all writers need notebooks even if you do the majority of your writing on the
computer it's good to have a notebook something physical to jot down all your
ideas if you talk to ten different writers they'll give you ten different
ways on how to use a notebook so I'm not gonna get into that today today we are
gonna talk about the best notebooks and when we think of the best notebooks too
often comes to mind moleskin and Leuchttrum 1917 I think that's how you say it
electrum plectrum I always wanted a really nice notebook but it's hard to
splurge on one and I know that a lot of you feel the same way then I thought hey
I'm a writer my expenses are pretty low I got a pen I got a paper I could be a
writer it's like why why shouldn't I have a nice notebook so now you decided
that hey yes I am gonna get a really nice notebook that I'm gonna write in
everyday but which one should I get should I get the moleskin or should I
get the Leuchttrum 1917 well I went ahead and I splurged and I got both of them
but I want to share my experience with you today so I can help you decide which
one is the right one for you so let's do it let's get right to it so this is the
most skin classic collection plain notebook it has 240 plain pages at 13 by
21 centimeters 5 by 8 and a quarter inches behind the label there's this
area for you to write down your travel experience or where you've been so this
book is clearly made for someone who is traveling although it's not clearly
marketed as such this notebook has a one-string bookmark and also a foldable
pocket in the back that contained a pamphlet with the history a moleskin if
you're interested in that feels very nice in my hand it's very sturdy I think
it could take a beating in my backpack no problem
the cover is a little hard it's not particularly that nice to hold I
expected something a little softer that feels a little nicer when I grip it it
has this elastic band strap to keep your book close and like I mentioned before
all the pages are blank I don't know how I grabbed this one it's not completely
ideal because my writing is a little messy when I open it I do find that the
binding is a little bit tight on certain pages it's just something I have to
break in and the pages I find that it feels kind of glossy and it's a bit thin
overall I think this is a fine notebook for $24 I'm I'm not convinced but let's
go and Leuchttrum 1917 this is the electrum 1917 notebook it has 251 dotted
pages and this is a bonus the pages are numbered that's nice to know
it actually comes with a lot of features it comes with a table of contents which
I don't know if I'll ever use because I never use a notebook in any logical way
twelve perforated sheets expandable pockets
much like the moleskin has in the back here it also comes with AE look to
separate string bookmarks are you kidding me
look at this - oh it's slightly bigger than the moleskin one which I don't know
if I actually need it to be a bit bigger but it is at 14.5 by 21 centimeters it
costs $24 Canadian retail price which is exactly the same as the moleskin one
honestly off the bat I like the feel of this one a lot more the cover is a
little bit softer and the pages I feel like they're not as smooth and glossy as
the moleskin one
maybe just by a little bit it's a little easier to turn to grip it and flip the
pages I'm actually really impressed by the Leuchttrum 1917 I've heard a lot of
good things about moleskin but I feel like for writers this this feels this
feels good I feel like I would go with this but I'm getting ahead of myself
with these two notebooks let's put them through the ultimate notebook test and
that's the pen test let's try it with different pens and see how it performs
with each one all right I use five different pens on these notebooks to see
which one performed the best which one surprised me which one was a little bit
disappointing and I also wanted to see how these two notebooks took the ink did
it bleed through to the other side and leave a lot of ghosting that's something
I wanted to know so I know which pen I should actually used on these notebooks
so I I chose five different types of pen I chose the classic blue bic ballpoint
pen I choose the Paper Mate ultrafine felt pen then I used the paper made
erasable gel pen and then the energy gel metal point rollerball gel pen and
finally the pilot kikuno fountain pen perhaps the most surprising one is the
classic BIC ballpoint pen that I'm going to actually perform really well it
wasn't super fun to write with just because it is made out of very cheap
material but the paper took the ink really well and the pen just wrote
pretty smoothly it performed great for both of them and so it goes to show that
if you have a nice notebook you don't really need a really good pen any pen
would do the BIC just get yourself like a pack of 20 big ballpoint pens for like
five dollars and that will be fine the disappointment to me was the erasable
gel pen it was unpleasant to use the ink didn't really come out that clearly on
the paper unless you're really into keeping your notebook like clean and
organized instead of scratching out a mistake
like a chaotic good person like me would do
I wouldn't use an erasable gel pen on it it's just not worth it it's just not
pleasant readings something that's sort of if it looks kind of faded but the one
that came out the best for both these notebooks was the energem metal point
rollerball gel pen it was just a really smooth writing experience I felt as
clean and smooth as if I was writing with the fountain pen but the fountain
pen it it tends to get a little messy with the ink getting everywhere so that
is actually to me a good choice if what you're looking for is a nice smooth
writing experience with these notebooks however here's the ultimate test with
these notebooks how does the ink hold on the page and if you plan on writing on
both sides of the page with these notebooks this is an important thing to
consider it's like which pen do you use and how well does the page itself
contain the ink you don't want the ink bleeding over to the other side if
renders it completely useless and therefore you can only use one page if
you choose to use that pen so here let's take a look at the moleskin one as you
can see all the pens are visible but the one that got through the most is the
damn it is the energem metal point rollerball gel pen let's take a look at
the Leuchttrum 1917 one now it performed a little bit better I would say than the
moleskin however it was the energem metal point rollerball gel pen that
seemed to leak through the most even more than the fountain pen in my opinion
that is something to consider if you were to choose Pat's pen huh you can't
have everything however in terms of ghosting cages overall I do feel like
the Leuchttrum 1917 performed a little bit better than the moleskin one maybe
it's because of the dots I don't know maybe because it's just hard to say the
batch just Mike's so what's the verdict it's clear to me that like from night
18:17 is a better value for writers if they're looking for a nice notebook at
$24 each these are too pricy notebook but this one just to me has more like
moleskin has a lot of clout these days maybe because the brand name is a little
easier to say than this one just off of my initial experience as soon as I'm
done writing and these filling these books with my brilliant ideas I do think
I'm gonna go with another Leuchttrum 19:17 this is a really nice notebook I really
like it a lot so I think what I need to do next is compare one of these really
nice notebooks with like a cheap dollar store one to see where the quality
actually suffers if I was to buy like a cheap one I think that will be an
interesting review let me know if you're interested in seeing that if you are
subscribe I'm going to start working on that right away
but till then let me know what notebooks you are currently using
I would love some recommendations your own personal opinion please share it in
the comments below and before you go check out this playlist for some writing
tips and tricks alright I'll see you guys there