Notebooks with Bamboo Paper from Writersblok

I’ve been aware of these bamboo notebooks from Writersblok for a while now, but I don’t know what took me so long to get around to trying them out for a review.  These are available from Amazon.com in both ruled and blank pages in several sizes as follows:  Mini – 2.5″ x 4″,  Small – 3.25″ x 5″,  Medium – 5.5″ x 8.25″,  and Large 7.5″ x 10.25″.  For this review, you will see all of them pictured, excluding the Large which I just forgot to order when I bought these.

Bamboo Notebooks from Writersblok in Many Bright Colors

The first thing I noticed about these bamboo notebooks was that they came in a variety of sizes and nice bright colors, but depending on what size you buy, you are limited to what colors you will get.  Basically you don’t get a choice of colors when you buy the 2 packs, you just get what they have, but at least for the mini version, you get one of each available color.  The notebook covers are supposedly waterproof, however I didnt feel like testing this and possibly ruining any of these.  The next thing I noticed was the price, which I thought was pretty good in comparison to similar sized Moleskine notebooks.  A little detail on the different sizes is probably in order though, so here is a quick breakdown:

• Mini – come in packs of 5 and have 64 pages each, with the last 8 being perforated
• Small – come in packs of 4 and have 96 pages each, with the last 8 being perforated
• Medium – come in packs of 2 with 128 pages each, no perforated pages
• Large – come in packs of 2 with 128 pages each, no perforated pages

The colors available in the notebooks are lime, yellow, red, black, and white.  Each of the colored covers are flexible and waterproof, and the pages inside are made from 100% sustainable bamboo pulp paper.  In regards to the bamboo being “sustainable” I’ll leave that debate to the experts, however I do know that there are two sides to this issue, some who believe bamboo IS  a sustainable resource, and others who believe that processing bamboo into paper is a serious negative environmental issue.  My view however is that the more sources we find for everything, the better off we are in the long run.

Bamboo Notebooks from Writersblok Open Flat

When opening the medium size (pictured above) it was nice to see that it pretty much lays flat without any additional pressure put on the spine, and its nicely done thread bound binding.  The paper in these notebooks is a VERY subtle off-white or eggshell color, and the ruled marks on the page are a light grey, and the two colors together are pretty easy on the eyes.  In addition to the visually pleasing appearance of the pages, they also have nicely rounded corners.  The ruling on the pages are about .25″ wide, while the top and bottom margins are each about .5″ wide.

The Writersblok Logo at the Bottom of each Page

One thing I’m never a big fan of is when a company over-brands their product.  In the case of the Writersblok Bamboo Notebooks, they do put their logo at the bottom of each page but because of the color and size I dont find it at all bothersome.  They also have a very faint stamp on the bottom back cover of each notebook, which I tried to photograph, but I couldn’t get it to show up because it was so subtle.

Bamboo Paper Writing Sample

The bamboo paper in this notebook is 80 gsm, and it managed to do pretty well with all of the different pens and inks that I tried in it including liquid ink pens, gel ink pens, and fountain pens.  The only two pens that showed feathering or any issues at all really were the Papermate Liquid Expresso and the Pilot Razor Point, if you click on the photo of the writing sample above you can see a close up of those two and all of the others.  All of the pens that I wrote with wrote very smoothly on the bamboo paper, with no scratchy or toothy feeling.

Show through with the Bamboo Paper from Writersblok

On the back side of the Writersblok bamboo paper, you can see that most of the pens and inks produce a bit of show through, it isn’t horrible, however it would probably prevent me from writing on both sides in most cases.  Click on the photo above for the larger more detailed scan so you can see for yourself.  None of the inks bled through to the next page though, so that is a positive.  Overall I do really like these bamboo notebooks, and especially for the price in comparison to most Moleskine notebooks.  One thing I will be doing in the future though is a comparison of this Writersblok mini bamboo notebook to the Moleskine Volant mini which I currently use as a way to keep track of all those things I’d probably forget about during the course of the day if I didn’t write them down in there.  Look for that review a few weeks from now as I’ve just started using the bamboo paper Writersblok version recently.  Again, if you are looking to pick any of these up, I grabbed mine from Amazon where they have the Writersblok Bamboo Notebooks in all of the sizes, ruled and plain.

©2016, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.