Some time ago, we reviewed Miquelrius’s soft-cover black notebook, which we criticized as being “about 3/4 of an inch too annoying to carry around in a standard pocket.” Let’s just say that that problem is fully solved with their latest black notebook ($5 – Kali Gift Bag), which clocks in at a diminutive 2.75″ x 4.75″ (standard Moleskine is about 3.5″ x 5.5″). I’ve said since the beginning of this blog that smaller size increases portability. The real question here is: how small do you want your notebook?
This is notebook is from Miquelrius’s Flexible Notebook line, and idea seems to be to make it as small and portable as possible. This is the type of notebook you can shove in your back pocket and NEVER know it’s there. It’s small, incredibly thin, flexible, and ultimately, very unnoticeable.
The cover is almost identical to The Book Factory’s Pocket Blank Book – “imitation leather,” with a very rubbery feel to it. Personally, I’m not a big fan of this material – it’s feels weird to grip, and your fingernails invariably leave marks on it just trying to remove the elastic band.
Speaking of the elastic band, this notebook has one, and like everything else, it’s miniature. In fact, it’s so thin that I wouldn’t surprised if it broke within a week of heavy notebook use (but this has yet to be seen). Of all the things to shrink, this is the one element that should’ve been left normal-sized.
The notebook has 64 ruled pages, and herein lies the perplexing issue: though everything about this notebook is tiny, the line spacing is actually quite large! Each page has about 14 lines on it, which to me defeats the purpose of using this for anything other than grocery lists. It’s bizarre – you expect nice, tight lines only to find wide-ruled pages.
At the back of the notebook is the old reliable pocket folder, which the other Miquelrius we reviewed did not have. This is strange, as the pocket is PERFECTLY integrated into flexible nature of the notebook (unlike, say, the Moleskine soft cover planner, in which the rigid pocket inhibits its overall flexibility).
All said, this notebook is what is: a miniature soft cover black notebook. For me, it’s too small, and you don’t feel like you have space to write serious ideas (and given the wide lines, those pages fill up very quickly). At best, it’s a handy little notebook to jot phone numbers and addresses in. But as a Moleskine replacement, it needs to grow a bit.
Company website: Miquelrius.com
Where to buy: Kali Gift Bag ($5)
12 responses so far ↓
1 Sam Nielsen // Jul 3, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Awesome work guys! I’m always looking for updates on this site.
Still, I only buy moleskine. I don’t search for anything else, just look for places to buy them…
and thats gonna take a while to finish.
Sam.
2 Chris Meisenzahl // Jul 4, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Nice report!
3 Steve // Jul 5, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I just got my hands on one of these and agree that the lines are too widely spaced. That said, it’s the perfect size for tucking in a shirt pocket (which is where my notebooks go on business casual days). It looks sturdy and the pocket is just right for a couple of business cards, some stamps, etc. It seems pretty sturdy, too. Not the notebook for sketching out the outline of your new novel, but I think it will be good for making the occasional notation and keeping track of things, which is all I need a little black book for anyway.
4 Jeff // Jul 9, 2007 at 11:39 am
Does anyone know where I can get this in the UK?
5 Janice // Aug 22, 2007 at 2:28 pm
You can buy them directly from Miquelrius in the USA on their retail site for $3.99, cheaper than Kali…
Here is one of the links I found: http://www.shopmiquelrius.com/servlet/the-380/Miquelrius-Pocket-Flexible-Notebook/Detail
I love these and use them hard… so far so good!
6 Brian // Jan 28, 2008 at 2:04 am
They are available in plain and grid (23 full ones down and 2 fractions at top & bottom). I’d measure them but my wife absconded with my ruler
7 The Alwych Book: The perfect soft cover, the perfect notebook? « Black Cover // Apr 3, 2008 at 12:53 am
[...] old Stifflexible book. This is an excellent size. Not too small to be useless, like the miniature Miquelrius, and not too big that you can’t fit it in your [...]
8 The Alwych Book: The perfect soft cover, the perfect notebook? // Apr 10, 2008 at 12:57 pm
[...] old Stifflexible book. This is an excellent size. Not too small to be useless, like the miniature Miquelrius, and not too big that you can’t fit it in your [...]
9 · Miquelrius Flexible Notebooks // Apr 22, 2008 at 3:39 pm
[...] A review from Blackcover.net [...]
10 Eric // May 17, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I’ve had one of these in my front pants pocket with my pen and keys every day at work since last November, and it’s held up quite well. It doesn’t get used all that roughly, since I only open it a couple times a day, but I expect it to last at least a couple years. Since the corners are square, they’re slowly getting a little worn and a little dirty, but nothing serious.
The strap is fine so far. One of the places where it’s attached is splitting a little bit, but a bit of superglue should solve that problem for quite a while.
The combination of the small size (almost unmatched), elastic strap (unmatched in this size, I believe), and thin flexible cover make this the only notebook I can imagine carrying around. I keep looking to see if someone makes something better, but so far no one has.
11 jmck // May 23, 2008 at 4:42 pm
They also offer this notebook in quadrille rule, in a reasonable 5mm grid size. Would have preferred 4mm as in their larger flexible notebooks, but even at 5mm, you get about 23 lines to the page….
12 Violetsrose // Oct 20, 2009 at 7:00 am
I’ve jsut found your website and i’m loving it – notebook porn!! *drool*
“Each page has about 14 lines on it, which to me defeats the purpose of using this for anything other than grocery lists. It’s bizarre – you expect nice, tight lines only to find wide-ruled pages.”
However, I totally don’t understand where you’re coming from here – why are wider lines better for grocery lists? – would be no good for me as my lists are always more than 14 items long!!
I am ALWAYS on the look-out for wider ruling as I have larger writing – when using my Moleskines I generally take up two of their ruled lines for each line of my writing – I gave up with the ruled ones and went on to the blank ones so I could write nice and big – I much prefer the wider ruling!
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