This post in my series of reviews of Grandluxe notebooks
will look at the Monologue Jotter notebooks. I was sent two to review: an orange-covered
A6 sized one (14.5 cm x 9.5 cm; page size 13.7 cm x 7.3 cm) and a dark grey A5
version (21.2 cm x 14.3 cm; page size 20.6 cm x 13.7 cm, not including the
cutaway).
The notebooks have a synthetic suede cover which feels
lovely to the touch, though I wonder how well it would wear if the notebook was
knocking around in a bag alongside keys and other things. Anyway, it feels nice
to the touch at the moment! Inside, there is a propelling pencil in a pen
holder attached to the book. The paper is described as 80 gsm acid free cream
woodfree paper. The notebooks have 48 leaves of ruled notepaper and 48 leaves
of framed blank paper. The recommended retail price for them is £17.99 for the
A5 size and £12.99 for the A6.
First impressions:
Like the contents of the Platinum notebooks that I reviewed earlier (see
here), I find the combination of contents - this time lined and blank pages - a little strange. I do
have some notebooks which have alternate plain and lined pages, but none where
there is plain in one section and lined in another. Maybe this isn’t odd to
other people, of course!
In the A5 size, the pencil lies in a cutaway, so the pages
of the book ‘wrap around’ the pencil. In the A6 size book, the pages are not
cut and the pencil lies to the side of them.
There is a matching marker ribbon which does actually match
the colour of the cover quite well, as does the strong elastic closure. They
are very smart looking books.
However, there are a couple of design flaws to my eyes at
least. When I opened the A6 book to take pictures of the interior, the pencil
fell out because the card pen holder is too big for the pencil. The opposite
problem was to be had with the A5 – because of the page cutaway, the pencil is
really difficult to get out. You have to flip all the pages over to the front and
then get the pencil out. It won’t slide up/down out of the holder, because it
jams into the cut pages. I can see why they made the design the way they did,
but I don’t think it’s a good idea.
A6 in detail
The cover, as said, is soft and very tactile and I like it
very much. The orange elastic closure is strong and the colour is very zingy.
 |
| Front (with label) |
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| Back cover (with label) |
Inside, the cover is lined with thick cream paper, which
also forms a flyleaf (to which, inevitably, the first page of notepaper is
glued). The pages are sewn not glued, but the book will not lie flat, even with
persuasion. As in the Platinum notebooks, the lined pages have a heavier line
top and bottom and the lines do not go edge to edge, but rather have a blank
margin around them of 7 mm (inner margin) and 3 mm (outer margin). Line spacing
is 6 mm and there are 20 lines per page. The orange ribbon marker is a good
colour match to both the cover and to the elastic.
 |
| Interior |
The ‘plain’ pages have a rectangular frame: 12 cm x 6.2 cm,
lying offset with the same margins as the lined pages (7 mm inner; 3 mm outer).
In the back cover there is a pocket, made of the same thick
cream paper that lines the cover, with a gusset made of what looks like
material, but I think is actually paper (it reminds me a bit of the wide ribbon
that you get on bunches of flowers, and it has proved impossible to
photograph!).
The pen loop is a strip of the cover material fastened to
the back cover with a stud/bolt thing. The pencil does not fit well, the holder having
a diameter of about 12mm and the pencil’s being 10mm. The only thing stopping
it from falling out more is the fact that the top part of the pencil sticks out
more than the barrel.
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| Pencil in holder |
On the front cover, there is no branding or marks of any
kind; on the back cover, the name “monologue” is incised into the cover.
The propelling pencil is quite heavy and solid-feeling. It
has a glossy black plastic case with silver-coloured trims. The lead is
advanced by twisting the barrel (it then springs back once the lead has
advanced). Twisting it the other way allows it to be unscrewed. There doesn’t
appear to be an eraser. I think (though haven’t checked) that the pencil can be
refilled with 0.5mm leads.
I didn’t do a fountain pen test on the A6 paper as I assumed it
was the same as in the A5 version. Keep reading for the results on the A5.
A5 in detail
Like the A6, the A5 has a very tactile cover. The grey is very
dark – charcoal grey really. The elastic closure is black and the ribbon is a grey
which is a good match to the cover. Like its baby brother, inside, there is
thick cream paper lining the cover and making a fly leaf, to which the first
page is stuck. Also like its baby brother, there is a pocket in the back cover,
with the same cream paper and gusset.
 |
| Front cover (with label) |
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| Back cover (with label) |
The paper is the same as in the A6 – cream, 80 gsm, woodfree
and acid free. The paper has a cutaway for where the pencil lies. You can see
this more clearly in the pictures of the fountain pen tests, below. As in the
A6, the top and bottom lines of the page are darker and the lines do not reach
edge to edge. The inner margin is 12 mm; the outer is 6 mm, except at the
cutaway, where the line reaches the edge of the page. Line-spacing is 7 mm and
there are 25 lines per page.
 |
| Showing cutaway for the pencil |
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| Lined pages |
The ‘plain’ pages have a rectangle 18.8 cm x 11.9 cm. And
yes, that does mean that the cutaway has cut away some of the rectangle in a
rather less than aesthetically pleasing way.
 |
| 'Plain' pages |
The pages are sewn in rather than glued, but the book will
not lie completely flat without being held down, though it is a lot better than
the A6 in this regard.
The pencil is the same as in the A6 and the pencil holder is
the same, though in this notebook, the holder is a snug fit. As already
mentioned though, the cutaway design makes getting the pencil out, really
difficult!
The Fountain Pen Test
I realise this is harsh and possibly cruel as the books came
with pencils, but nonetheless, I test all my notebooks with pens. I wasn’t
holding out a great deal of hope after the disaster of the fountain pen test
with the Platinum notebooks, but as this was different paper I was hoping to be
surprised.
Here are the results:
 |
| Front. Some feathering |
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| Reverse: significant bleed-through |
The paper was smoother to the touch than the paper in the
Platinum notebooks, but fountain pens still feathered and bled-through quite
badly. At least this time, the OHTO Tasche didn’t bleed right through to the
next page as well though. The bleed-through is bad enough to make the reverse side unusable with anything except biro or pencil
Overall
Despite the slightly better results in the fountain pen
tests, I am less impressed with these notebooks. I think they are a quirky
design and I can see what they are trying to do, but the end result is not
quite there. I do like the feel of the cover. The colour coordination between
the cover, elastic closure and ribbon is good. The line spacing is a nice spacing
for my writing. However, I don’t like the cutaway pages in the A5 and I’m not
sure about the half lined, half plain aspect to the notebook. I would prefer
all lined.
Stars: 2/5
Details of how to find Grandluxe products:
Monologue on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ilovemonologue
Disclaimer: although I was given these books to review, this has been my honest opinion of the book reviewed. I have not been paid to review the books, nor am I in the employ of Grandluxe.
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