Early on in my career, I got by using reporter’s notebooks for most of my notekeeping needs. I also spent long, miserable years jotting notes on 8.5–by-11-inch sheets of copy paper, which is even worse. By the end of a project, I’d have a pile of mangled scraps in no organized order.
My notebook obsession started when my wife got me hooked on Bullet Journals. Since I use fountain pens slightly more frequently than she does, I enjoyed experimenting and testing new notebooks to see how well they work with my growing collection of pens and inks. The classic Leuchtturm BuJo is nice, but there’s creative value in switching up what you use on a regular basis. You never know how a new paper or pen will impact your process and what you create.
My latest crush is the Nomi Notebook, currently on offer as a Kickstarter. (Back the project here through October 8, 2021.) I certainly don’t need more notebooks, but this one has a couple of nice touches that impressed me.
SIZE: My go-to size for notebooks is A5, which is roughly about 5.5-by-8 inches. There are tons of other sizes out there, but A5 (about the size of a trade paperback novel) is the one that will sit comfortably on my (smallish) desk without eating up all the room. A5 also fits nicely in my backpack when traveling. The Nomi measures 5.5-by-8.5-inches, so it’s a little narrower and slightly taller than two of my usual favorites, the Leuchtturm BuJo or The Seven Seas Writer. If you didn’t handle A5 notebooks every day, I doubt you’d notice the difference. Nomi’s sizing means you’re getting an easily carried book with 192 pages of good-size paper.
CONSTRUCTION: The signatures are Smyth-sewn, which is the mark of high-quality, archival stitching. The exterior spine is wrapped with soft black book cloth. This treatment permits the Nomi to open flat, which pleases the lefty in me. I know I’m not going to butt my hammy mitts against the curl of the interior spine every other page. And I won’t lose any writing space to the gutter.
Look! It lays flat!
PAPER: This is the key, right? My fave A5 notebooks (Life, The Seven Seas, Maruman Mnemosyne) tend to use smooth, beautiful Japanese paper that that are theoretically optimal for fountain pens and other liquid inks. The Seven Seas and my Hobonichi planner both use Tomoe River paper, which is certainly smooth, but your work takes time to dry. (Both books come with blotters, if that’s any indication.) The pocket notebooks I carry on the go (Field Notes, Write Notepads) sport papers that aren’t as lovely as that Japanese paper, but still hold their own with juicy inks. Nomi features 118 gsm (grams per square meter) white paper, which to my touch feels a lot like the Write notepads I use. (It’s thicker than the ones in official Bullet Journals and the Seven Seas notebook.)
The big difference? Nomi paper is recycled. I’ve been a stationery geek for decades, and while I use recycled paper for my home office copier, I learned early not to bother seeking out recycled for my writing papers. What’s out there isn’t lovely. Apparently you can either chew up a forest to feed your appetite for beautiful paper, or you can save the planet with sucky recycled paper. Nomi has sourced paper with a nice tooth to it.
To start, I used disposable pens and markers, pencil, and high- and low-end fountain pens on it. The big-ass Sharpie ghosted somewhat though to the next page—but of course it would. Impressed with the low-end instrument performance, I tried slightly juicier fountain pen inks, and more expensive nibs. The paper held up wonderfully. A nice writing experience, whether you’re using a cheap disposable or your premium fountain pen. Only one nib—a very flexible nib, I might add—produced some feathering and ghosting.
Testing inappropriate/low-end pens and inks.
Sharpie ghosting on reverse—of course.
Testing fine-tip Rollerballs.
Testing disposable liquid ink pens.
Testing a Pelikan Oblique Medium with very flexible nib.
Some feathering with the Pelikan nib.
Some bleedthrough with the Pelikan.
Flawless performance on the stub.
COVER: I really dig Nomi’s recycled cover. Notebook covers always present a problem. The Leuchtturm BuJo feels like I’m forever toting a hardcover book around with me. I immediately notice the extra weight when I slide it into my eBag with my laptop. “Paperback” notebooks are lighter, but they really take a beating.
Maruman sidesteps this issue using durable plastic covers for its Mnemosyne. The Seven Seas marries fabric to card stock. Either way, the covers of these three standbys are nowhere near as lovely as the paper they enclose, which is why so many of us stationery geeks feel compelled to sheath our preferred notebooks in leather covers. It’s a brutal Catch-22. Leather’s nice, but boy does it add weight!
The Nomi uses 120-pound double-thick cover stock that feels satisfying, thick, and perfectly capable of protecting the book for the long haul.
ART: You weren’t expecting this, now, were you? Unlike any notebook I’ve ever seen, Nomi sports artwork on its endpapers. Noir is the theme of this inaugural Kickstarter edition, in keeping with the startup’s San Francisco location. The two images are by New Yorker cartoonist Shuchita Mishra. Black and white, moody…the images evoke classic old movies. The building at the bottom, incidentally, is 891 Post Street, where mystery writer Dashiell Hammett actually lived, and which he choses as the home of his fictional detective, Sam Spade. (The building, which still stands today, is marked with a plaque that shares the story.)
BOTTOM LINE: This was supposed to be year I stopped buying more notebooks, ink, and pens, and focused on enjoying the stash of tools I’ve already acquired. But the Nomi sucked me in, and I briefly thought about jumping for a ten-pack, since you reap a nice discount in volume, and get one book signed by the artist. But I exerted some willpower and backed the Kickstarter for just one book as a reward. I chalk my enthusiasm up to the complete package: Artwork, substantial gray cover, nice paper, and a nod to mystery fiction to boot. If these matter to you, jump on the bandwagon. Again, the Kickstarter runs until October 8, 2021.
Note: I was provided with a complimentary prototype in exchange for an honest review. I tested a blank-page book, but a dot grid version is also available.
Photo at top by @kellysikkema via Unsplash.