(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 her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)
Do you need 320 pages of Tomoe River S paper? Of course you do. Well, here it is, in the Kanso Noto A5 Notebook from JetPens. There's something so magical about a notebook you can fit a whole novel draft into that is still slim enough to fit in a purse. The minimalist design of this book is perfectly practical while inviting the imagination to fill in all those blank spaces.
The notebook has sturdy kraft cardstock covers with grey endpapers. The slim signatures are bound with thread and glue binding reinforced with a fabric tape. The construction allows the notebook to lie open flat at any page with no training or creasing. The minimalist look is nice on its own, with only the embossed logo on the front, but it's also the perfect surface for stickers, washi, sketches, or any sort of customization that strikes your fancy. It does show fingerprints if you grab it with lotion on, though. So while it can take some wear and tear, it will show that wear--and wear it quite well, in my opinion. I love the look of a well-worn notebook. This one comes in light or dark brown, or light or dark grey.
The construction is simple, but sturdy. It has stood up to being lugged around in my commuter backpack, where it has survived encounters with water bottles, coffee cups, lunchboxes, overstuffed tech pouches, and up to seven other notebooks fighting it for space.
Between those covers is the paper--the new version of Tomoe River, which we all pretty much agree is not as nice as the original, but it's still an excellent paper. It is lightweight, acid free, smooth, doesn't bleed or feather, and it shows off the fun properties of fountain pen ink. The new version also has a much better dry time than the old one, with an average liquid ink drying between 15-20 seconds. That's still long enough that you might want some blotting paper (unless you want that pooling effect that comes from letting ink air dry). The thin 52gsm paper does show ghosting, which I quite like, but which some folks can't stand. Still, with this many pages, you still have a substantial notebook even if you only use one side of each sheet.
The pages have a very faint 5mm dot grid pattern. It's almost too faint to see in low light, and while I like a grid that disappears when you want it to, this one is almost too pale to be useful as a guide. Or maybe I'm just getting old.
Overall, I highly recommend this notebook. It's sturdy, functional, inviting, and has my favorite amount of pages (a lot). Best of all, it's only $19, which is a great value for such a nicely bound stack of good paper. It fits all of my "I would happily stock up on these and use them for years" criteria, as well as that "When I hold this notebook it makes me want to write" vibe that I need in all my notebooks. It's perfect for writers on a deadline, or anyone who sees a blank slate and feels compelled to create.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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