Stalogy 016 notebooks
At last! Stu has finally taken heed of one of my pleas!
A gazillion years ago, when I was wittering about my writing notebooks (you can see the post here) I bemoaned the fact that Nero didn't sell B5 notebooks. Well, only 2 years later, Nero does! And what a notebook they are too!
Enter the magnificent Stalogy 016 notebooks, available in green, blue, yellow, grey, red, or black covers.
Not sure what size B5 is? It's halfway between A4 and A5, at 176 x 250 mm. The Stalogy notebooks are actually 179 x 252 mm, but what's a couple of mm between friends?
These are not pocket notebooks! These are 'take up some real estate on your desk' size. Not as much space as A4 opened out (thank goodness!) but a bit more than A5 opened out. For me, it's actually a perfect size for when I'm planning/writing a book!
As I said in the post about my writing notebooks, once I start writing, I like to have a number of B5 notebooks on the go: one for characters, one for plot, one for setting notes and one for scene-planning. The first three can be fairly slim books. The scene-planning one needs quite a lot of pages (or I need more than one slim one). I keep these, Traveller's Notebook-style, in a converted Filofax Deskfax.
More specs:
The paper is 81.4 gsm (how madly specific!) and the textured card cover is called Gokanshi. There is a handy white label wrapped around the upper spine. The binding is sewn and then the cover is attached, so the sewing doesn't show along the spine (a very nice touch). And of course, with sewn binding, the notebook will lie as flat as a pancake.
The line ruling is 7 mm with a (perhaps excessive) top margin of 31 mm. There are 68 pages. There are no frills - no ribbon markers, back pockets, page numbering etc. These are straightforward notebooks with great, sturdy covers and fabulous paper. They even say this on the spine: "A notebook without the needless frills"
As many of you know, I prefer to write in fountain pen - my hand cramps up and gets too sore to write with a pen that needs pressure (biro etc) - so my favourite notebooks have to be able to cope with this. The Stalogy 016 notebooks have amazing paper in them, that copes perfectly with fountain pen, biro, pencil... whatever. There's no feathering, no bleed-through and no shadowing/show-through with even my wettest of nibs.
These Stalogy 016 are one of my top notebooks. In fact, probably my favourite B5 notebook of all time. I accept they're a tad large for a pocket notebook, or even for a general carry-around notebook (oh, just buy a bigger bag!), but as a project book or on the desk, they are superb.
Stalogy 016: £6.50 each
Available with blue, green, red, yellow, grey, or black covers