Hey stationery friends,
Every time I finish a notebook, I tell myself the next one will be different.
I have options. Good ones. And yet somehow, every time, I end up back with a thread bound Tomoe River 52gsm lined paper.
Not because I planned to. It just keeps happening.
The notebooks I’ve tried
It’s not like I haven’t experimented. Over the years I’ve gone through Leuchtturm1, Rhodia2, Midori3, Cosmo Air, Kokuyo, Mnemosyne4 – even the thicker Tomoe River variant5. Each one had something going for it. Better structure, more pages, sturdier covers.
Some of them I genuinely liked. It’s just none of them became my default.
There’s a difference between a notebook you enjoy using and a notebook you keep reaching for. I didn’t fully understand that until I noticed the pattern.
What Tomoe River actually does for ne
The paper is thin but write on it with a fountain pen and something clicks.
The nib glides. There’s no drag, no bleed, no feathering. Ink sits on the surface just long enough to dry properly and show its character.
For long-form cursive writing, it’s the most comfortable paper I’ve used. My hand doesn’t fight it. Neither does my pen. I just write.
That sounds simple. But it took me years of trying other notebooks to appreciate how much friction I was adding to a habit that’s supposed to feel natural.
Why friction (not the friction on paper) matters more than you think
When a notebook works against you – wrong size, paper that catches your nib, ink bleeding through – you notice it. Maybe not consciously. But you pick up your pen a little less often. You cut sessions short. Sometimes you switch to your phone instead. Honestly, this is where I am at right now.
The notebook that removes friction becomes the one you actually fill.
It doesn’t have to be the most beautiful one. It doesn’t have to be the one you photographed for Instagram or the one that impressed you at a pen show. It just has to be the one that gets out of your way.
For me, that’s always been Tomoe River. I’ve tried to replace it. I keep coming back to it. Of course, I still buy other notebooks. I still get curious. I am a stationery nerd after all.
But I know where I’ll end up.
What about you – do you have a notebook you always come back to, even after trying others?
🖋️, Jestine
Leuchtturm1917 notebook on Amazon
The Author notebook by GLP creations on Amazon
Always, without fail, Midori MD A6 for my journaling. Every time.
Interested in that Author notebook you linked…but $38 for me plus $15 postage. A tad exxy…
I use four notebooks (https://sites.google.com/view/paperstackpro) each one has a dedicated role, so my whole system is built around them.
I’m not looking for alternatives; this setup just works for me. They’re far more affordable and way less bloated than most of the options I’ve tried.