The notebook obsession: Pt. 2

(Pt. 1 is here.)

I was craving one of the larger Traveler’s Notebooks at this point. One that would give me more room to draw and plan. And I liked the slightly thinner cover the originals have in comparison to the Renaissance Art journal. (Don’t get me wrong, I love it to pieces. But I wanted something different and more like the real Midoris for the larger notebook.)

I kept looking at the prices and thinking “No, I can’t justify buying one.” But I didn’t want to get one of the “fauxdoris”, either. The thing about Midoris is that they are a bit like Apple products in that they are not just nice products, but they are beautifully designed and packaged and they feel a bit like a treasure to open. Fake Midoris often do not have that quality, though of course some do, and many of them just looked… cheap. The ones that didn’t were expensive, like real Midoris. And even the ones that looked good usually didn’t have that quality of “vintage notebook that Indiana Jones would probably carry around” that I was looking for.

So then, I received an unexpected Amazon gift card. Surprise! I thought about what I would spend it on. A Midori? But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. And then I found this. A set of two notebooks and a pen holder from ZLYC. I was skeptical — surely they had to be cheap crap. I looked in the reviews and was surprised to see that they were almost universally positive, and didn’t appear to all be shills, either. On top of it all, the notebooks are the same size as Midoris (and almost an exact look-alike). I thought about it for a while, then took the plunge, ordering a set in Dark Coffee. Here’s what I got:

The journals and pen holder come in this cute little bag. (They are also wrapped in plastic, but I had removed that before taking the pic.)

One Traveler’s size journal, one Passport journal, one pen case.

The large journal came with two graph inserts, a calendar, and a plastic card holder/pocket insert.

The calendar insert is a “free calendar”; you can use it for any month you want.

This shows how nicely the ZLYC journals use elastic to hold the inserts. This is the Passport journal.

The ZLYC journal came with these kraft inserts.

Both ZLYC journals. As you can see, the leather scratches if you look at it funny. But that’s OK. It will develop character as I use it.

The texture inside the cover shows the color a bit better. These are “Dark Coffee,” a very dark brown, but it tends to photograph a bit bluish.

Let’s just say I was impressed. The leather was perfect — thin and flexible and yet with some good heft to it. It is nice to hold on to. It smelled good, not of chemicals or mildew. They were put together nicely, and each book came with three random inserts (plus an extra plastic pocket insert in the large book).

The large book had a two graph inserts, a free calendar, and the pocket insert; the small book had all kraft paper inserts. I was thrilled, and immediately started customizing the large book. I may use the small one as a gift since I already have the other from Renaissance Arts.

And now, a few days later, here’s what I have!

Since it’s a Traveler’s Notebook, I found an airplane charm in a box of really old earrings, and added it to the front of the journal.

You can see how the leather on this gets scuffs and scratches. Eventually the wear will tell its own story.

The ZLYC inserts have kraft paper covers. I put a lot of random stuff on mine.

I’m experimenting with the Spiraldex system for keeping track of your time. This page is rough because I was figuring out how to draw it.

This little DIY bookmark was inspired by Patrick Ng’s post at Scription. It’s made from a luggage tag, and seemed appropriate for a “traveler’s” book. Not very fancy but kind of fun.

I made a bookmark out of orange/white baker’s twine (to match the elastic) and a charm I had.

Here you can see a couple of differences from the Midori. The closure elastic is attached at the spine instead of the middle of the back cover. And the bead at the top that holds it together is a bit different.

This shows the bookmark when the book is closed. The charm is a beacon, or a lighthouse if you prefer.

And here’s the ZLYC notebook from the top down. Not jammed quite as full as my passport-sized book.

I’m terribly happy with it so far. It’s the perfect weight and feel in the hands, and it’s easy to write in. The paper is lovely — at least, the graph paper is. (Haven’t written on the other yet.) I’ve tested it with fountain pens, gel pens, all kinds of pens, and it doesn’t bleed through. It’s very smooth to write on. I’m going to have to find more of the graph inserts!

I got a Midori blank paper insert for it and swapped it in for one of the graph paper ones, since I don’t need both at the same time. It fits perfectly.

I have a feeling I’m going to be carrying this one around for a long time. But now I’ve seen the blue limited-edition Midori notebook — uh oh. Must. use. self-control.

Both notebooks I’m using now. One ZLYC, one Renaissance Art. Someday, a real Midori! But I love these.

2 thoughts on “The notebook obsession: Pt. 2”

Thomas Xavier says:

Friday, Dec 11 2015 at 8:28 pm

My 2 Zlyc notebooks arrived, leather is decent in quality & I am generally happy with it, I look forward to getting it scratched up and broken in.
Regarding the paper; I tried the ruled & I got a lot of feathering and slight bleedthrough. No issues with extra fine dry writers though. Maybe a different batch?
litlnemo says:

Saturday, Jan 23 2016 at 6:22 pm

I didn’t get the ruled paper, just the graph and kraft (and calendar). So maybe the ruled paper is different.

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