February Sponsor Spotlight

Lamy Hardcover A5 Notebook in Turmaline Special Edition, via Goldspot

Sponsor support is very important to me here at The Pen Addict. My sidebar advertisers put their faith in me to deliver good value for them month in and month out, and I want to shine the light on the best of the best for you. If you are shopping for pens, paper, inks, and more, please check out these great companies and see what they have to offer. Some recent highlights:

Pen Chalet has a beautiful selection of Leonardo Momento Zero fountain pens, including an orange and black model made exclusively for Pen Chalet.

Goldspot has all of the new Lamy Turmaline products in stock, including a special edition hardcover A5 notebook.

Vanness Pens is now an official TWSBI retailer, so find all the the latest releases there, and pair your new pen with the largest selection of ink on the internet.

JetPens received what is sure to be one of the stationery products of the year in the Seed Clear Radar Eraser. It’s an outstanding add-on to any order.

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Myke and I are recording Episode 400 of The Pen Addict Podcast next week, and we want to produce a “Start Here” episode. New listeners have asked which episode they should the start with for years, and we have never had the perfect episode to point them to. We want to make Episode 400 that one.

In preparation for next week, we would like your help on what topics to cover. We are treating this as a 101-level stationery conversation, so we will be discussing things like ink differences between ballpoint, rollerball, and gel, fountain pen terminology, paper types and sizes, and other topics along those lines.

We will also be discussing Pen Addict podcast-specific topics, like Kickstarter campaigns that have gone down in history, why I hate fountain pens, and other show stories and lore.

Here is how you can help.

I’ve created a Google Form to collect anything you would like to share. Do you have a favorite episode? Let us know. Is there a 101 topic you found helpful in the past? Tell us so we can include it. Do you have another idea we haven’t thought about? Please share!

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Lamy Softcover A5 Notebook Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

You'd have to look carefully to notice what brand notebook I'm using in this review. The medium gray cover is almost completely devoid of any branding. But if you turned the notebook over, you'd find a classy Lamy logo debossed into the lower portion of the back cover. The Lamy Softcover A5 Booklets are very familiar while also sporting an unassuming style.

You might pass over this notebook thinking it's just another paperback A5 notebook, but you'd be wrong. The Lamy Softcover notebooks feature their own "Lamy ruling," which is a combination of lines and grids. This isn't the first time we've seen a paper line format like this (Doane Paper comes to mind first), but it's definitely nice to see some variety in the different line formats available in affordable notebooks. The lined ruling lines are a little darker than the dotted grid lines, and I wish all the lines were a little lighter. It's a busy pattern, and it's a little difficult to ignore if you want to do something more free-form. Still, it's a good pattern and provides a lot of structure if need it.

Aside from the unique ruling, the paper in these notebooks is really nice. It's 90g/m², which I think is a great trade-off between light weight and great performance. In my tests, only the thickest, wettest nibs are able to cause ink to show through on the back of the page. I haven't noticed any bleeding or feathering with the variety of inks and pens I've used so far, and I really couldn't be happier with the performance of this paper. It's smooth, but also has a slight tooth that provides a satisfying amount of feedback when writing.

These notebooks are exceptionally plain. There is zero branding and fluff inside the covers. Both inside covers are blank, and the first page of the notebook is exactly that — a ruled page. There's no subject boxes, contact info blocks, or witty, interesting facts printed anywhere. There also aren't any page numbers. This really is a utilitarian notebook.

Even though the covers are a soft paper material, they're coated with some extra protection to stand up to normal use. The exterior of the cover also has a nice tweed tactile feeling like they used actual fibers in the cover material. Not sure if it's real or synthetic, but it feels great in the hand.

The 64 pages of each notebook are held in place with pale yellow stitching. The binding is tight and feels like it will stand up to a lot of use. Even though the stitches are tight, the notebook still easily lays flat when writing, but also has no trouble staying closed when not in use.

The set comes with three identical notebooks and will set you back $15 from Goldspot. Considering the size and the quality of the paper in these notebooks, this is a great deal. Assuming you're interested in the paper ruling, you really can't go wrong with these notebooks.

Pick up a set along with your next order!

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

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