(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)
The fabulous Tomoe River paper and Hobonichi construction in a plain notebook--it's exactly the product I wished for back when I used to use outdated Hobonichi Techo planners as blank books for writing just because I loved the paper and binding so much.
This A6 notebook has a yellow-gold cardstock cover with a thread-and-glue taped binding that allows the book to lie open flat with almost no training required. This binding is flexible but sturdy--it's going to survive you carrying it around for as long as it takes you to fill all of those 240 pages.
Speaking of 240 pages, we're talking 120 sheets of Tomoe River goodness. It tolerates any medium, even the wettest of fountain pen inks, light paint washes, even the Sharpie didn't bleed through all the way. It is very lightweight, though. If you're unfamiliar with the miracle of Tomoe River, it's onionskin-thin, so while it doesn't bleed, you will see a lot of ghosting. Even light pencil is visible through the page. I love the way it looks, but it does bother some, so YMMV. Even if you can't stand ghosting and can only use one side of the page--that's still 120 pages! And because the paper is so fine, the notebook is slim and ultra-portable. It's only .3" thick, making the whole notebook just slightly larger than a pocket size.
And a portability bonus--this notebook (even two of these notebooks) fit into the Hobonichi Techo covers. If, uh, you maybe, might have, possibly accumulated a few gorgeous techo covers over the years because they release so many lovely ones every year and you just can't help it (ahem), one or a few of these would feel right at home in one of those out-of-rotation covers.
The paper is white with a small 3.7 mm grid pattern that covers the whole sheet. The graph print is subtle, and every 60 pages the ink color changes, from red to blue to green, then purple. You can easily ignore the color changes, or use them as a guide to design your own planner or multi-subject notebook.
This is a small powerhouse of a notebook. It's also available in an A5 size, and this year you can even get it in A6 or A5 with a gorgeous floral illustrated cover. And fortunately, they're reasonably priced, with this plain A6 version costing $17 at Jetpens. The A5 is slightly more at $22, and the floral editions are a bit more than that.
I could write in these forever. If someone said "these are the only notebooks you're allowed to use for the rest of your life" I would be pretty okay with that. As long as I could keep accumulating the pretty covers, of course.
(JetPens 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!
