(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
There's always room in my stationery stash for another basic, utilitarian notebook — especially when it has a large number of pages.
The Maruman A5 Spiral Note is a 150-sheet (300-page) thick notebook that uses the great paper that Maruman is known for. While I call this "basic," I only mean that in a positive way. Yes, the design is basic and minimal, but the quality is there where it counts. There's not much branding or fluff — just lots of pages.
On the outside, the covers of this notebook are thick craft cardstock that should provide plenty of protection against minor scuffs, but it won't hold up to moisture very well. The covers are plenty to protect the pages from other things inside a bag. Outside of the print on the front cover, there is zero marketing or printing on the inside or back covers. Inside, the first non-page is the only marketing material you'll find, and it's easy to remove if you don't want it.
The paper is the same as other paper I've used in Maruman notebooks. The 80 gsm paper has a 6.5mm ruled line, and there space at the top for a subject, topic, date, or other metadata that you can use or ignore. The pages are all perforated, making it easy to rip individual sheets out. The outer corners of the pages are also rounded off, so they won't easily get caught on things in your bag.
In my testing, all types of ink and graphite work well on this paper. It's mostly smooth with a little bit of feedback. It definitely feels like there's a coating on the paper, but it's light and doesn't keep ink from drying quickly. It's not the same paper that Maruman uses in their Mnemosyne line, but it's still a great paper that performs well.
The binding on this notebook is a stout wire spiral that has a brass finish. I don't think it's real brass, but the color/finish matches the craft aesthetic of the covers. The thick wire will bend if enough force or weight is applied, but it's sturdy enough to be resilient against the typical forces inside a crowded bag.
This is a fantastic line of notebooks from Maruman. I love their sleek black notebooks, but I've always got room for the craft paper style that these notebooks pull off so well. While you can choose from lined or dot grid in some of the notebooks, the large capacity 150-sheet versions only come in lined rule. And, they even come in A4 and B5 sizes too.
At $8.50 for this notebook, it's an incredible value. You get a lot of great paper for this price, and that makes it easy to recommend. This is great if you want a lot of capacity for a single purpose or just something that will last a long time provided you take care of the covers. The Maruman Spiral Note is now one of my top recommendations for no-frills, great quality notebooks available in A5, A4, and B5 sizes.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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