Bazic Premium Composition Book Mini-Review

[thudthwacker]

Sometimes, you pick up an inexpensive notebook, and you really luck out. I stumbled across iScholar notebooks that were made in Indonesia some months ago, and found some truly exemplary paper. Since then, when I see a notebook from Indonesia, if the paper feels at all smooth, I'm inclined to pick it up.

 

One such notebook is the Bazic Premium Composition Book (made in Indonesia), available in back-to-school sales for, if you're lucky, on the order of 50¢.

 

 

The paper is fairly smooth, though not in the same class as (say) Clairefontaine. It's also moderately thin, and as a result there's a bit of show-through. No feathering or bleed-through, though, and the show-through is light enough that I expect to have no trouble using both sides of a page.

 

Overall, the construction is what you'd expect from a composition notebook: sturdy cardboard black-and-white marbled cover with a little flex; sewn 100-sheet single-signature binding; handy multiplication table and various weights and measures charts printed inside the back cover.

 

On the whole, it's quite a good knockaround notebook. At well under a dollar, it's a stellar value. Alas for me that I haven't found more of them.

 

A few inks I had on hand for testing:

 

And, a bit of show-through. Nothing egregious, to my mind:

Edited August 4, 2016 by thudthwacker

[inkstainedruth]

Where do you get these? At that price I'd consider stocking up, even though I just bought some composition books a couple of weeks ago.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Orpilorp]

+1

 

Where'd you get them, where'd you get them?

[thudthwacker]

Well, I've picked up a number of books from a few different places. I think I picked this one up at Shoprite, but I confess that I'm not certain.

 

(On the plus side, Shoprite regularly carries iScholar spiral and composition notebooks, which have excellent paper as well -- so long as you're careful to get the books sourced from Indonesia. And I picked up a third of a shelf of those because they're currently selling for 25¢ each. So a trek there, even if there are no Bazic composition books, may not be devoid of value.)

[Gloucesterman]

Keep in mind that school starts in (most places) Within a month, so places like Staples and many of the chain stores, Target, Walmart, Walgreens, etc. may have very cheap prices for composition books and paper in general.

[Proto]

Bazic note cards are also extremely fountain pen friendly I've discovered, after having a terrible time with various Oxford cards.

[thudthwacker]

Keep in mind that school starts in (most places) Within a month, so places like Staples and many of the chain stores, Target, Walmart, Walgreens, etc. may have very cheap prices for composition books and paper in general.

 

Very true. And if folks find other super-cheap notebooks that are fountain pen friendly, I hope they'll share the particulars of their good fortune, that we may all descend on those establishments like vultures with very high standards in stationery.