Darice de Cuba

Yesterday I was walking in the city to a stationary shop I know of to checkout their notebook stock. On the way there I went by an English bookstore who had their whole display dedicated to Penguins book and merchandise. So I went inside to look around and check out a Penguin Notebook, they had quite some choice. I chose a George Orwell one, as collection considering they are quite rare.

The cover quality isn’t like the Moleskine, the cover is made of hardboard but the paper is quit good, more beige/creme colored then white. But the cover is easily damaged with scratch and inset marks. If you have Penguin books in your bookcase this notebook will go completely unnoticed put between them. Nice for hiding a notebook in the open. The Penguin is just a tad taller then the Moleskine.

These are both a ruled notebooks, they only had ruled Penguins at the bookshop. They are identified by a sticker put right on the cover instead of the plastic wrapping. I don’t like notebooks that come with stickers right on them, in this case it came off easily. But it can be a pain removing stickers sometimes.

I’m not a paper expert nor do I have a wide selection of pens but I took my three most used ones to test on the Penguin. While I noticed last weeks that all stores around here are stocking up on notebooks, you can get Moleskines about anywhere, even at the train station. But pens are limited to a few Stabilo models sold everywhere and some fancy pen shops and stationary stores sell the lesser Pilots pens. But if I want a broad selection of pens I will have to shop online for those.

In any case I tested with the Stabilo sensor fine 0.3mm, Muji Gel Ink 0.5mm and my old Pilot G-TEC-C4 which doesn’t write smooth anymore. Pardon the handwriting, got shaky hands due to meds.

As you can see the Pilot doesn’t bleed through the page while the Muji pen is quite visible. Of these three pens I like the Stabilo better. But today while filling out a form the 0.5mm Muji performed very well although shedding too much ink.

Summing up the Penguin Notebooks are great for the collection, but I don’t see myself using them. I also bought a Clairefontaine notebook and already filled out a page on it with wire-frames and website ideas.