Apica Notebook 6B5 - 10" x 7"

Fantastic notebooks with a great writing confort and style

Hands down my favourite notebook ever. Clean lines on the front and large bold letters that declaim this to be a NOTE BOOK, and not a single floral pattern in sight. Make no mistake, this is a notebook that is intended to be used. Nice touches that I'm always surprised aren't standard (and are, in fact, a requirement for me): Darker ruled lines at the top for titling pages, and a spot in the top corners of each page for number & date. Index at the front. No side margins, so no wasted space. Paper quality is excellent for the price. Smooth hand, good absorption rate. I use a hi-tec-c and the writing is smooth and crisp. There is zero feathering or bleed-through to the other side, but I can't speak for fountain pen users. Paper colour is not particularly bright and the definitely has a workmanlike quality to the way in which it acquires small crinkles through use. This might not be ideal for someone who wants their notebook to be a pristine aesthetic object. Having no pretensions about the importance of my note-taking process, I find it difficult to use books that look too "pretty" for everyday research and schoolwork, which means that this one's utilitarian appearance is perfect. The B5 size, half-way between A4 (the international equivalent to US 8.5 x 11 Letter size) and A5 (half of A4), is the perfect size for taking notes - large enough to write uninterrupted, but small enough that you don't get lost on the page. Easy to toss into smaller bags. Short spine breaking in period, but after that the pages lay flat for the most part. Reinforced saddle stitched binding shows no signs of failing. I only wish more stores carried this, so that I could buy them in bulk.