(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
My philosophy when it comes to notebooks is that there's always room for one more. This philosophy is in direct conflict the lack of adequate storage for the notebooks or enough time to fill them all. But, for better or worse, the philosophy of never turning down a new notebook always wins.
The Maruman Utöka Pocket notebook is the latest notebook to find a home in my collection. This is a small spiral-bound notebook with 80 sheets of 4mm graph paper, and 10 sheets of lined "list" paper at the back. All 90 sheets are perforated, making them easy and clean to tear out. And, these sheets are made of 70gsm paper that works really well with all types of writing instruments. Fun fact about the name: Utöka means "expand" or "extend" in Swedish.
Despite this notebook looking like a top-bound steno-style book, it's laid out to be used with the binding on the side. In practice, it's like using a standard A5 notebook that's been sliced in half. I actually like having the extra horizontal space instead of the typical vertical space you get with most notebook orientations.
Since "pocket" is part of the name for this notebook, you might assume that it can fit in something like, say, a pocket, but you'd be wrong! It is a small notebook, but there aren't many pockets that will hold it. At a total size of 107 x 163mm (4.2 x 6.4 inches), it's very portable, but not pocketable. For most people, a pocket notebook is something around 3.5 x 5.5 inches. It's just barely too big to work well with pockets.
The usable sheet dimensions are close the A6 size (105 x 148mm) at 107 x 142mm, meaning there's plenty of space to let your ideas and sketches breathe. The 4mm grid also provides lots of structure while also disappearing if you want to freeform.
Maruman paper is always a delight to use, but most of my experience with their paper is in their Mnemosyne line. With the Utöka notebook, they use a little lighter paper, but it still performs well. It's done great with all the pens and inks I've thrown at it. There's a small amount of show-through when using some inks, but it's not enough to make the back of the page unusable. There's no feathering or bleeding or other weird ink behaviors to speak of. It's a consistent paper that works really well.
The covers of this notebook are a sturdy cardstock material with a glossy coating on the exterior faces. The covers should stand up to minor wear and tear, but I'd expect to see plenty of bends and deterioration with lots of use. Likewise, the double-wire binding is really sturdy, and I love that they've colored the wire a nice gray to complement the color of the cover.
At $7.75, the Maruman Utöka Pocket notebook is a good value. It's perfect for jotting down notes, sketching out ideas, and throwing into a bag to carry along. While it's not a true pocket notebook, it's still very portable and up to the challenge of being a notebook you carry frequently. Plus, if the yellow isn't quite your thing, there are four other accent colors available! You can pick from yellow, red, navy, light green, and light blue.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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