Posts filed under Rhodia

Rhodia GoalBook - A Quick Review

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

Ok, after my last not-so-quick “quick recap” of the DC pen show, I pinky swear this article will hold true to its title. (Disclaimer: “quick” for me means less than 1500 words, lol)

A #askTPA question came up recently where a listener was looking for notebooks for bullet journaling with white and not cream paper. My ears perked up because I had an answer and was yelling at the phone when the episode came on. The Rhodia GoalBook comes in white paper!

What is the Rhodia GoalBook? It is Rhodia’s contribution to the bullet journaling market. It is a notebook with numbered pages, an index and more. The notebook features 240 pages (224 of which are numbered), an elastic band to keep the notebook closed, a pocket in the back cover, and 2 ribbon bookmarks. There are 6 pages for Contents/Index) and two different undated calendars to help with planning/important dates. Until 2020, Rhodia only made the GoalBook with cream paper. Now it is available in white and cream paper in a wide variety of notebook colors. I bought my white paper GoalBooks in 2020 and 2021 from Cult Pens in the UK because they were the only place that had them when they first came out.

Rhodia GoalBook

Rhodia GoalBooks with cream paper (left) and white paper (right). Pardon the lighting, it was overcast today. The cream one was probably purchased before 2020 and the white paper in 2020.

Rhodia GoalBook
Rhodia GoalBook

Cream (left) vs white (right.)

Rhodia GoalBook

Contents/Index - I don’t always remember to use this feature as I also use bookmarks, clips and washi tape for certain sections.

Rhodia GoalBook

The lack of daysmakes it easy to use the Goalbook for any year.

Rhodia GoalBook

Space to enter monthly notes/events or as a placeholder where you don’t yet know the dates.

The paper in the GoalBook isn’t the same as what you’d find in their dotPad, but rather the 90gsm Rhodia R paper which is a bit nicer. The paper is fairly fountain pen friendly, but it can feather with wet inks or flex nibs. In general though, there is minimal ghosting and bleeding with most fountain pen nibs and inks and I rarely have to worry about ink dry times.

I am currently using the white GoalBook, but I took an old cream GoalBook to duplicate my Currently Inked log. Note that the colors of some of the inks on the cream pages may be a little different due to the pens being inked longer than when I made the entries on the white pages (some were light due to needing a slight dip in water or were darker due to evaporation in feed).

Rhodia GoalBook

This is the current bullet journal with white paper. And yes, I really did ink up that many pens just before the St. Louis pen show!

Rhodia GoalBook

From afar, the inks behave pretty similarly on the cream paper too.

Rhodia GoalBook

Pay attention to the Lamy Studio and LMZ White Salt entries; the former has a bit of a green sheen that is hard to capture, the latter shows off the shading of Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi.

Rhodia GoalBook

The green sheen is almost non-existent on the cream paper and the Nekoyanagi is really feathery.

Rhodia GoalBook
Rhodia GoalBook

Minimal ghosting and no bleedthrough on white paper.

Rhodia GoalBook

Quite a bit more ghosting and bleedthrough on cream.

Rhodia GoalBook

Writing sample with other standard pens and a pencil.

Rhodia GoalBook
Rhodia GoalBook

Not surprising that the Sharpie ghosted.

Rhodia GoalBook

As you can see, with most of the pens, the papers behaved similarly but for some inks/nibs, the cream paper feathered or bled through more than the white paper. I don’t see any difference in the paper (besides the color) but the white paper feels smoother and a touch more coated than the cream, which would explain why it behaves a bit better, but folks who dislike coated paper may not like the white paper as much as the cream.

The Rhodia Goalbook is available in soft cover or hard bound, comes in dot grid or graph (though not all colors/options are available in graph) and of course, with cream or white paper. Some versions have an attached pen loop (I haven’t yet figured out why some do and some don’t). Cult Pens’ prices for the GoalBook range from $22-29 USD (or £21-27 GBP with VAT) though you may be able to find the white paper GoalBook elsewhere in the states these days.

One last thing, my bullet journal is very much a functional one that I don’t spend a lot of time making it pretty or for Instagram posts (though I occasionally post some matchy match pen/ink to-do lists). This means that it doesn’t bother me too much if the paper ghosts or feathers from time to time. The fast dry time, coupled with the index, numbered pages and now with white paper makes it my go-to bullet journal notebook. (I’m currently on GoalBook #7, books #1-5 have cream pages and #6-7 have white.) So if you’re looking for a generally fountain pen friendly bullet journal option with white paper, give the Rhodia GoalBook a try.

Rhodia GoalBook

My stack of GoalBooks (#1 was a Leuchtturm, and the stickers on the GoalBooks are from Leuchtturm too, lol.)

PS - Less than 1000 words - I consider that a success!

(Disclaimer: All products have been purchased by me. The GoalBooks with white pages were purchased from Cult Pens and the cream ones were purchased from both Cult Pens and Lemur Ink.)


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Posted on August 26, 2022 and filed under Rhodia, GoalBook, Notebook Reviews.

Rhodia 2020 WebPlanner Weekly Notebook Giveaway

2020 planner planning season is in full swing, and the Rhodia 2020 WebPlanner Weekly Notebook looks like a great option for the new year. I’m giving away one 6”x9” planner in orange, courtesy of Vanness Pens, which features a two page per week layout - seven days on the left, and a gridded page for notes on the right. A practically perfect layout if I do say so myself!

Vanness Pens has a huge selection of planners to get you ready for 2020. Check them out, and if you want a chance at winning this one, read the rules below and enter away.

Posted on October 15, 2019 and filed under Rhodia, Giveaways.

The Rhodia Goalbook: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

The Rhodia Goalbook is a soft, leatherette-covered notebook designed primarily for bullet journaling. The book has two ribbon bookmarks and a built in envelope pocket on the back cover.

It has six table of contents pages, which is quite ample. I really love this feature whether you use the book for goal planning, journaling, or general writing.

A vertical calendar (perpetual) follows the table of contents pages with six months on two facing pages and the other six months on the next two facing pages.

Next are monthly pages divided horizontally into three months per page.

The remainder of the notebook is comprised of 224 dot-grid pages with page numbers printed in the bottom corner.

Since I don’t use the bullet journal method, I decided to use my Rhodia Goalbook as a Commonplace Book. A Commonplace Book is simply a notebook used to compile notes, quotations, and other information you want to keep. I’m primarily using mine to keep track of what I’m reading along with quotations and other snippets of information I find relevant or interesting.

I’m using the vertical calendar to keep track of when I start and finish reading a book.

In the monthly section, I list all the books (or short stories) I’ve read that month along with my rating for most of them.

I set aside the first few pages of the notebook to test different inks and nib sizes to see how well the paper holds up. There’s a bit of show through, but no bleed through.

In the remainder of the book, I’ve been writing out selections from the books I’ve been reading along with some quotations and other material, such as the theme song to one of my favorite television series, The Expanse. Cool fact: did you know that the title song is in Norwegian (apparently not grammatically correct Norwegian, but still)?

You can see that next to the book quotations I’ve identified major themes. I plan to index these at the end of my notebook.

I also wrote a summary paragraph describing what I thought of the book.

I think the Rhodia Goalbook works well as a Commonplace Book since it already has a table of contents and enumerated pages. Obviously, it would also be perfect for bullet journaling.

Rhodia’s cream-colored Premium "R" 90 g paper paper is smooth and very fountain pen friendly. The dot-grid pattern makes it easy to write either vertically or horizontally, and of course you can use the dots to make check boxes if you’re bullet journaling. The two ribbons are handy so that you can bookmark two sections of the journal for easy reference.

You can purchase the Rhodia Goalbook from JetPens for $24.95. The Goalbooks come in a wide array of colors: sapphire, iris, purple, black, chocolate, turquoise, yellow, anise, silver, tangerine, orange, taupe, beige, lilac, poppy, and raspberry. I think it’s another terrific offering from Rhodia.

(Exaclair provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)


Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Posted on August 3, 2018 and filed under Rhodia, Notebook Reviews.