(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
The Noble Note line of notebooks from Life Stationery has long been on my radar of notebooks to try out since they get so much attention and are easily recommended. It's taken me a while to try these out because I have a first-world problem of having too many great notebooks to choose from in my stationery stash. But finally, I have a couple of these popular Japanese notebooks on my desk, and I've spent some time with them to see what the hype is all about.
I have the Life Noble A5 notebook in grid format and the Life Noble B6 notebook in lined format. Both of these are available in either grid, lined, or plain paper, and you can also get them in other sizes, like A4, B5, and more. The cover colors are locked to the paper format, though! I wouldn't normally pick lined over grid, but I just had to have the lovely blue cover in hand.
One of the first things that struck me about these notebooks is how well-made they feel. The binding is tight and clean, the edges are straight, and the cover design is crisp. Quality control on these notebooks is obviously very stringent.
Both notebooks have 100 sheets (200 pages) of ivory 84.9 gsm acid-free paper. The binding uses the perfect-bound technique, which involves several sections that are bound with thread and then connected to each other with an adhesive spine. It makes for a clean look where you can see the four sections from the side, and then the characteristic black spine tape. This also makes it easier for the notebook to lay open on its own.
The 84.9 gsm paper is a joy to use. I'm not a huge fan of ivory paper — I prefer white paper — but it's easy to look past that preference in this case. The paper doesn't feel thick, but it performs like thicker paper. I haven't noticed any adverse behaviors like feathering, bleeding, or skipping when writing in these notebooks. There's a bit of ghosting or show-through on the back of the page, but not enough to prevent you from writing on both sides of the sheet. When writing, the feel of the paper through the pen tip is smooth with subtle feedback that lets you easily control the pen. A little bit of texture in paper goes a long way, and these notebooks nailed the balance of smoothness and texture for great writing feel.
If I were to point out a couple of flaws that I've found with these books, it would be these two things: I wish the corners were rounded a bit to prevent them getting bent, and I wish the pages were numbered. Outside of that, it's tough to find anything wrong with these. The paper is excellent, the outside is aesthetically pleasing and functional, and the price is in line with the level of quality you're getting from the product.
These notebooks are slightly more luxurious than other notebooks I commonly use, but they're still well within reach for anyone that has chosen to pursue this hobby and appreciates good paper.
The Life Noble A5 is $23, while the Life Noble B6 is $17. They have plenty of great paper and will last a while with regular use. For the amount of paper you get with these notebooks, they're a great deal and the paper quality is really tough to beat. At this level of performance, it really just comes down to personal preference. If you've already found the perfect notebook and paper for you, then I'm really happy for you and I hope we all find that perfect match! But, if you're always looking for the next possible perfect match, then put the Life Noble notebooks at the top of your list.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
