Review: Kokuyo and Maruman Notebooks from Jet Pens

JetPens is renowned as a fabulous source of, well, pens… but they also stock a lot of great notebooks too. Brad at Jet Pens was kind enough to send me some samples for review– let’s take a look! These 3 notebooks are give a first impression of sleekness, somehow. The covers are smooth, and they [...]

Review: Japanese Notebooks from Kinokuniya

Here’s a look at a couple of notebooks I couldn’t resist buying at Kinokuniya, a store in Manhattan that specializes in books, movies, stationery and other Japanese items. The first is a quite unique notebook, made by Pilot and branded “THE-II” on the front. The cover is a very retro leather-textured plastic: But here’s what [...]

MUCU Notebooks

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)

Sneak Peaks from the Secret Shopper

I thought I’d share a few photos from some notebook shopping trips around NYC over the past few months. These were furtively snapped with my cell phone, so I apologize in advance for the image quality. The first few pictures were taken at McNally Jackson Bookstore in the SoHo/NoLIta area of NYC. It’s a fabulous [...]

19th Century Notebooks From a Japanese Dyeworks

These are just gorgeous! This set of eight books is a treasure.  The books are the journals of a kasuri weaver/dyer from Omi, an area of Japan (present-day Shiga Prefecture)  which produced some of Japan’s finest hemp and ramie kasuri textiles, known as Omi jofu. The books date from 1859 through the beginning of last [...]

From the Collections of Our Readers

One of the best things about writing this blog is that I’ve been getting some nice emails from readers with photographs of notebooks. Here’s a few: Carol sends this HUGE notebook: And Jan sends this tiny one, bought in Holland: And Jun shares these photos of a very covetable Japanese surveyor’s notebook: If you have [...]

The First Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper

Welcome to the first edition of the Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper! Some carnivals have roller coasters, fried dough, and oversized stuffed animals as prizes. This carnival offers just as much fun and variety, if you love handmade Japanese paper, fountain pens, Filofaxes, and 15-year old spiral notebooks. Every month, a different blog will [...]