Book-planning notebook - which one to choose?

I’m starting to plan a new book. Yes, I know none of the others are published (yet) but there’s one beginning to demand to be let out of my head.

Now, although I will use Scrivener to do the computery bit, I know I will do a huge amount of planning and writing in a notebook too. I always do. There’s something about writing on paper that triggers my thoughts and imagination in a way that typing straight into white space can never accomplish.

But which notebook to choose? I have, after all, rather a large selection to select from!

Discounting anything significantly smaller than A5 (I need space to plan and to write in and smaller books just won’t work), in the notebook emporium currently there are:

[links are to reviews of the notebook by me]

• 2x Cartesio large (13 x 21cm) notebooks
• 1x Moleskine plain notebook (13 x 21cm)
• 1x Clairefontaine school exercise book
• 1x Ciak A5 leather-bound notebook
• A spiral-bound A5 lined notebook with cats on the cover (no idea where that came from. I suspect someone gave me it as a gift as I write and have a cat)
• 1x Midori World Meister Dainel A5 book (which somehow didn’t make it into the photo!)
• 3x Oxford Activebooks
• Several A5 filofaxes
• 1x Quo Vadis Habana notebook (~15 x 23 cm)
• 1x Clairefontaine A5+ notebook (a few pages missing but still mostly intact)
• 1x Clairefontaine Age Bag A4 notebook
• 3x spiral-bound A4 notebooks

Top row, L-R: cat book, Age Bag with A5+ on top, Ciak, Habana
Bottom row, L-R: A4 spiral bound, Moleskine, exercise book, Oxford Activebook, Cartesio

How to whittle that down to one book to use?

Okay, well, it has to be fountain-pen friendly paper, so that’s the two Cartesios out.

It has to be lined, so that’s the Moleskine out.

I’m not a fan of spiral-bound books as I find the binding gets in the way, so that’s the cat books and the three A4 books out (despite all being surprisingly fountain-pen friendly!).

I’ve tried the Clairefontaine A5+ book before and although it’s lovely to write on, the very wide margin is too annoying and it won’t lie flat.

The Quo Vadis Habana book won’t lie flat enough (I use another one as a running log and it drives me batty for this!)

The Midori World Meister doesn’t have enough pages (it has just 92 sides) although otherwise is glorious (review coming soon)

The school exercise book also has too few pages (96 sides)

I’ve tried an A5 filofax before and although it worked reasonably well, I eventually reverted to a bound book, so that’s the filofaxes and the Oxford Activebooks out (though the Oxford paper would have been a dream to write on and the paper could be filed in either filofax or Mulberry A5 binders).

So what am I left with after that initial whittling?

• 2x Cartesio large (13 x 21cm) notebooks
• 1x Moleskine plain notebook (13 x 21cm)
• 1x Clairefontaine school exercise book
• 1x Ciak A5 leather-bound notebook
• A spiral-bound A5 lined notebook with cats on the cover (no idea where that came from. I suspect someone gave me it as a gift as I write and have a cat)
• 1x Midori World Meister Dainel A5 book (which somehow didn’t make it into the photo!)
• 3x Oxford Activebooks
• Several A5 filofaxes
• 1x Quo Vadis Habana notebook (~15 x 23 cm)
• 1x Clairefontaine A5+ notebook (a few pages missing but still mostly intact)
• 1x Clairefontaine Age Bag A4 notebook
• 3x spiral-bound A4 notebooks

The Ciak A5 notebook or the Clairefontaine A4 Age Bag notebook.

I’ve gone for the Clairefontaine. It lies flatter than the Ciak (though admittedly, not as flat as a bat, but not far off), the paper is divine – far smoother than the Ciak – and the acres of space invite free-flowing thought (I hope!). I used the same kind of notebook for the last book (just with a green cover) and it has been glorious to work in. Fountain-pen just glides across the paper and with 192 pages, there is more than enough space to write.

Sources:

Bureau Direct:

Clairefontaine A5+ notebook

Clairefontaine Age Bag A4 notebook

The Journal Shop:

Quo Vadis Habana notebook

Cartesio large (13 x 21cm) notebooks

Ciak A5 leather-bound notebook

Midori World MeisterDainel A5 book

Amazon:

Oxford Activebooks

A5 filofaxes

Tesco:

3x spiral-bound A4 notebooks

Gifts:

Moleskine plain notebook (13 x 21cm)

The spiral-bound A5 lined notebook with cats on the cover

Review of Habana Smooth

Working my way through reviewing all my notebooks from The Journal Shop, it’s the turn of the Habana smooth (2 pack). I had originally bought these because I thought they would be good for planning the new book in, but a) they were too thin and b) they didn’t lie flat enough (and I have enough to worry about when I’m writing not to have to fret about pinning down the corners of a notebook so that I can read it). I’ll be using an A5 filofax for the book planning instead.

The cover is very smooth but I don’t know what it’s made of – not leather but some form of plastic or vinyl? Anyway, it feels sturdy enough to be able to write in the book without having something other than your knee to lean on, but is still flexible. The cover had a label giving its description (ruled notebook) in six languages and the number and weight of the pages – 96 pages; 85g (presumably per m²). The book is 16 x 24 cm with rounded corners and a discreet logo at the bottom right of the cover.

corner logo and rounded corners

The first page is blank (and, as ever, stuck down the spine edge to the first lined page). There’s no ‘title page’ like there is in the Ciak.

As you can see from the first lined page, I am using this notebook as a running log/journal. I’m aiming to do a half marathon for charity in May 2012 and thought I would record the highs and lows of my running schedule. This seemed slim enough to not end up with oodles of blank pages at the end!

Although it doesn’t really lie flat, with some persuasion, it can be encouraged to lie almost flat!

first lined page - you can see the front sheet is stuck to it

The paper is thinner than in the Ciak but is very smooth to write on and copes well with fountain pen. My Parker Sonnet always lays down a lot of ink during writing and this did sit on the surface a bit – enough that I would need to use a blotter before turning the page, to be honest. But, there is minimal bleed-through to the other side with any of: Parker Sonnet, Parker italic nib or Osmiroid flat-tip nib (my three favourite pens!). You can see in the following picture how little the bleed-through is (and I know – I write really dull things about my running!).  The thing holding the pages open is my Garmin!

minimal bleed-through and nice to write in fountain pen in

It’s interesting (to me) to note that the same thing that happens when writing in a Moleskine seems to happen in this book too – the blue/black ink from the Osmiroid always gets lighter and more turquoise looking after a day or so. The top entry (from the 5^th Oct) looks paler and more greeny than the entry from today (8^th). Maybe it’s the cream pages?

The line-spacing is quite narrow (5.5 mm) so if you had large writing you might struggle to fit to the lines. My writing is reasonably small thankfully. For a running journal it’s fine – for book planning it would have been too narrow I think. My Moleskine was 6 mm line spacing and it felt too dense at times, especially in A4 en bloc. There is no ribbon marker in the book.

Overall, I would give it a 3 out of 5. It’s small and good quality, but the line-spacing is a tiny bit tight, it doesn’t lie flat easily and the lack of a ribbon marker is a shame. But, for the price, it’s a good, serviceable notebook.