket Moleskine size, shown next to it for comparison. It’s got deep notches that keep the elastic in place. The colored page edges are a neat touch. Here again, there’s also a pen loop on the edge.

This next one is pretty cool– like some of the notebooks sold by Levenger, it has pages that can be detached and then reinserted, keeping the slim format of a spiral notebook without the bulk added by the usual looseleaf rings of most refillable notebooks.

An attractive black and red journal:

This Le Zippe notebook is another one of my favorites. It can double as a wallet. I just love how different it is from anything else I’ve ever used– funky coloring and materials, and really practical features. I’m not sure how the plastic would hold up to being stuffed with a lot of cards and papers and money, but it would be worth a try!

The slipcased notebook below is interesting– it comes with its own pencil, but it’s a bit awkward to have to take out the notebook and then shake the pencil loose from deep within the slipcase.

This one reminds me of the Xonex notebooks you see in some shops in the USA. It’s a little taller and wider than a pocket Moleskine.

I didn’t realize TeNeues made any journals like this– they have other small notebooks that I’ve seen, as well as calendars and art books– this large notebook resembles a Moleskine, but with an embossed cover and silver page edges. Very snazzy.

Another German notebook, with two ribbon markers.

A slim exercise book, with a little cut-out in the cover

A basic lined notebook from Muji

Another thin exercise book:

A hardcover journal:

The whole pile again:

Whew, that is a lot of notebooks! I’m sure you can imagine how it felt to open a box filled with all these fabulous goodies. A HUGE thank you once again to Carmen– you are truly a notebook queen!

Here’s the front and back cover. The removable paper band is made of a translucent vellum paper.

The back view provides the first departure from the standard Moleskine set of features– the elastic band attaches in the middle of the notebook instead of at the top and bottom

As you can see from the next photo, there is quite a large overhang of the cover beyond the paper.

The outside dimensions of the notebook are about the same as a Moleskine, but the pages inside are much smaller.

When you open the notebook, that elastic starts to seem really weird– the way it’s attached leaves it hanging quite loose.

At first I thought it might have been made that way so you’d have the option of wrapping it around sideways like a Ciak or Piccadilly Primo journal, but it’s too loose to work that way.

Here’s a closeup of the cover material– it’s hard to see, but it has an unusual texture, not the usual vaguely leather-ish feel. The closest thing I can compare it to would be the surface of a cinder block, or a stucco wall!

The inside front cover is blank:

But when you turn to the first page, there’s the space for writing your info, on the inside of the endpaper. The binding is a bit tight and the notebook doesn’t open flat very easily.

There’s no pocket in the back, just a logo.

So how about the paper? I’m sorry to say that it’s quite disappointing. It’s quite thin and showed some of the worst bleed-through I’ve seen in any notebook I’ve reviewed:

I have to say that I found this notebook very disappointing overall. The weird elastic and small, skimpy pages just bothered me. The price for these notebooks on Amazon is currently $5.49 (or $8-12 for a larger size), though I think it was about a dollar less when I bought mine. Unfortunately, I don’t think they’re even worth that much– Piccadilly’s notebooks cost less at Borders and are far superior in quality. The only upside to these might be the color and texture of the cover, but that’s a matter of taste.

Specs:

96 lined pages

132 x 85mm

Made in Malaysia

This pad is a “Bloc Rhodia No. 16,” their 5.8 x 8.3″ format. Here’s the front cover, with the traditional Rhodia logo. You can see the staples that hold the cover on, and the scored lines that allow the cover to fold over easily:

Here’s the back cover, listing the various formats of Rhodia pads. The typography has a lovely old-fashioned look to it.

Here’s the side view:

The pages are perforated for easy tear-out, and the back has a stiff piece of cardboard under the orange cover so it stays rigid when you’re writing.

And here’s that lovely 80 gsm Rhodia paper in action. I had to write in it with an orange Uniball Signo RT first, to celebrate Rhodia’s signature color! The paper, of course, performed quite well with my usual rollerball pens but my Super Sharpie bled through a lot. I’ve yet to find a notebook that can stand up to that thing!

So, bottom line, what’s not to like? It’s a nice basic pad and it’s Rhodia, so it looks cool. Works for me!

You can buy the various sizes of Rhodia pads for around 30% off the list price at Blick Art Materials.

The Monologue notebook is something that at first would be thought of by most people as a “Moleskine clone.” But on closer inspection, it turns out that it’s more similar to another major notebook brand.

Here’s the front, with the typical elastic closure and paper band wrapping around:

The cover is smooth and slightly soft, and you can see the imprint of the elastic. The Monologue branding is stamped at the bottom of the back cover. It’s hard to see in photos, but the cover material has a subtle leather-texture look, printed in tiny dots of darker and lighter tones. To the touch, it is completely smooth.

The notebook is slightly larger than a pocket size Piccadilly notebook, shown below for comparison. The Monologue covers are slightly thicker and stick out a bit more from the pages.

The inside front cover is totally blank, no predetermined space for writing your name.

Inside the back cover, the usual expanding pocket, with cloth sides.

The notebook is a bit stiff at first, but it does lie quite flat:

The lined pages have a fairly broad margin at each side:

How’s the paper? Nice and smooth, but there is a bit of show-through with many of my usual pens, and my Pilot Varsity fountain pen seemed to feather a wee bit. The paper weight is 80gsm.

So, did this notebook remind you of anything? How about the Rhodia Webnotebook? They are uncannily similar in the size and exterior appearance, and even the page layout is the same but for the lack of the Rhodia logo in the corner. When you actually put them side by side, you notice other differences: the Rhodia has colored endpapers and a logo stamped on the front, and is slightly thicker, due to its 90gsm paper. But the 80gsm Webnotebook has pretty much the same dimensions as the Monologue notebook– and pretty similar paper, it seemed to me. Below are some comparison shots to the 90gsm Webnotebook:

From what I’ve been able to determine from other blog reviews, the Monologue is less than half the price of a Moleskine, so I’d expect that it is also quite a bit cheaper than a Rhodia Webnotebook in the Asian markets where it is available. (Grandluxe’s suggested retail price is US$7.10.) The paper isn’t as nice as the 90 gsm Rhodia paper, but it’s pretty comparable to the 80gsm earlier Webnotebook– I don’t think I’d be able to tell the difference, but I can’t vouch for what heavy duty fountain pen users might experience.

Grandluxe also sent me samples of their Dialogue brand. With their horizontal elastic, these might remind you of Ciak’s notebooks, or Piccadilly’s Primo Journals.

Both the small Dialogue notebook and the Monologue notebook say on their labels that they are A6 size, but their measurements are actually quite different! Below is the Dialogue vs. the pocket size Piccadilly notebook. It measures about 4 3/8 x 5 7/8″. The photo below also shows how round the spine of the Dialogue is– it sticks out quite a bit to accomodate the elastic

The elastic is rounded, and fits into a small groove in the side of the cover.

The Dialogue notebook is pretty springy, and doesn’t easily open flat.

The cover itself is thin and quite flexible.

The line spacing and margins are wider than the Monologue notebook, and there’s a small PaperLuxe logo at the bottom right corner of the lined pages. The front of each page is lined, and the back is unlined, which I rather like– two paper styles in one!

This seems to have the same 80 gsm paper as the Monologue notebook, and performed similarly with pens.

I personally am not crazy about sideways elastics so this isn’t a notebook I’d consider for everyday use, but it seems like a good value for the suggested retail price, which is US$6.80.

United States readers might have a hard time buying these notebooks, but the Monologue and Dialogue brands are sold in 30 countries, including:

• Singapore
• Malaysia
• Japan
• Australia
• Indonesia
• Brunei
• Romania
• Thailand
• Dubai
• Hong Kong
• Taiwan
• Philippines
• The Netherlands
• China

Some of the major retailers stocking them include Magrudy’s, Tokyu Hands, Eslite, Metro Books, Paragon Departmental Stores, Loft, Times Bookstore, Chater House, One-Hua Ho Department Store, Urban Write, Harris Bookstores, Kinokuniya, and Takashimaya Department Store.

If you aren’t traveling any time soon and don’t mind paying for international shipping, you can also try ordering from Grandluxe’s webstore. Other colors, sizes and styles are available.

Dear Reader,

There are three reasons why most people, although they have tried, won’t keep a diary:

• Not every day is very eventful.
• It actually takes a lot of discipline.
  (regarding 1 even more so).
• In retrospect, many find what they have written quite embarrassing.

You may use Simple Diary™

• however you like.
• whenever you want.
• wherever you are.
• randomly or page by page.
• filling in your thoughts or leaving it blank.
• reading one page or as many as you wish.
• and putting it aside for a while.
• as an assistant for any occasion in life.

I hope you find a true friend, a great place or some wisdom through this book. That would make me happy.

Good luck, and thank you for your time. It’s all yours.
Philipp Keel

With all that out of the way, let’s take a look!

The sample I received had a white leather-ish cover, embossed with silver and red type on the front, back and spine. It’s quite classy-looking.

The cover is fairly thin and flexible, which gives it a nice feel, though it makes the corners rather susceptible to bending.

The edges are silver, and there’s a red ribbon marker– again, classy details.

The front and back endpapers have the Keel’s logo pattern, and there’s a pocket in the back.

Inside, you have pages made of a lovely thick, creamy paper. Each one is different, with questions or multiple choices or blanks to fill in– they’re rather absurd, but fun. When I was a kid, I had this sort of prompted journal, with pages for things like “My Best Friend,” or “My Favorite Foods.” This is like a surrealist take on one of those journals!

Each page has a header for the date, but then you’re supposed to choose things like whether your day was moist or chaste or chilly, and explain why. It gets even weirder from there.

Other pages are not dated. The one below is for recording “5 things you can do/ 5 things you can’t do” and “5 things you want/ 5 things you don’t want anymore.”

Some of the pages even have spaces where you’re supposed to draw things, like this one:

I’m not sure how some of the questions are supposed to provide any wisdom about your life, but I guess everyone will interpret them in their own way.

My sample came with a little brochure explaining the concept, and showing the other colors that are available– I have to say, they’d all look great together sitting on a shelf if you kept several years’ worth of these diaries!

This is the kind of thing that would make a fun gift for someone creative and open-minded. A lot of people might react to it with a “huh?” or think it’s a bit overly clever, but others will enjoy the randomness! Personally, though I think it’s well-designed and rather fun, I don’t think I’ll really use it. I keep a journal the boring, old-fashioned way, by just writing down what I’ve been doing and thinking about, and lately I find I have enough other writing projects to keep me busy without needing something like this to stimulate ideas. But you never know when you might need a kick in the pants, so I’ll keep my Simple Diary handy in case thinking about “a shape, thing or feature you find terribly irresistible” might encourage some burst of innovation!

Specs: Flexicover, 11.7 x 16.6 cm (4.6 x 6.5 in.), 136 pages

The suggested retail price is a quite reasonable $15– for what feels like a rather luxurious package, I would have expected them to charge more.

You can order the Simple Diary online from Taschen, or find it in various shops. (I believe I’ve seen it at McNally Jackson and Kate’s Paperie in NYC.)

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

Monologue and Dialogue Notebooks from Grandluxe

Blackwell Notebook

Revolver Journal

Scribe Notebook

Ecosystem Journals

Miquelrius Notebook

Kiki James Leather Jotter

Maruman and Pilot Notebooks from Kinokuniya

And who knows what other new notebooks lurk over the horizon! Stay tuned…

The planner is the size of a pocket Moleskine notebook, but at 2 1/8 inches, it’s about 4 times as thick. It consists of an outer cover and 12 loose booklets inside, one for each month. Inside the front cover, there is a vertical version of the usual expanding pocket usually found in the back of the notebooks.

The funny thing about the outside cover is that the back cover angle is a fixed 90 degrees, while the front cover folds back and forth freely. It just wraps around 3 sides of the inner booklets– I had expected it to have a bottom and function more like those boxes for storing magazines, but the elastic is all that holds the monthly booklets in. I worry that this won’t be very secure over time, as the elastics can lose their tension. The product description on Amazon says “The 12 months are packed in a gift box that protects, organizes, and preserves,” which just isn’t true, as far as I am concerned.
In addition to the 12 booklets, you get a card showing the colors and months, which I suppose could be used as a bookmark, and a sheet of stickers you can use to label the spines.

The front of each booklet is already labeled with the number of the month, 1 for January, and so on.

The booklets are just like the Moleskine Volant notebooks– same thin, flexible, slightly shiny cover (not the lighter, matte stock of the Cahiers). Inside the front, you get the usual space for writing your “if lost” info, then a more detailed personal info page, and quite a few pages of other information, including time zones, holidays, measurement conversions, a year-to-view calendar, month-per-page planner pages, etc.

These pages actually take up half of each booklet, to the point I’ve marked below:

Only after that do you get to the per-day pages:

The daily pages have the usual layout found in Moleskine’s other daily planners, with hours of the day noted along one edge.

If I had designed this product, I would have done a few things differently, as noted in this post: I would put the front-matter of the monthly booklets into a separate booklet of its own, rather than repeating it 12 times. Then the monthly booklets could either be thinner, or have a 2-page spread per day. I also might have made it an undated calendar, so the user could choose which color booklet to assign to each month. Personally, I think January and February should be grey and November and December should be red, rather than vice versa, but perhaps that’s just my geographic and cultural biases showing!

What about usability? Is it handy and does it work? It depends. I think separate monthly booklets are great if you want to create a backwards-looking diary, but probably not so convenient if you want a forward-looking planner. Are you going to carry all 12 with you? Or the current month plus the next month or two? What if you need to note an appointment a few months from now? You can note it in the yearly planner at the front, but there’s not much room, and you’d have to transfer the info to a different month’s booklet later. That would drive me crazy.

But I don’t use a paper planner for that kind of scheduling anyway– that’s where I’m all electronic. I use paper, currently a Moleskine weekly planner/notebook (week on one page, notes page facing), to keep a diary, or more like a log book. I record what I ate, what exercise I did, my health, any interesting dreams I had and other little details of daily life (but not longer journal entries, which I keep elsewhere). I don’t carry this notebook around with me, so sometimes I have to go back and fill things in after being away from home. This works pretty well, but next year, when I start using the Color-a-Month booklets, I’ll carry around the current month. It will be nice and light, and I’ll have lots more space for each day. I’m hoping it will encourage me to add more detail about each day’s activities and thoughts, or perhaps keep more of an art journal. (I wish it would look like this one!)

Bottom line, this is a great-looking product that no Moleskine collector will be able to resist. I like it and will be using it starting January 1, 2010. But depending on how you like to use a planner, it might not be right for you. And even if it is practical for your purposes, you might wish a few of the details were a little different. I also have to note that at a list price of $40.00, it’s not cheap! (I purchased the planner I reviewed when it was deeply discounted at Amazon, otherwise I think I would have waited and hoped to receive it as a Christmas present!) It will be interesting to see if Moleskine continues to offer it for 2011 and beyond, or whether they’ll consider it a one-off and try something else next year.

You can get one via Amazon here, currently 10% off at $36.00.

CONTEST HAS ENDED. Or, you can try to win one in my latest giveaway! Thanks to the friendly people at Moleskine’s US distributor, Chronicle Books, I now have a couple of these planners to give away, plus some other Moleskine goodies.

Prizes awarded to 3 randomly selected winners will be:

Prize package #1: Moleskine Color-a-Month 2010 Planner & Pocket Ruled Notebook

Prize package #2: Moleskine Color-a-Month 2010 Planner & Pocket Ruled Reporter Notebook

Prize package #3: Moleskine 2010 Desk Calendar & 2 Large Ruled Volant Notebooks (blue covers)

There are two ways to enter:

• Follow me on Twitter @notebookstories AND post this message as a Twitter update: Win a #Moleskine planner this week @notebookstories http://bit.ly/8SkKII
• If you have a blog, write a post linking to this review and email me your blog post URL at contest@notebookstories.com

Deadline to enter is Friday Dec. 4th at midnight. Good luck!