Here's my short tribute to and recommendation for the humble little composition notebook. Yes, those marbled-cover notebooks with 100 sewn pages that we all dreaded in Jr. High english class. Who whould have guessed that one of the cheapest notebooks you could find, usually relegated to the bottom shelf in the office supply section, would actually be a great all-purpose journal/workbook/project book that takes fountain pen ink like a champ.

OK, so the real reason for my devotion. They're CHEAP! Now, I prefer to call myself frugal, but these are officially cheap, but still great quality. I've done Moleskine and Apica, Claire Fontaine and HP 32#...all great notebooks and papers. But that was the problem. I always hestitated to write because they were TOO nice. It just didn't feel right jotting down field planting records or ideas for a new shed or random thoughts in something so nice. So, they all ended up on the shelf. (strange logic that wastes more money than writing in them I guess). But, you say, they have those ugly plain generic cardboard covers. Enter in Art at www.renaissance-art.com (no affiliation, very happy customer). For little investment I had a custom-made leather cover with the wrap/tie closure that made the simple little notebook classy, practical and nice to carry around. And the leather is Ooooooo so nice.

So what prompted my praise this evening? Well, a visit to WalMart this evening revealed Norcom composition notebooks (with the Made in Brazil paper, my favorite) for $0.50 EACH. I walked out with 2 cases of various colored notebooks (36 total) for the whopping price of $18. For a little more than the price of a single Moleskine I have 3,600 pages on which to write, doodle, plan, dream, sketch, and do whatever my pen desires.

So while I still have great respect for the top-shelf notebooks of the world (and those that use them faithfully) here's to my new friend and companion: the comp book.

I've never written in a composition book with an FP, but I've used them to a certain extent in school. The paper was always nice, but I have a couple problems with them that I've never been able to get over, despite the low cost.

1) The unsightly cover. That marbling is bad enough with black, and when they put other colors on them, I just find them too hideous to look at.

2) That wouldn't even be so bad if it weren't for this: I hate writing on both sides of the paper in them, because the pages don't turn well and they get lumpy.

Now, call me picky (I SO am), but these are reasons enough for me to avoid the comp books as much as I possibly can.

It is, however, interesting that they take FP ink so well. What do you use on them?

I second this sentiment. I have posted elsewhere on this forum about my devotion to the comp book.

Re: the above:
1. Renaissance Art. Alternatively, find something more appealing and tape it over the cover.
2. I have not noticed either of these symptoms when I write on both sides of the paper, and I often do.

Re: ink:
I use all my inks on them, but mostly Lamy blue and then many Noodlers colors.

I always have my comp book with me and I put everything in it. It mostly gets filled with work stuff, but I also write personal notes and I also tape a bunch of stuff in there. Anything that is interesting in a newspaper or magazine and cut out and either tape or glue in there.

When one book is full, I start a new one and carry the old one around for a while. I either copy or tear stuff out of it and put it in the new one.


The other thing I do is I number the pages (just the even ones, saves time). Then I create an index in the back. I record which date is on which page and then a few words about what is on that page. It works beautifully.

Whoa, this is almost exactly what I do.

Except I encourage people who are concerned with appearance to get a real leather cover made to fit their comp book. I had my name embossed (I guess on leather it's STAMPED) on the front.

So, now the $2 grid'ed notebook looks like one of those $20 boutique jobs.

I get lots of compliments on my notebook and its carrier.

btw: the place I went to was PLE Designs. They offer like five colors (Tan. Med Brown, Black, Blue and Red), and the item description is "Leather Book Cover for Composition Notebook."

Great reasons to use a comp-book. If you aren't comfortable "wasting" your good paper on mundane uses, who am I to say differently?

However, I did have a thought:


Have you thought about taking a few dozen sheets of something like HP 32# (or "just" 28#) and making a single-signature stapled notebook to carry around? That would be even more economical, plus you could put whatever cover you want on it.

My wife is very crafty, so I have picked up the habit of thinking in terms of projects.

I've been using composition books almost exclusively this year, and I've got several on the go for each of my projects. I can't find good comp books here in Edmonton (actually I can, but they are too expensive), but I had several Japanese ones left over from my study abroad time and just picked up a bunch when I was there last month.

Danier leather was having a clearance sale and I picked up several leather covers and portfolios for between $7 and $15 each and have been using them for my comp books. Strangely enough the Danier covers were all Euro sized, so the notebooks fit perfectly.

I've also been using the pocket-size notebooks as travel journals as the paper is excellent and they are a fraction of the cost of Moleskine.

And I love the covers with their stately lines and odd claims like, "Gives best writing features" and "For happy life style."

Neill

As a student, I too can express an appreciation of the composition book. Oftentimes, assigned a section of Latin translation or needing to do research for a paper, I will end up filling many pages with vocabulary, notes, and comments/questions. This is a necessary and unavoidable part of the "academic process," of course, but comp. books let me use fp friendly paper for daily notes and help save money for more pens and ink. Most notes that I take are used only the next day in class and to study for exams, so it is senseless for me to spend excessively on paper for this use.
Unlike most, it seems, I actually like the traditional black-marbled look. To me it seems very retro and a good match for a Lamy 2000, P51, or any other pen with a vintage, utilitarian style.

Any notebook that promises "happy life style" is worth an extra nickel or two. Who knows, it may even come true.

Help me out here, comp book lovers, I just picked up a couple Staple's brand and YUCK! Is there one brand preferred over another? Are you all talking about the Mead in particular?

When I've used Mead, it's pretty good as far as feathering, but the paper is a little thin and dark inks show through, so I can only use one side.

I use Office Depot. I have gotten some bad ones.

Before I discovered the basic lined journals at Barnes & Noble, comp books were my journaling medium of choice. They're cheap, give me lots of room to write and the lie flat.

I dabble a bit in scrapbooking and recently altered a comp book, just to make it a little prettier. You can Google "altered composition books" under Images for some ideas.

The Staples "M" series composition books/journals seem to be very good with fountain pens. The regular cheap ones are horrible.

I use mostly Kokuyo notebooks, when I can get them, otherwise Apica, which is easier to find.

I bought a couple of leather notebook covers that came with extremely cheap-looking-and-feeling "G-Leaf" ring notebooks, but despite their looks the paper is amazingly good. I don't know if they are made in HK, Taiwan, or China.

My university bookstore sells a lot of Mead and I haven't had any luck with it. The quality changes from page to page and sometimes I even get one part of a page that takes ink well and one part that just bleeds and feathers like crazy.

Neill

Terrific thread, JD. Which Walmart did you find these at? I might need to make a stop next time I'm nearby!

Could any of you please post a photo or a link to those comp books? they sound worth a try, but here in Spain I don't know if we have something similar or where can I order it from.

Thanks in advance.

The concept of the composition notebook is a good one, in that they have a fair amount of paper bound in such a way that the book lies flat in the open position. And they're inexpensive!

However, nearly every brand I've seen has a high degree of variability in the quality of the paper. It is pretty clear why this is so. They outsource the books to different overseas vendors for each production lot. Check the country of origin in the fine print on the cardboard cover. In my local CVS, there were Mead composition notebooks from Brazil, Vietnam, and Thailand on the same shelf. The papers of each had a different feel.

I can't live with that kind of inconsistency....

Here's a link to the composition book here:

http://www.walgreens.com/dbimagecache/269423.jpg

It is a simple, pamphlet book, stitched and glued and probably similar to some you'd find in a drug store, supermarket or large stationary store. Years ago they had black and white covers, now I believe they have started making different covers and different designs.

It is often used by school children, inexpensive, light weight and easily available in the US.

This Wikipedia link may help with further info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_book

They are inexpensive, and whether they are FP-friendly is entirely a matter of luck

Both Wally-worlds here in Ames have the same selection (as I'm guessing nearly every one in the country does.) At last check they were up to $0.60 ea.

Of the brands they carry, look for the Norcom brand. There'll be striped covers, marbled covers and color covers. The important thing is look on the back cover for where they're mfg at. Brazil seems to be the paper of choice by my experience. When I find a fresh shipment of those books I buy the box. Vietnam and Mexico papers in the Norcom books haven't looked or felt very good so I've stayed away.

Sometimes the Mead books have good paper, but not as consistent as what I've seen in the Norcom.

My experience with Staple's comp books wasn't good. They carry them in narrow-rule, which is nice, but the paper was terrible for FP. Plus they rarely have them below $2/ea. (Yes, I'm REALLY cheap!)

I wish they came in college rule.

That's exactly what turned me to Rhodia, Apica and so many other papers. Still a neat stack of comp books sits at the ready in my home office. Despite the vast space between the lines, I use them and enjoy the fleeting rush that I'm starting a new adventure each time I do just as I did in school.

All this talk of composition books made me dig one out of my desk drawer and start using it. It's a Mead, College ruled made in Vietnam but the paper takes FP ink really well. No show or bleed through to the other side with Quink blue or Skrip blue-black. The things I like best about these notebooks are the rounded corners, the black/white marble covers and the fact that you can fold the cover back. Paper is definitely hit or miss... I got lucky on this one. ($2 at Elephant Pharmacy) YMMV... :0)

Great thread. I too am a composition book junkie. I've use them through the years for all kinds of writing, journaling and note keeping. I use the "great paper" items and love them, but long before I got into the good stuff, comp books were and have remained a workhorse item for me. A couple of years ago I ran into a great sale at Staples and got quite a few composition books and a large number of quad ruled books that I use a lot. I have used them with all kinds of pens and pencils, and the last year or so with fountain pens. Not the best but not so bad--sometimes.

I agree there is a universe of difference in paper they come up with. Fortunately the quad ruled books I got are on the better end of the scale. Due to this thread I dropped by Walmart and got a much needed supply (sigh--not!) of the 50-cent Brazilians (OK--kind of a '60s flashback there). I appreciate JD4020s diligence in identifying paper from there as the better stuff to look for.

I've never gotten fancy with the covers for comp books but I have covered them with brown paper-bag paper at times. My interest is piqued over the idea of a leather cover. An old Sheaffer school pen with a fine nib and a composition book with good Brazilian paper--cheapie fine writing heaven!

Michael

Oh, I meant to add this ...

Click to view attachment

I like this. Then you could doodle on the front and smooth out some nibs!

There you go. Multitasking is good!

i use this kind of notebook pretty often. in fact i have 2 sitting next to me right now, and aside from my little moleskine these are what i do all my doodling, drawing, writing, and list making/calculations in. they aren't bad overall but:

1. the paper is a bit thin and there is bleeding; it is also a bit coarse
2. the lines are a little wide
3. i fold the whole left side around the front, and this stresses the paper cover to the binding stitching. eventually the stitching begins to pull out and it eventually falls apart

the kind i have say "distributed by walgreens co." on the front and are Penway brand. is there something like this with slightly better quality that i can move to? or do i need to go to a higher end brand like rhodia? i've been looking for a good replacement to these cheapies but being cheap is part of the reason why i love them!

also on an unrelated note, has anybody tried the new XL soft cover moleskine (not cahier)? it looks like a good alternative but it would be quite a bit more expensive and moleskine has a history of sketchy paper quality as we all know (although i do think my little one is pretty good...).

Office Depot has store-brand Brazillian composition notebooks that can be had with college rule. Excellent paper, superbly smooth and bleedthrough-resistant.

I have stocked up

I found some Made in Brasil, Staples brand composition books at my local grocery store and picked one up. I like it. I'm able to use both sides of each page with Diamine Prussian Blue and Presidential Blue ink.

Bill

Our local Walmarts have re-stocked and still have a good supply of Made in Brazil composition notebooks at 50-cents among a variety of other back-to-school comp books for 60-cents and more. Also, our area Walgreen's have three-subject Mead comp books from Brazil at the moment, but they are more like $3.29, still a good buy if you want that sort of thing. Alas, I wasn't able to find Brazil college ruled books at our Office Depots. Too bad.

Just another note. Some of the Walmart Norcom black and white marble composition books for 50-cents are from Vietnam. Seems to be better paper than most other locations but not the quality of Brazilian.

I went to WalMart and bought a few of these notebooks. They come not only in the traditional black-and-white marbled covers but also in really interesting chess-board patterns and other designs. The covers are so striking, in fact, that I don't want to put a leather cover over them! They are quite a deal for 50 cents apiece (limit 20 per customer). Get them soon, before they're all sold out in the back-to-school rush. Just be sure to look at the back cover and see where they are made. Dig until you find the Brazilians; bypass the Vietnam and Indian-made versions.

Picked up one of the Brazil made Wal-Mart comp books the other day. Very nice and just about the perfect size for writing in.

The BEST composition book is the one from Office Depot with the "made in vietnam" paper. I love that paper for my FP's. It was on sale for .99 each and I bought 24. Try it. Tell me what you think.

Get the Office Depot Made in Vietnam Paper! Let me know what you think. If you can't find it, I will consider sending you one.

So you're really sold on the Vietnam paper? I bout a couple of college-ruled books at Office Depot the other day but haven't tried them. They are now on sale for 30-cents each, so at that price maybe a case would be in order. Six bucks for 20. Have you used Brazilian-made comp books? They are the BEST in my experience.

FWIW, I was at Wal-Mart and did a one-to-one comparison with comp books with Vietnamese paper and Brazilian paper. I can't say that I could detect much difference in weight, but the Brazilian paper was a much brighter white. Maybe that means it will be somewhat more opaque than the Vietnamese paper? I'd have to say that after that visual comparison, I would probably opt for the Brazilian paper.

Here's a cover I've been usingRustico Leather that avoids the middle school student look.

I buy ultra cheapies at Walgreens and theyre FP fine. Not luxurious by any stretch but no bleed or showthrough.

And here's a pic of one for our Spanish amigo

I should add that for those who prefer graph or quadrille paper, a similar book can be found called a lab book.

The composition book seems to be a uniquely American sort of notebook, so I don't think it's readily available in Europe or elsewhere. I have heard that the Mead company will ship overseas. Here is the page for their composition book from their web site:

http://www.mead.com/webapp/wcs/stores/serv...1_false_10051##

I can't vouch for the provenance of the paper in these Mead comp books. It probably varies.

Here's the page on composition books from Norcom, the paper in which seems to vary between Vietnamese and Brazilian. According to the web site, online ordering directly from Norcom is "coming soon," but I don't know if they will ship internationally.

http://www.norcominc.com/productsdetail06.asp?search=76010

This is such a great thread. I love composition books!

Just to add my two cents to the pot, I picked up five of the Office Depot brand comp books today for $0.30ea, but they were strictly limiting to five per customer. Sweet talking skills didn't work... I got the last four Brazil college ruled books, which must have been old stock. Everything else was from Vietnam. I noticed a wide variety in the Vietnam books--some feathered horrible and others behaved themselves. I have to agree that the Brazil paper is much brighter and, to my mind, smoother than the rest. It seems like this is the case across many different brands of composition books. All of the new stock of comp books (plenty of unopened cases) were from Vietnam, so scoop up those Brazils if you see them.

I tried a quick dip in the Office Depot brand quad ruled books (blue marbled cover, made in India), but they were horrible and feathered terribly--but not as bad as a Moleskine...

On to Staples, where they have quad ruled composition books on sale for $0.99ea (regular $2.49), with no apparent limit. I snapped up five of these. The gridlines are much lighter than the Norcom quad ruled. All of the books I bought take ink very well and show off nice shading variation. These books have lime green and white stripes on the covers and are made in Taiwan.

I used Norcom quad rule for lecture notes, but I found the gridlines to be much too dark for my writing, which is with an extra-fine nib and Waterman Blue-Black ink. Scans and photocopies of notes were almost unreadable because the gridline and the written word were nearly the same weight. I'm sure the paper would do well for dark and black ink, as it had no feathering and little bleed-through. The two Norcom books I used are made in Indonesia.

My favorites are 1) Office Depot brand college ruled, made in Brazil; and 2) Staples brand quad ruled books, made in Taiwan.

Just picked up a Norcom one at our local Walmart today. Curiously, I found there are at least two different batches, both are made in Brazil but with noticeable differences in the papers used. I got one that has the thicker paper.

It worked pretty well for me. There are some minor feathering/bleed-through with Diamin Monaco Red and Noodler's Forest Green but no problem with the other inks that I tried (Aurora Blue, Pelikan Black, Private Reserve Orange Crush, and Rohrer & Klingner Alt Bordeaux). The papers are kind of thin so there are some show-through but I have no problem with writing on both sides of a page. At $0.50 for a 100-sheet notebook, these are really great value.

Oh my with 7 kids I've been buying these for years and usualy a couple for myself.Now that they are out of school I buy them for myself and use them to journal in.As the years pass there are so many uestion they have and with my memory starting to slip I just stocked up at Walgreens where they are 3 for $1.99 on sale.Iwas neglected as to mu family history so there is a book for each one that Ican pass to each one when I leave this mortal plain.All the mishaps,adventures etc.and they can continue for theirchildren also.Simply,Gramakittycat

Some USA printed ones from mead a while back had nice cold press paper. Now aways, it's a little hit or miss

Hey, I just found a stash of these at work, we give them to patients to use as journals. We have the Norcom Brazilian version. The paper is nice, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned the handy "web reference" section on the inside front cover, where the first website listed is that of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Dan

Silver54321: It is hard to find college-ruled composition books, yes. But, as bpholin notices, maybe the quad ruled would be a good alternative. I love graph paper.

A friend's nine-year-old daughter gave me a wide-ruled composition book with a crafted cover: some sort of cloth-like contact paper I think. I use that quite frequently at work, but only to take meeting notes (and I leave it in my desk). Nobody pays attention to the crafty notebook, actually; it is more that I'm usually the only person taking extensive notes. (I'm an academic, by the way, so our "business" aesthetic is a bit different, too.) The paper feathers a little, but not too much bleed through. It was a gift, though.

In college (twenty years ago) I used to use a series of 100 sheet college-ruled grey Borum & Pease Compostion Books. The university bookstore sold them as pseudo-lab notebooks I think. I still have one right here: item 09-9134, made by Esselte Pendaflex. The paper's fair: less feathery than my Moleskine. But they don't seem to be made anymore. The bookstore also sold a no-name grid notebook which was very similar. Both were great. And I liked the grey, semi-professional anonymity of the notebooks: I'm not a big fan of the marbled look. (That said, I have a Roaring Spring Quad Ruled 5 to 1" 100 page composition book [green, marbled] that is quite nice. No feathering or bleed through. Made in the USA, and highly recommended.)

But that's also the neat thing about a notebook that's only a couple bucks: you can always hack a composition book. This woman duct taped some for her kids:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clkl/420203727/
and these are a bit femme, but nice:
http://sweatersurgery.blogspot.com/2007/12...k-dress-up.html
I'd rather get creative with one of these than a Moleskine, if that were my thing.

This isn't a composition book, and I don't like its cover: "The Maker's Notebook." But I wonder how it might function. They claim the paper is good with fountain pens. From the "editor" of the notebook:

"The Notebook contains 150 pages of 1/10” engineering graph paper on a 60# Lynx Smooth Opaque recycled paper. It is designed to handle everything from mechanical pencils and fountain pens and sharpies. There’s also over 20 pages of reference material optimized for DIY projects, with everything from instructions on basic circuit testing with a digital multimeter, to how to chose LEDs, to what size needles to use in different sewing projects.

Besides the DIYers of Make and Craft magazines, we also designed the Maker’s Notebook to conform to the basic standards of laboratory and inventors/engineers notebooks. All pages are pre-numbered and non-removable. There’s a field on each page for project label, date, and designer and witness signatures. There are also “From Page___” and “To Page____” fields for threading project pages together."

Twenty bucks, though. And I could live without the 20 pages of reference material.
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596519414/

I really like lab note books, but they are often oddly sized, more like ledgers, and usually a bit expensive. Here's one for $53.00--which is way too much.
http://www.officeworld.com/Worlds-Biggest-...SSG21150R/08Q3/

And the Blueline DaVinci look nice at around $12.00, but I don't know. A forum search didn't bring up many references.
http://www.staples.com/office/supplies/p1_...DP1413:CL142104

And, yes, not as inexpensive as the composition book.

Great thread! I've always hated comps because of their wide ruled paper, but I have recently enjoyed some quad ruled pads and maybe it's time I give those a go!

Today I went to pick up some quad-ruled Staples composition books -- they were $2.99 each but they were made in Brazil. I figured what-the-heck, since I use quad books too I'd go ahead and pay the price for a couple while they were there.

Imagine my surprise when I checked out and they were actually on sale for 79-cents each! Yep, I picked up a few more.

Michael

Staples just came out with a new eco-friendly version of their comp' books. They are a vast improvement over the previous in terms of paper quality.

Mead Comp books in black, red, green and purple are on sale at Rite Aid for 50 cents apiece. Some are made in Vietnam and some in Brazil.

PS

I have noticed that some of the comp books made in Vietnam have softer covers. The Brazilian ones have the standard stiff covers.