(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!)
Don't let the name fool you--the "Fools" comes from the foolscap paper that's featured in the Tsubame Fools E-Style Horizontal Notebook. Foolscap paper used to refer to inexpensive paper that was a little larger than A4, and while this notebook is indeed fairly inexpensive, you're no fool if you love it.
This horizontal notebook has a lightweight cardstock cover in a flecked grey color decorated with lovely ornate scrollwork. It has a spot to write your name or subject and some minimal branding.
The binding is sewn and reinforced with black fabric tape. It's survived several outings in my overstuffed backpack with very little wear despite its minimal reinforcement. Inside the binding are 40 sheets (80 pages) of lined paper. 40 isn't a ton, but the quality of this paper makes using both sides of the sheet easy.
When held up to the light, this paper shows the grid pattern of traditionally made paper, but we discerning types would be able to tell just from the way it handles all our favorite writing instruments. It has just the right amount of texture to make pencil writing pleasant, but it's smooth enough to handle fountain pens of any nib width. Liquid inks do just fine with no feathering, no bleeding, and very little ghosting. Even marker does great--though a fresh Sharpie did bleed through.
My favorite thing about this paper, though, is the landscape orientation. It's different from most of my notebooks, and the layout took some getting used to, but once it clicked, it was indispensable. It's fantastic for creating columns or handmade spreadsheets--there are guide lines along the top margin to assist. It makes an excellent ledger and would be perfect for hand-drawing calendar pages. And because of its shape, it just seems to work better on a desk than standard notebooks. Taking notes in this book quickly went from "this feels weird and different" to "I need more of these."
Fortunately, more of these are accessible, as the notebook only costs $10 for B5 or $12.25 for A4 at JetPens, which is not too bad for nice big sheets of quality paper. I'm not above wishing there were a few more pages in it for that price, especially as the portrait-oriented B5 version, which has 30 sheets, is only $6.50, but this 81.4gsm paper does seem to be a bit better than in that notebook. So, it's certainly fair.
In any case, the horizontal notebook layout is a great brain-hack. Changing perspective can be a good way to kick-start your creativity, and the different shape might be just the trick. If it works, it will be handy to have all those fresh pages at your fingertips.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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