Lamy A5 notebooks
I have to confess, I have a love/hate relationship with Lamy... I hate their pens... I must hold a pen oddly, because the moulded grip in their pens just kills my hands so much, I would rather swap to a ballpoint pen. Yes... I hate them that much!
But...
I love the notebooks. Absolutely LOVE them!
Why? Well, for a start, the paper is amazing. It will handle a fountain pen without feathering, ghosting or bleed-through. If you prefer gel pens or ballpoints, the paper's also great. If you like to use fineliners, they too work well. And if you're a graphite lover, there's enough texture on the paper to make that work too, without being so 'toothy' that the fountain pen lovers will moan.
Now, I recognise that there is one aspect of the paper that is a little odd, and which may have put some of you off... the 'both lined and grid' aspect. I admit when I first saw it, I thought, "Huh??"
For those of you who haven't explored the notebook range, the paper in them has horizontal lines at 8mm spacing, horizontal dot-grid at 4mm spacing, and vertical dot-grid at 4mm spacing:
As you can tell from the picture, the dot-grid aspect is fairly faint, and can be ignored quite easily, leaving you with 8mm ruling, essentially (with a bit of a guide if you're worrying about handwriting).
What makes me love them so much? I mean, there are other notebooks out there with amazing paper (Clairefontaine, I'm (always) looking at you). I actually really love the dot-grid bit. A lot of my notebooks get used for research, and being able to quickly draw a table is a huge bonus. The standard 5mm dot-grid books make it a wide line spacing (1cm) for when I'm making notes if I use every other line of dots, and too narrow if I use every line (5mm). The 8mm works well for me on that score.
Another way these work brilliantly, is as Bullet Journals, because there's the dot-grid aspect making it super-easy to draw layouts, and since fineliners work well without showing through to the other side, you can use quite a bit of colour too, should you so wish.
Apart from the 192 pages of 90 gsm paper, they're also well put together books. I have several of the slim books, but I also love the hardback version, which just looks fantastic. They have silver covers, with different coloured bands to keep them closed, and two, different coloured ribbon markers. The blue-banded version that I have has a navy elastic closure, a navy ribbon marker, and a lime green one. Oh, and did I mention that the edges are sprayed navy, too? The other colourways are black, or wine. Whichever colour you choose, they all look amazing.
There is also an elastic pen-loop, a gusseted pocket in the back cover, and the last few sheets are perforated in each notebook.
Soft-cover versions with blue, green, pink, or white covers are available (though stocks are low on all colourways).
Don't miss out. These really are the most fabulous books.
