The Author notebook with Tomoe River paper (Black/Dot Grid)

I love this notebook. It ticks all my boxes.. well all but one.Beautiful softcover, white paper, lined paper, bookmark, back pocket, index and numbered pages.And of course good quality paper but it’s Tomoe River 68gsm so that’s covered. I also like the sheet of blotting paper and the size A5 slim.So what’s not perfect? See photo #2, the paper used for the index is not fountain pen friendly. The ink feathers on it. I will use my ballpoint for the index from now on.But on the pages themselves there is no feathering or bleeding at all. You can see that there is writing on the other side of the page… but only until you fill that page with writing.Only wish they would sell it in a local store.Will buy all the colours eventually, I’m sure.

The Author arrives in a simple clear plastic envelope and the first thing I noticed was how slim it was, despite having 192 numbered pages, plus name/address/contents pages and a rear pocket it still feels slim and unobtrusive.It has a removeable paper band and the only branding on the bottom of the rear cover. The cover itself is soft faux leather and is very tactile and pleasant to handle and doesn’t have the plastic feel that many of these types of covers do. A lot of attention has been paid to the cover and like the pages it has rounded corners and where it really stands out for me is the edges. Whilst it may only be a little thing the edges of the cover are finished in a contrasting colour, in this case orange/brown, which gives the same appearance as leather covers when the edges have been burnished.I know there is nothing I can say about Tomoe River paper that hasn’t already been said but if you haven’t tried it you really need to, it’s worth the pennies. In this notebook the paper has been put to excellent use; I have the dot grid version (it also comes in lined paper) and the dots are light grey, as is the page numbering, and they are approximately 5mm grid. The dots are approximately twice the size of what I have in similar notebooks and I found this makes it much easier to follow the line when writing.I tested the paper with a variety of pens and inks including Diamine, KWZ & Mont Blanc; I scribbled, splashed ink, bent the notebook and generally tried to see if there was anything I could do that would affect it. I did not succeed; I did however find good use for the free, page size, sheet of blotting paper.The notebook is made up of stitched sections which means it lies much flatter that a stapled notebook making it easier to use and this is further helped by the type of paper and the soft cover.The Author has an elastic closure strap and this, I usually find, is the weak point with most notebooks; they normally stretch and are fail after a few uses. To test this, I tucked my Pilot Capless in between the pages and closed the notebook with the elastic and left it overnight expecting to come back to an over stretched elastic and a bent cover. I was happily surprised when about twenty-four hours later I took the pen out and reclosed the notebook and it was as if nothing had ever happened.Probably the only thing I would have liked to see was a few perforated removable pages but maybe that will come in the next iteration; I am looking forward to seeing where GLP takes The Author, different sizes, a refillable version, wherever it goes I will be a customer.In conclusion, I’ve never had a favourite notebook and I’ve tried pretty much all of them and I’ve always found something that has irritated me about each and every one of them. However, The Author is different; and even though I have only had it a short time it is the notebook I want to use, so, in short, I think I have finally got a favourite notebook.The final question is; ‘Is it worth your pennies?’And the answer is, ‘Yes’. This is an excellent quality notebook that represents outstanding value for money.

I have been looking for notebooks were made with tomoe river paper in white for a long time. Used the original Japanese tomoe river brand but it was made with 52gsm paper which was discontinued now. Found this notebook made with 68gsm tomoe river paper was much better. No more ghosting and bleed through anymore. Really lightweight to be carried around. Nice soft cover. A+++quality.

The Author notebook works as advertised. Flexible fake leather cover, high quality paper, bookmark ribbon, index pages, elastic closure, and a sheet of blotting paper.The index pages and end papers are some thicker paper, which is fair enough. The notebook paper itself is Tomoe River (I got lined), with faint grey dotted lines and page numbers. Line spacing is about 7mm, which is relatively close. As you’d expect for Tomoe River, with fountain pen inks there is no feathering, no bleed through, and some faint show through. Ink does take a little while to dry, though, which isn’t unexpected given the paper properties. The end papers, however, do feather quite noticeably. The page count is 192, and the pages are perfect bound.The leather cover smells like real leather (but not very strongly), even though it isn’t, and the edges have been coloured brown, as you can see in the product pictures.As for size, it is about 5mm taller than other A5 notebooks (Leuchtturm1917, Clairefontaine My Essential), and 13mm narrower. This may have an impact if you want to use it with a notebook cover, although as it has its own flexible cover, I think that less likely. The My Essential has 184 pages (as against 192) at about the same thickness, and Leuchtturm 250, and almost twice as thick due to the board covers.It feels a bit more classy and durable than the My Essential, and less like a brick than the Leuchtturm, which also has the least fountain-pen-friendly paper. So far (which obviously isn't very long) this is a very appealing new notebook; I'll update if more extensive use reveals something bad. This is about twice the price of the Clairefontaine (and has a much nicer cover), and clearly more expensive than the Leuchtturm, which varies a lot more in price.When it comes right down to it, this is a high quality notebook, and the main deciding factor is likely to be if you like the idea of a flexible cover or not.