Black n’ Red casebound notebooks

I mostly use Black n’ Red casebound notebooks for work notes. For my other writing, I use Moleskines or Rhodia webnotebooks.  Black n’ Reds are excellent general purpose notebooks, with a good look, smooth, opaque acid-free paper. They don’t hold up too well with repeated rough handling, and I’ve seen quite a few lose their spine. For the price, however, there’s nothing better. Amazon sells these notebooks for about 7 bucks in multiple sizes. The 8.25 x 5.875 notebook has sold for as little as 2.99 but event at the 6 dollars that it averages, when available, is a great price. The larger 11.75 X 8.25 size sells for about 7. I have several of each. They work well with all the writing instruments I use, ballpoints, fountain pens, pencils, etc. Highly recommended.

Review of the Large Moleskine Lined notebook

The large Moleskine is one of the most ubiquitous journaling notebooks out there. It’s the model for other companies’ clones, some of which excel the Moleskine in some way or another. However, the Moleskine is an excellent product in its own right.

Less expensive or similarly priced notebooks get several things wrong. For one, other brands don’t know to lower the contrast between paper, ruled lines, and a person’s eventual writing–Moleskine uses ivory colored paper and narrowly spaced, gray lines, which makes looking at a page easier on the eyes.

Another feature of the Moleskine is how consistently well made they are. Moleskines do not tend to fall apart even with careless use, like being tossed in backpacks or being dropped. I’ve had a Leuchtterm notebook, which is made in Germany, start falling apart on me in many places at once. The Moleskines are better built than they’re given credit for.

The Moleskine paper is frequently criticized but it’s decent paper. The Moleskine is not a fountain pen notebook and too many people knockoff points when they find their inks bleeding to the other side of a page. It’s simply the wrong notebook for that use.

A less commonly remarked feature is its size. The Moleskine notebook is narrower than other notebooks, which makes it more convenient for carrying in some women’s handbags. I think the slimness adds to its appeal.

Of course the Moleskine comes in many interesting colors, including my favorites: orchard yellow and red. A color other than black makes it easier to find in a cluttered work space.

Once again, there are Moleskine clones out there that improve on the Moleskine, for a price. My favorite is the Rhodia Webnotebook but I’ve never seen this for less than 19 dollars and the Moleskine frequently goes for about 11 dollars on sale at Amazon. Both are good notebooks, but if money is concern, then the Moleskine shines. It’s style at an affordable price.

The Rhodia Webnotebook

The Rhodia Webnotebook’s a genuine French notebook with French made paper — yeah the two together are not a given. You can have a non-French made notebook that nonetheless has French paper; for example, the Quo Vadis Habana is an American made notebook using the same paper found in the Rhodia Webnotebook. Anyway, enough about provenance. Now, for the review.

The Rhodia Webnotebook is a great notebook, following the same basic design as the more popular Moleskine notebook. It has an elastic band and an inside pocket. A comparison to the Moleskine is inevitable, and I like both, but the Rhodia is a more quality product and more expensive. For that you get:

• excellent paper in a pleasing ivory tone
• thick, luxuriant leatherette cover
• great sturdy construction
• narrow grey lines for comfortable eyeing while you write

Costly paper is not a requirement to writing; masterpieces have been written on cheap legal pads and worse, but a notebook can be an inducement to writing. In my own experience, a blank notebook is a challenge to be met by emptying out the ideas in my head into it. A page of densely packed sentences is a work of art in and of itself. A blank page is a reproach.

The work in progress:

 

The reward — a brand new notebook: