A few weeks ago, New York Magazine’s “Strategist” column ran an article ranking the 100 best notebooks. I bookmarked it but it took me a while to go back and absorb all the info. Having now read through the whole thing, let’s just say I have some issues with it!

The best spiral-bound, leather, lined, blank, and gridded notebooks, as judged by the writers and editors who tested them.

Like most of these kinds of lists, it’s mainly intended to get you to click on their affiliate links to Amazon and other retailers, so you have to take it with a grain of salt. But they do begin by listing all their criteria for evaluation and citing a whole panel of experts they consulted in collecting all their candidates. (The experts include writers, artists, retailers and bullet journalers, but no bloggers from the notebook/pen community, as far as I could see.)

These are the criteria they scored each notebook on:

Design: Is there enough room to write? Do the aesthetics and ergonomics of the open notebook encourage you to use it? Do the lines/dots/grid feel impactful in a good way or overly designed and distracting? Or are they, in fact, perfectly muted?

Page Quality: Is the paper smooth enough for writing? Is it thin or thick? Does the weight of the page make it feel luxurious or flimsy? Is the texture soft and smooth or coarse and scratchy? Is the paper recycled/recycled-feeling? Colored or unbleached or bleached bright white? Does the ink bleed through?

Overall Feel: Does the notebook feel substantial or flimsy? Is it a good weight and size? How portable is it? Does it pack easily into certain bags? Will it hold up against wear and tear? Are there too many/too few pages? Or is it just right?

The Cover: What design elements stand out?Is it hardcover or softcover? Is it nice to look at or jarring? Is it minimal, classic, and clean or just boring? Design-y in a cool way? Or is it overdone or even a little immature-looking? Does it come off as expensive or cheap?

A lot of this is pretty subjective– the “Design” and “Cover” categories seem to overlap. And “Overall Feel” seems very weighted towards size. I don’t think a notebook can be ranked better or worse based on its size– it all depends on what size the user wants and needs, so for some people a 5×8″ notebook is perfect, while for others it’s too big, or too small. I would have liked to see them include “Value” as a criterion, but they make hardly any mention of price vs. size, quality and features.

I could talk about how their rankings differ from what mine would be, but that’s not really the point. My biggest beef is that they didn’t really dig all that deep for a wide variety of brands. I was kind of excited to see a list of 100 different notebooks– I should make one myself, but it really is a ton of work to pull together! The Strategist list misses quite a few widely available brands, perhaps because they couldn’t find a way to affiliate-link them. They then pad out the list with repeats of several brands, which leads to some really absurd rankings. For instance:

These are all basically the same exact notebook in different sizes, page styles and orientations. (Moleskine Volants and two sizes of Moleskine Cahiers are also on the list.) A few other brands have similar instances where they are giving different rankings to various formats of the same notebook.

These are their top 3 notebooks:

I’ve seen the Public Supply notebooks around, but haven’t reviewed one yet. I like the cover design a lot, but I think I shied away because they were a bit expensive and had a glued binding that didn’t open flat. Maybe I’m remembering that wrong, or else they’ve changed their construction, as it looks like they now have stitched spines. I will reserve any judgment about whether or not this should be #1 until I’ve reviewed one myself.

I haven’t done a full review of a Muji notebook either, but I always fondle them when I go into a Muji store. They’re very inexpensive, and nice-looking. The paper feels creamy and smooth, and from what I’ve read online, seems to be good with fountain pens, though I have not tested that myself.

I reviewed an Appointed notebook a few years ago. Afterwards, I used it day to day at my job. I liked the design a lot, and the paper was great for fine point gel ink pens, though I found that fountain pens feathered a bit. I found it a bit on the pricey side, but not totally out of line for a USA-made product. (Looking at their website now, it only mentions the covers being made in the USA.)

Check out the full list, and let me know what you think of their picks: The 100 Best Notebooks, As Tested by Strategist Editors