Piccadilly Medium Pocket Memo Book

[thudthwacker]

While the family and I were out at Barnes and Noble a few days ago, I decided to finally pick up a 3-pack of Piccadilly pocket memos, size medium. I believe I've seen Piccadilly notebooks mentioned on FPN a couple of times, always in a positive light. At worst, I'd be out $6.

 

Summary: The Piccadilly medium pocket memo is, clearly, meant to attract the same crowd that is drawn to the Moleskine large cahier journal; it measures approximately 5" x 8.25", has a sturdy but flexible cardboard cover, stitched binding, a pocket inside the back cover, and cream paper with around a 6mm rule. Except that the Piccadilly has nicer covers, 25% more pages, costs around half as much, and, oh my stars and garters, has worlds better paper.

 

First, the covers. Moleskine covers are, generally, a solid color. I've seen a few branded versions, but by and large, I haven't seen a lot of selection. Piccadilly, on the other hand, has (in addition to a few solid colors) an extensive series of really attractive printed covers. I've only seen a few on the shelves at Barnes and Noble, but wandering around their site, it looks like they have on the order of a hundred different designs; and, given that the three-pack I got has three different covers and only one of them is on the Piccadilly web site, I think that it's in actuality 100 three-design sets of covers. Or, if you want, you can get a solid dark blue cover, as you'd get on a Moleskine.

 

This is the set I got; Moleskine (in blue) shown for scale (we're fresh out of bananas):

 

The color and rule on the pages is quite similar. I believe, in this image, the Piccadilly is the one towards the top; I'm honestly not sure, and even holding the books up a second time, I'm a little stymied:

 

The paper takes ink quite well; I'm a sucker for stub nibs, and even when putting down a fair amount of ink, I don't see feathering, show-through, or bleed-through (aside from a wee dot from Noodler's Hellfire, which in my admittedly brief experience seems to be good for that kind of thing):

 

And, on the back:

 

And, of course, this is what I've come to expect in a Moleskine:

 

So, in all, I'm really, really happy with the Piccadilly memo books. And for roundabout half the price of similarly-sized (and much inferior quality) Moleskines, I'm calling it a big win.

[KKay]

Sounds good. Where are these notebooks made?

[thudthwacker]

Sounds good. Where are these notebooks made?

 

Just did some looking around on their site (I don't see anything on the books themselves, and I didn't save the band they were wrapped in), and it looks like they're manufactured in China (at least, their "For Retailers" page indicates that shipment will be from Shenzen, if I'm reading it right).

 

While wandering the site, I also noticed that their paper is acid-free, wood-free, and uses soy-based ink.

[KKay]

I see. Thank you for checking that out.