(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 Stalogy Editor's Series 1/2 Year A5 Notebook is a minimalist everything notebook, which sounds like an oxymoron, but its secret lies in its flexibility.
By flexibility, I mean you can use this notebook in lots of ways. I'm not just referring to the cover, which is also very flexible. It has a soft woven-textured cover that reminds me of old books. I love woven covers, and this one is as nice as it is durable. The inside cover is lined with grey kraft endpapers. The corners are rounded, and the front cover has some gold-stamped branding along the left edge.
Inside are 192 pages of 4mm grid paper, enough to use the notebook as a 6-month planner or journal. The paper is very fine 52gsm, so the notebook is only .3" thick and fits easily in bags or cases. The thread binding means that the notebook will lie open flat after a bit of training.
The paper is a very pale cream-white color with faint grey ink used for the grid and guides, so the grid can be ignored if you prefer. At the top of each page, also very faint and in a typeface for ants, there are months and days of the week, and day numbers. You can circle the applicable month and day to label your page, or just pretend that tiny type isn't there. Along the left edge of each page are hourly labels from 1-24, so you can use it as an hourly planner as well. Because all of these labels are so unobtrusive, you can also just use the book as a journal or regular notebook. Or an everything book--planner and journal and commonplace book all in one. Which is why I call this the minimalist everything book.
I've used the smaller all-year Stalogy notebook before, so I already had high expectations for the paper. My old Stalogy paper felt exactly like Tomoe River paper, so that notebook was much like a Hobonichi planner, but minus all the fuss and labeling. This paper is a bit different from the older Stalogy paper I used, but it's still wonderful. It has more tooth and crispness, closer to Midori paper. Being very fine, it does have some mild show-through with darker inks and bolder nibs, but there was zero bleeding or feathering, and ink shading was pleasantly visible. I used one pen that I fully expected to bleed or feather--a gusher of a nib with a wet ink in it that flows like a firehose, and even that did not faze this paper.
If you're looking for a minimalist planner, or a well-made notebook with good paper, this is an excellent choice. The A5 1/2 Year size costs $21 at Jetpens, which is a little high, in my opinion. You can definitely find notebooks of comparable quality for a lower cost, and the non-limited edition Stalogy that is a full year's length (and twice as many pages) is $25. This limited edition green is very lovely, though, and I highly recommend giving Stalogy notebooks a try.
(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!
