Black Cover

Today’s R.L. Gibson Markings Notebook bookends a set of three moleskine-style notebook reviews we’ve done, following some fierce competition from the Piccadilly and the Guildhall. Both the Piccaddilly and the Guildhall are inexpensive little black notebooks that I initially feared were nothing more than Moleskine knock-offs, and was suprised to find that both had impressive [...]

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When we first began this site, one of the biggest problems we had was finding out about new little black notebooks. Luckily, as we’ve grown, you readers have become our prime source for learning of the latest brands on the market, to the point where our biggest problem has become actually obtaining copies for review. [...]

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Recently, I’ve seen a number of notebooks on the market whose origins are pretty creative. For example, Book Journals takes old hard cover books from the 1950s and 1960s and converts them into spiral-bound notebooks. Urban Outfitters has recently started selling notebooks with real old vinyl records sliced up for the covers – very, very [...]

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WIN THE NEW PICCADILLY NOTEBOOK IN BC’S CONTEST! CLICK HERE! The Moleskine company owes a lot to the US chain bookstore Barnes and Noble. Though I remember Moleskines gaining some popularity when they first hit stationery shops in the US, it wasn’t until Barnes and Noble dedicated an entire double-sided shelf in the front of [...]

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Most of our notebook reviews fall into one of three categories. There’s the positive review, with maybe a few hints for improvement. Then there’s the generally negative review, wherein we try to be very specific about the reasons for our disappointment instead of just bashing the product. Usually, these notebooks tried to do something new [...]

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Hey everyone! Contrary to popular belief, we’re still alive. The past couple months have been pretty crazy – for various reasons, I’ve been on trips to Spain, Italy, Chicago, New Mexico, and Cape Cod, and the only disappointing thing about seeing the world is that I didn’t find a single new black notebook. I figured [...]

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I imagine that the vast majority of you who read this site are familiar with Rhodia products. Decked out in a distinctive shade of orange, they bring a level of style, quality, and most importantly, brilliant simplicity to all of their products, from fliptop pads to staple-bound notebooks. Rhodia products hail from France, where the [...]

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[Update! Several readers have written in to say the durability of these notebooks is pretty shoddy - see below] Let’s get one thing straight: we don’t hate the Moleskine. Yes, this website is dedicated to finding alternatives to what is widely considered the end-all, be-all of little black notebooks. But that has less to do [...]

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Before we get to the review of Scotland’s Alwych Book… …I’d like to quote something from the Moleskine insert: “Moleskine is the heir of the legendary notebook used for the past two centuries by great artists and thinkers, including Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Bruce Chatwin. This trusty, pocket-sized travel companion held [...]

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Today, we’re reviewing the Xonex Ru journal ($5.95). Check it out: Let’s get the obvious out of the way: we know it’s not black. However, it’s the best we could do under short notice. Someone had sent us an email saying we should check out the Ru journal (the company is Xonex, the notebook line [...]

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