My Collection, Notebook Reviews, Places to Buy Notebooks

Monokaki Notebook Review

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Several months ago, I treated myself to a couple of slim little Japanese notebooks from JetPens. The Monokaki notebook was one of them. It is made by the Masuya company, a manufacturer of writing papers since 1882.

Monokaki notebook review front cover
Monokaki notebook review back cover
Monokaki notebook review front cover

The Monokaki notebook is the perfect size for any pocket at 3 5/16″ x 5 1/2″ x 1/4″. It comes in a clear plastic envelope, with a small translucent bellyband that has some brand info, mostly in Japanese. The cover of the notebook is a light, flexible card stock and has an interesting monochromatic look with just the brand name and a beautiful border design. (It looks abstract at first, but then you realize it shows a fountain pen, ink bottle, pencil, lamp and fishbowl!) A center motif is repeated on the back cover. The exterior card stock is light enough that it would probably be best to use some sort of add-on cover if you’re going to be carrying the Monokaki notebook around a lot.

  • Monokaki notebook compared to pocket size Moleskine
  • Monokaki notebook compared to pocket Moleskine
Monokaki notebook 2-ply cover
Monokaki notebook

Inside, you have black endpapers which are partially glued to the cover. There are 8 sewn signatures of 16 pages each, but they are glued tightly into the binding, so it doesn’t open quite flat, and once you’ve pressed it open, the cover doesn’t totally close on its own.

Monokaki notebook squared paper

The paper inside has a 7mm grid, with a border all around the edge so you don’t see any lines on the outside edges of the notebook. The paper weight isn’t specified (at least not in English) but it feels quite light and fine and smooth. Heavy wet pens will bleed through, and one of my wider fountain pens bled slightly and feathered, but the other fountain pens I tested worked nicely. There is show-through, as you’d expect with a paper of this weight, and as is common with many other Japanese notebooks such as those from Design.Y and Nolty.

Monokaki notebook fountain pen tests front of page
Monokaki notebook pen tests back of page

All in all, this is a lovely little notebook if you want a (mostly) fountain pen friendly jotter that is light and pocketable, though the durability of the cover is a concern. I paid $7.75 for it at JetPens, which seemed a bit high for such a small notebook, but when I remind myself that it has 128 pages of good quality paper, it seems more reasonable. An A6 (approximately 4 x 6″) version is also available with ruled or blank pages, priced at $10.

Art, books, creativity, Links, Other People's Notebooks, Sketchbook

John Vernon Lord’s Notebooks

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I must have missed this Brainpickings article when it was originally published in 2014, but I’m glad I discovered it via Pinterest! Artist John Vernon Lord created amazing illustrations to accompany James Joyce‘s Finnegans Wake in a collectible edition published by the Folio Society (now out of stock, alas). The illustrations are stunning, but of course I find the notebook pages documenting his creative process even more beautiful!

Read more (and see lots more images) at: John Vernon Lord’s Whimsical Illustrations for James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake

Diary, Hobonichi, Journal, new products, Nolty, Planner

Nolty Page Per Day Efficiency Notebook for 2020

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Hot news today! I just happened to see a post on Instagram where JMAM, the makers of Nolty diaries, announced some additional 70th anniversary products. Most exciting to me is that they are introducing a Nolty page-per-day Efficiency Notebook! It looks like they are calling it the “Daily Book.”

Nolty 2020-1227 page per day diary
Nolty page per day efficiency notebook red

It looks a lot like the regular 144 x 95mm Nolty diaries, but the layout is similar to the Hobonichi Techo, with a header across the top of the page and a gridded section below. The page per day notebook is available in black and red covers. It seems to have most of the same features as the regular Nolty notebooks, such as a double ribbon marker and some transit maps. It is 18mm thick, with a total of 414 pages and weighs 190g, vs the regular Nolty being 11mm thick and 190 pages at 121g. This made me wonder if the paper is the same weight– the ratio of the thicknesses and the grams per page would indicate that it’s not, but maybe the cover throws that off? I hope the paper is just as fountain pen friendly!

I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these daily books. I’m such a fan of the Nolty diaries I’ve used so far. And when I reviewed the Hobonichi, I said I wished someone would make it in a slightly smaller size: now my dream has more or less come true! The page per day Nolty looks to be priced at around $22, which is cheaper than a Hobonichi.

The other new products Nolty announced today include some notebooks with gridded paper and covers in assorted bright colors. This is translated as “Metty” or “Memoty,” I guess as some variant on “memo.” They say “dated” but I think there is just an annual calendar on one page at the beginning, with the rest of the notebook being squared pages. These are also 144 x 95mm, but have just 174 pages and weigh 88 grams. The price is approximately $8. For those who just want freeform pages rather than a diary, they look like a nice option.

Nolty yellow pocket notebook with squared pages memoty
Nolty 2020 notebook blue squared pages

Guess I’ll be placing another overseas notebook order soon…

Diary, Journal, Moleskine, My Collection, Personal, Sketchbook, Travel Notebooks, Writing Notebooks

When Do You Get Nervous?

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Let’s say you’re packing for a short trip. Like, just a long weekend. In your own country, in an area with plenty of stores where you could conceivably buy any of the widely-available brands of notebooks. Maybe even in an area with a few cool gift stores that stock cute upscale Japanese notebooks. And let’s say you have plans for the weekend that include lots of activities with family or friends, so it’s not like you’re going to be sitting around writing or drawing all weekend.

And let’s say your current journal has about 10 pages left in it, which should last you at least a week at your normal pace of writing. And you also have with you a sketchbook and a planner.

almost finished notebook

If you’re me, you get nervous and pack a brand new spare journal, just in case. Of course in this case, and probably in every other similar situation, I didn’t end up needing it, but I couldn’t help myself– I am always paranoid about being caught without a notebook.

What is your tolerance level? Do you always bring extra notebooks on trips? How long a trip does it have to be? How many pages do you need to have left before you feel like you don’t need a spare notebook?

Art, Moleskine, My Collection, Places to Buy Notebooks, Sketchbook

Moleskine Pocket Sketchbooks 50% off

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If you read my recent post about Moleskine’s pocket size sketchbook being discontinued and are freaking out, here’s a slight silver lining to the cloud: Moleskine.com seems to be clearing out their stock with a 50% off sale right now.

I would be buying a few myself, except that I already bought a few on eBay, in hopes that what I’d get might miraculously turn out to be the older stock I like better… That probably won’t be the case, which is annoying, as I paid more than what Moleskine is charging!

books, creativity, Journal, Links, Other People's Notebooks, Sketchbook, Writing Notebooks

Franz Kafka’s Notebook

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The National Library in Jerusalem, Israel has just revealed to the public for the first time a collection of Franz Kafka’s papers, including some notebooks. The writings themselves have been published before, but without access to the original papers, people couldn’t see how he wrote, and doodled and sketched, as in the example below!

Trove includes journals, drawings and notebooks and a Hebrew article about a 1922 strike by Jerusalem teachers

Source: Kafka’s unseen diaries revealed as vaults opened after legal battle – +61J

Art, books, creativity, Links, Other People's Notebooks, Sketchbook

Betye Saar’s Sketchbooks

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Betye Saar is a 93 year old artist I hadn’t heard of until reading about her in the New York Times Fall Preview. She is getting a lot of attention right now, with two major solo exhibitions this fall at MoMA and LACMA. Betye Saar’s sketchbooks play an important role in her work:

Everywhere she went, she carried small sketchbooks that did double duty as memory banks and portable studios. Many are repositories for quick, preliminary ballpoint pen studies for future assemblages. Others are filled with watercolor paintings that are polished creations in themselves. The show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “Betye Saar: Call and Response,” which opens on Sept. 22, will reunite several sketchbooks with related finished works.

Betye Saar's sketchbooks and a finished artwork
New York Times

You can see other images of Betye Saar’s sketchbooks in this LA Weekly article, and if you can’t make it to the LACMA exhibition, this companion book should give a good overview: Betye Saar: Call and Response.

Diary, Links, Other People's Notebooks, record-keeping

Post-War Japanese Notebooks Recording Hirohito’s Regrets

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Japanese public broadcaster NHK has obtained documents showing that former Emperor Hirohito repeatedly felt sorry about World War II and tried, unsuccessfully, to express his feelings by using the word “remorse” in a 1952 speech.

The records of conversations with Hirohito spanning several years were kept by Michiji Tajima, a top Imperial Household Agency official who took office after the war.

NHK obtained 18 notebooks through Tajima’s family and aired a special program this past weekend.

Although it’s not surprising that Hirohito had deep regrets about the war, the documents highlight how painfully strong such emotions had been.

Source: New documents show Japan’s wartime emperor had deep regrets

creativity, Diary, Journal, Links, Other People's Notebooks, Planner, record-keeping

Techorui Toshoshitsu: A Library of Notebooks

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Yet another reason I’m dying to go to Japan!

This library in central Tokyo is like no other. Instead of offering volumes ranging from the usual, it displays the decidedly unusual.

How about a bittersweet story of unrequited love between two high school students, a man’s passion for job-hunting or someone’s fixation on a pop idol?

These glimpses of the emotions of total strangers are available courtesy of personal pocket notebooks and diaries.

Called Techorui Toshoshitsu, the cubbyhole of a library located within the art gallery Picaresque near Sangubashi Station in the capital’s Shibuya Ward is generating quite a stir.

Visitors are able to browse through the “honest feelings” of nameless people they have never met.

Set up in a small space about the size of four and a half tatami mats, shelves in the small space house 300 diaries, pocket notebooks and jottings. A list of the materials available allows visitors to choose notepads they like based on an author’s personal data, or perhaps a specific period when the stuff was written.

Read more: Library offers a raw glimpse of what ordinary people think：The Asahi Shimbun

Diary, Journal, Links, Other People's Notebooks, productivity, record-keeping

Adam Ottavino’s Notebook

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A lot of professional athletes seem to keep notebooks to track their successes and failures, their physical conditioning, diet and motivational strategies. Often, I want to share these stories but there isn’t much detail and the article lacks a photo of the notebook. But here’s one that’s a bit more satisfying!

Before every game, one of the linchpins of the Yankees’ talented bullpen, Adam Ottavino, finds a spot in the clubhouse to sit and write.

To combat the six-month mental minefield of self-doubt that is baseball’s regular season, Ottavino has found solace in a daily routine of writing in a journal. In it, he tracks how he cares for his powerful right arm, how he sharpens his focus, how he plans to attack an opposing lineup and, sometimes, he gives himself a pep talk by writing such messages as, “I am a great pitcher.”

[…F]or more than seven years, Ottavino, 33, has written down what he calls mental and physical cues — basically, reminders — to keep him focused. At the suggestion of his father, Ottavino began jotting down thoughts in his cellphone in 2012 because his mind wandered too much on the mound. It later morphed into hand writing into a pocket-size black notebook, which has helped him become a bullpen star for the Yankees, who beat the visiting Texas Rangers, 4-1, on Wednesday.

And while Ottavino, whose devastating slider has him leading the bullpen with a 1.66 E.R.A., was willing to discuss his prized notebook, the exact contents were for his eyes only and he was careful to hide it in his locker. He’s on his second of the season, with the rest stored at home.

There are more details about how Ottavino uses his notebook in the rest of the article. Read it at The Secret to Adam Ottavino’s Calm: A Little Black Notebook

Notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, diaries: in search of the perfect page…