Keep A Notebook Review

Keep A Notebook is one of the more interesting notebook systems I have come across. The first thought that comes to mind is it’s another Traveler’s Notebook clone - which is a good thing in my mind - but it does a few things differently.

Upon opening the package, the biggest difference Keep A Notebook offers smacks you right in the face. There is no traditional flat leather cover with rubber bands to hold your inserts. Rather, it uses a heavy card stock notebook jacket. And the fun part? You get to build it yourself!

Once I realized that this large, scored, taped, paper airplane/origami mashup was the actual holder for the notebooks I was a bit intimidated. The instructions are in Taiwanese, and it seemed like there were a million steps. Certainly I’m going to screw this up!

I had so much fun putting the notebook jacket together.

The pictures in the instructions were right on the money, with all of the double-sided tape and tags marked with numbers to keep you on the right path. It took some time to complete - 20 minutes at least - and I totally felt like the Success Kid when I was done.

This jacket has a few built in advantages where in the TN system these things would require add-ons. It has inside front and inside back pocket slots, plus a full-sized button and string envelope, which is a great touch.

Additionally, the Keep A Notebook notebooks don’t use bands to keep them in place. The front and back covers slide into each side of the jacket, making it easy to get three notebooks inserted without issue.

The notebooks themselves are high quality and handled wet fountain pens with only a few dots of bleed through in the heaviest inked areas. Ghosting wasn’t bad either.

I like the notebook style variance and page layouts better than anything TN offers. The 01 Weekly/Diary model is a perfect layout for how I plan. There are seven day blocks plus header on the left side with matching grid note sections on the right. The blue grids and brown lines on cream paper are wonderful too, which is the color scheme that runs throughout the books.

There are over a dozen different inserts you can choose from, including Travel Journal, Monthly Planner, Scrapbook, and basic Ruled, Blank, or Grid. They have even launched a couple of new inserts since the pack I received in the spring.

On the down side, I have to wonder how well the notebook jacket will hold up. It’s fun and awesome, but it is fiber, not leather. It will be prone to the elements more, and likely wear quicker. I also wonder how the tape will hold up in extreme heat and cold.

Also, they are not easy to purchase for most of the world. The majority of their retailers are in Asia, with L’amour HK carrying the deepest the product line. Other retailers lineup seems hit or miss.

Keep A Notebook is a wonderful notebook system that looks and works great. Does it fit your needs? Can you jump through the ordering hoops? Those are the questions you need to ask yourself. If nothing else, I think you will have fun with it.

My thanks to Ching Ching Stationery, makers of Keep A Notebook, for sending me this product at no charge for purposes of this review.

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Delfonics Rollbahn Vertical Pocket Memo Book Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Top-bound spiral notebooks are certainly less common as the traditional side-bound notebook, but there's a lot to be said for the vertical format. While it's not "the standard," it has a lot of advantages. My favorite advantage is that the binding is never in my way. The only problem seems to be that there are significantly fewer options if you want a top-bound notebook. And, this notebook that I'm about to review and recommend can be even more difficult to find. But, if you happen across one, you should pick it up and give it a try.

The Delfonics Rollbahn line of notebooks was new to me before I received this notebook. Given the name and the German slogans on the front cover, you might assume that it's made in Germany, but that would be incorrect. Delfonics come from Japan, and they feature the quality and durability that we have come to expect from their stationery exports.

The particular notebook that I have (and can't get enough of) is the Rollbahn Vertical Pocket Memo book. It's top-bound with a dual spiral that is one of the most sturdy spiral bound books I've had the pleasure of using. This particular size is 105 x 155 mm (4.13 x 6.1 inches) with 120 pages of 5mm graph ruling on smooth cream paper. The front cover is a bright orange and is reasonably thick, while the back cover is a thick cardstock with an elastic band to keep the notebook closed. It's sturdy, and it's pocketable.

Apart from the branding on the front of the notebook, there's nothing else apart from a small "Delfonics" embossed on the back. Branding is minimal, and that plays well with the overall aesthetic of the book. The color of the front color is very close to the shade of orange on the Lamy Pico I reviewed a few weeks back. It's florescent orange, and it's awesome.

The pages are all perforated and come out easily without crooked tears. One interesting thing is the back of the notebook has 5 clear plastic pockets that are the same size as the notebook. They can hold pages that you've torn out, or anything else that will fit. It's a useful feature for such a small book.

Once you get past the visual aspects of the notebook, all that's left is the paper quality, which is excellent. This is on par with most of the Japanese paper I've used in that it's soft, smooth, and handles fountain pens extremely well. In my testing, only wider nibs result in small amounts of feathering and show-through. With most pens, you'll be able to use both sides of the page. The graph is a good size and the graph lines are subtle enough to stay out of your way if you don't need them.

Overall, I've really enjoyed this notebook. It's a great size, easy to use in the palm of my hand (due to the stiff back cover), and has excellent paper inside.

There is one major drawback, however. These notebooks are difficult to find (in the US, at least). The Delfonics site is in Japanese, and there are a few one-off retailers in the US that sell a couple of the Rollbahn notebooks, and there are a handful on Amazon. If we're lucky, more US retailers might start carrying this great brand. If you're in a region of the world where Delfonics are easy to get, congratulations! Give them a try the next time you see them. As for me, I'll be looking for a US retail option that stocks these wonderful books.

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Leuchtturm1917 Softcover Slim Pocket A6 Notebook

(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.)

Leuchtturm has spent nearly a century perfecting the notebook, and as far as my personal tastes go, this is their best model yet. They've taken all the goodness of a standard Leuchtturm and distilled it into this softcover, smaller size.

The most discernible feature of this notebook is its soft cover. It's lightweight and flexible, but still adds an appropriate amount of structure. The cover material has a nice, subtle texture. It's not as smooth or as glossy as the standard Leuchtturm, but has more of a matte, pebbly feel to it. Where the old standard Leuchtturm exudes old-world elegance and wants you to bring your Mont Blanc to a very important meeting, this snappy wee version screams "grab your TWSBI; we're going camping".

The A6 size is a bit taller and narrower than a Field Notes pocket notebook (and of course thicker, with more pages), but it fits nicely in a pocket or in the pocket notebook cases I have, including my Nock Hightower and Sinclair. I daresay, it may replace my current carry system of three standard pocket notebooks. The double ribbon bookmark and table of contents make it ideal for multi-subject use, and the generous number of pages means I can take it away for the weekend without worrying I'm going to run out of writing room. It's a great compromise between a pocket notebook and a full-size journal. I had thought to make it strictly an ink log--but I keep reaching for it. This notebook wasn't built to sit on a desk. It has places to go.

Inside, there's the familiar Leuchtturm quality. 121 thread-bound pages of their ink-proof, acid-free paper. The paper is smooth and lightweight, and it held up beautifully to every ink and nib combo I threw at it, including a very wet Sailor zoom nib and a juicy TWSBI 1.1 stub. There was no bleeding, almost no show-through, and only microscopic feathering (with only a few of the inks). You can get the paper in dot grid, graph, lined, or blank.

The thread binding allows the notebook to lay open flat--though it takes a little training before it does this well--and the elastic closure band keeps it closed without getting in the way. The expandable pocket holds a good amount of flotsam, but too much of it will affect the overall flexibility and slim profile of the book. There are also eight perforated sheets at the back for those analog info-sharing moments. And of course, it comes with a few labeling stickers.

The Leuchtturm1917 Softcover Pocket Notebook is available in a variety of colors, from wild to professional, and I want them all. And bonus: they won't take up much space on the blank book shelf.

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

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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, which I am very grateful for.

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