Midori MD Notebook Light A5 Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

The Midori MD notebooks easily make it into my top three at every incarnation, and these Light versions are no different. I mean, as far as awesomeness. They're different from the other MD notebooks in that they are lighter, as you might have guessed. These books come in a 3-pack of 48-page, staple-bound goodness. They're great if you need something light to carry, but with more work space than a pocket notebook. They make great planning books, or overflow books for when you run out of pages in your main notebook but still need a bit of space to finish a project.

The construction is simple, but good. Plain cream cardstock with an embossed logo, triple-staple-bound with gorgeous ivory Midori paper. The staples appear to be brass, though I haven't found confirmation of this. The cardstock cover is meant to be covered in some way (though mine hasn't been--the pale cardstock does show dirt and wear quickly) and you can fit two of these slim books into a Midori cover (or probably any A5 cover). They'd make amazing inserts for a traveler's notebook.

The light versions come in all the Midori sizes: A6, B6 slim, A5, and A4 variant; they all come in blank, 5 mm grid, and lined. The grid is a bit small for handwriting, unless you have wee letters and a very fine pen. The print is very fair, though, so when you need space, it fades into the background. They all come with a sheet of labeling and indexing stickers.

The paper, like all Midori paper I've used, is phenomenal. It's thick, crisp, has just the right amount of tooth, and hosts liquid inks like a boss. It doesn't feather, it shows off beautiful sheening and shading, and doesn't allow bleed-through. There is a faint ghosty show-through, but I actually love that (and it's not prominent). The only thing it couldn't handle was Sharpie, the lightsaber of inks. With all this ink imperviousness, though, comes a long dry time. About 30 seconds for a wet line of fountain pen ink. But that's what blotting paper is for.

Like their heftier cousins, these are notebooks I want to stockpile. Stacked like firewood for rainy days, when the ink is flowing and the nibs are rolling. This three-pack is only $13 at JetPens, or just under $4.50 a book. That is crazy good value. Let the stockpiling commence.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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William Hannah Intentions Pages Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

Early in September, I began thinking about what planner I wanted to use in 2019. I’ve been using the Hobonichi A5 Cousin (review here) for several years now, and although I love it, I wanted to use my William Hannah A5 notebook more (review here). I thought about replacing my Hobonichi with the William Hannah notebook, so I ordered a set of calendar pages and something new called “Intentions Pages.”

William Hannah paper is amazing. It’s super thick (100gsm) and luxurious. There’s almost no show through, even with the wettest inks.

However, when my calendar and Intentions Pages arrived, I immediately discovered a problem. I couldn’t fit even one month of daily calendar pages and Intentions Pages in my notebook. The paper is just too thick! I like to have an entire semester’s worth of daily and monthly pages in one calendar for work, and my William Hannah couldn’t hold that much. So, I ordered another Hobonichi to use at work.

But, I immediately fell in love with the William Hannah Intentions Pages. What are Intentions Pages, you ask? Well, the Monthly Intentions Pages help you think through your goals for each month and to reflect upon them when the month is over.

The front page asks you to consider the following things:

• This month’s goals (what and why?) - There’s plenty of room to write five substantive goals in the spaces provided.
• What will I do more of this month? - Here you can write down a list or a paragraph of things you’d like to do more, which I think is an excellent thing to contemplate at the beginning of each month.
• What will I do less of this month? - This is also a helpful question. I always find that I waste too much time doing things that don’t contribute to my goals or that take away from my happiness.

The next two pages provide a monthly grid where you can write important dates. There’s also a daily tracker at the bottom of the pages.

The back page asks the following reflection questions:

• How would I summarise the month? - A large portion of the page is devoted to this question so you can write out your thoughts in paragraph form.
• What will I do differently in the future? - The rest of the page challenges you to think about what needs to change in the coming days and months.

Daily Intentions Pages provide a guide for thinking through your goals, evaluating your mood, and contemplating other questions each day.

The front page has the following items:

• A box where you can record the day’s “Happiness Level.” - You can either write down your mood or draw something to represent your happiness level in this box. I do this at the end of the day.
• Check boxes to record meditation, exercise, and reading or learning (daily practices that all of us could benefit from, though I’ve been terrible at finding time to exercise or meditate this fall).
• The remainder of the page lists the following items to consider at the beginning of each day:

• I am grateful for
• A positive from yesterday
• Yesterday I learned
• A creative or positive idea
• A thought around one of my goals
• Today’s critical action
• Two further key actions
• A stretch target for today
• My intention for today

The back page provides a checklist for your critical action, key actions, and stretch target. There’s also room for the following:

• Random Thoughts
• What did I learn today?
• A thought for tomorrow

I put my Monthly Intentions Pages at the beginning of the month followed by a month’s worth of Daily Intentions Pages. This much fits perfectly into my William Hannah notebook.

I’ve been doing Intentions Pages since September, and they’ve helped me to track my mood, record what I am grateful for, contemplate creative and positive ideas, record what I’ve been learning, and analyze how I’m progressing on my monthly and daily goals.

This fall has been one of the worst semesters I’ve ever experienced. We had major cuts at my university, and many of my friends and colleagues lost their jobs. In addition, my mentor of many years died. So, I had to deal with more grief and stress than normal. The Intentions Pages helped me work through my rollercoaster thoughts and emotions and also reminded me to record grateful, creative, and positive thoughts each day. This was really good for me because many days I didn’t feel positive or grateful, but when I dug down deep, I could find things that brought me a tiny bit of cheer.

I recorded my mood in terms of weather, because I discovered using a weather metaphor was easier for me than trying to come up with words to describe my mood each day. I have to admit that most days this fall were gloomy, often with thunder and rain. But, there were some sunny days as well.

Even though I was disappointed that my William Hannah notebook didn’t work out as my daily calendar, the Intentions Pages were a wonderful surprise. I journal regularly, but the Intentions Pages provide me with a structured set of questions and prompts that I work through every day. My William Hannah notebook sits next to me on the side table in the living room where I drink my coffee each morning and cuddle my kitties in the evening. I’ve been pretty faithful recording my intentions each day, and I think it’s benefitted me greatly.

You can purchase William Hannah A5 notebooks at William Hannah. Intentions Pages come in monthly (£8.00=$10.00 for 2019) and daily format (£10.00=$12.70 per 50-day pack).

(I purchased my William Hannah notebook and Intentions Pages with my own funds.)

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Yamamoto Ro-Biki Notebook Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

We pocket notebook lovers are so spoiled for choice these days that it takes something extra special to turn our heads. Well, these Yamamoto Ro-Biki Notebooks have my head spinning in circles. With these tall, narrow pages--perfect for lists--you can make a nice long list of all the cool things about them.

To begin with aesthetics, these are just gorgeous notebooks. The cover design is elegant in a way that is both fun and professional looking so the notebook can travel between work and play with ease. The colors are rich neutrals. This star map version with the navy background and parchment-colored constellations and script looks like it might have time travelled from a hundred years ago, or been found in a stationery lover's time capsule.

The cover is light cardstock that has been treated with wax. The texture feels a bit grabby at first, but it soon burnishes into a beautiful gloss that looks almost like vintage leather.

The binding is sewn with a lot of sturdy stitches. Inside the cover is a white endpaper, and then 60 pages of cream colored recycled paper. Like most recycled papers, it's not entirely impervious to liquid ink, but it performed very well. My broad fountain pen and flex nib caused some bleed-through, but all the other pens I tested barely showed through at all--not even my firehose of a TWSBI. The front of the page shows no feathering, even with the wetter nibs and inks. Unless you're really laying the ink down, these would work fine with fountain pens.

Branding on the notebook is very minimal--only the subtlest brand is printed on the back bottom in black ink on the blue background.

The dimensions are 3.6" x 8.3", so they're not quite the right dimensions for the regular sized Traveler's Notebook covers, but I think they would still work with it. The height is the same--these are just a bit narrower. I don't think the paper performs quite as well as the Midori paper of the Traveler's Company notebooks, and they are, at $9.00, about $1.75 more expensive. They have more sheets of paper, though. And the irresistibly stunning covers.

I like what I've seen from Yamamoto notebooks so far, and I'm looking forward to what they do next.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!