Bombay Journal From Barnes & Noble

[Bookman]

 

Let me cut to the chase. I love this journal. Perhaps I would love most handmade journals with plain leather covers and parchment paper, and I presume many others are available. But I couldn't swear to it because I didn't shop around. I saw this at Barnes & Noble and it was love at first sight.

 

Maybe it's the romantic in me, but I when I look at it, when I touch and smell the leather, when I write on the parchment, I feel as though I'm harking back to a bygone age. In this sense it seems a perfect companion to the fountain pen.

 

I've pressed mine into service as a travel journal, and so it might take a couple of years to fill it and put it through all its paces and abuses. My review is based on 11 pages of writing with a Pelikan M215 sporting a 0.5mm cursive italic nib, loaded with Sailor Jentle Blue, and brief test-writing with five other pen-ink combinations on one of the two extra, loose sheets that came with this journal.

 

 

 

 

I bought the large (A5) brown Bombay Journal, made in India exclusively for Barnes & Noble and sold under its trademarked line of "Punctuate" products. It cost $16.95. (The A6 version costs $12.95.) As you can see, the cover is smooth leather, dark brown, and unadorned. Inside, the leather has a suede look and feel, as you'll see in a subsequent photo. The binding is durably sewn. A long, thin, matching leather closure strap is attached, wraps around twice, and ties loosely, relying on leather-friction and prudent handling to keep it closed. The parchment pages are watermarked, a yellowish tan color, they are unlined, and there are 256 of them.

 

Without writing too small and creating a school-of-fish effect, I estimate that, on average, I could fit about 330 words per page, which would come to about 84,000 words cover-to-cover for $16.95. On a page in my Levenger Ledgerdomain Journal my estimated average is 430 words, or roughly 88,000 words for $30. I can fit 650 words on a page in my Moleskine A4 Folio, or roughly 114,000 words for $25, which makes the latter quite a bargain. Words, words, words. I do enjoy a bargain; and the paper in a Moleskine A4 Folio is smooth and fountain pen friendly. But writing in them positively bores me silly.

 

Unlike hardback journals and even a few softcovers, this one doesn't come with a pocket in the back nor with a ribbon bookmark. Until I looked at the PDF paper-review form and saw spaces to check for these two items, I hadn't noticed their absence in my Bombay Journal because, frankly my dears, I just didn't give a darn, and more importantly, a pocket and a ribbon marker would have destroyed the elegance of this journal's simplicity, like painting a Rolex watch on Mona Lisa's wrist.

 

 

 

 

The parchment is slightly textured on the watermark side, and each pen-ink combination produced more auditory feedback than they do on smooth paper. I felt a bit of drag at times with my Pelikan M215, with its 0.5mm cursive italic nib, but a slight shift in the angle cured it. The other nibs, including the 0.7mm cursive italic on my Waterman Phileas, scooted right across the page. I didn't time-test the inks, but all six I used dried rather quickly.

 

None of the six pen-ink combinations feathered. Four produced moderate show-through. The show-through for the Waterman Phileas/Waterman Havana and Waterman Kultur/MB Irish Green combinations was moderately-severe while writing and severe when making large dots. However, I saw nothing that would discourage me from writing on the other side of a page or, worse, prevent my buying another Bombay Journal for myself or as a gift for someone else.

 

 

 

I love the look of this thing. I love the very idea of it. But it does have an inherent drawback. Since it doesn't lie flat, and because the block of pages is so high, writing legibly on the back side of a sheet at the beginning of the journal can be challenging. But if you wanted ease and speed and convenience, you wouldn't be writing with a fountain pen in the first place. Having to slow down and take care to write on the back sides legibly must certainly put me in good company. I wish I had a list of every notable person in the past who encountered the same minor, momentary inconvenience, writing in a journal like this one.

 

Conclusion: Highly recommended.

[dfollett_98]

Bookman:

 

Excellent review and photos. Your handwriting is also very pleasing to my eyes.

 

You sure get a lot of product for that price. I'm going to have to make a trip to my local Barnes and Noble to see if they stock this item.

 

Thanks very much for the review and photos. Enjoy your beautiful new journal.

 

Don

[K. Cakes]

That journal is beautiful, and very well priced. I would definitely pick one of these up if only I didn't need guides to keep a straight line while writing! Nice review though, I think these might make great holiday gifts.

[Bookman]

That journal is beautiful, and very well priced. I would definitely pick one of these up if only I didn't need guides to keep a straight line while writing! Nice review though, I think these might make great holiday gifts.

 

Don't let the unlined pages deter you, K. Cakes. Up until a few weeks ago I thought I needed lines to keep my writing straight across the page. But then I thought, why does my writing have to be straight across the page? Why does handwriting have to be perfectly perpendicular to the edge of a page? I did the following exercise, and I urge you to do so. Take a few sheets of blank paper and fill each side with freewriting, minding the direction you're trying to write in, minding your line-spacing, minding your margins. When I did this, my lines weren't perfectly straight; and the line-spacing varied a little, up and down the page and from page to page. But I found the experience liberating. I don't need my handwriting to be perfectly straight across the page anymore. I don't need my line-spacing to be uniform anymore. I enjoy unlined pages now. I saw the unruled sheets in this Bombay Journal and instead of thinking, oh I need lines I can't buy this, as I certainly would've up till a few weeks ago, I thought, ohhhh baby. I still write on ruled pages. But I don't need them anymore, and I'm thankful I don't.

[inkstainedruth]

Roughly how many pages are in the journal? I like unlined pages, and they're harder to find. But I also like inexpensive... if this had a good number of pages it might be worth me looking at them. Especially since they seem to be relatively FP friendly.

The best journals I ever had were hardbound ones from Michael Roger Press on recycled paper, but they don't seem to be available in the Pittsburgh area anymore. Which is too bad because they were a good value for the money. I wrote to the company at one point but they said that around here they were only available at one bookstore (which has since closed).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bookman]

Roughly how many pages are in the journal? I like unlined pages, and they're harder to find. But I also like inexpensive... if this had a good number of pages it might be worth me looking at them. Especially since they seem to be relatively FP friendly.

The best journals I ever had were hardbound ones from Michael Roger Press on recycled paper, but they don't seem to be available in the Pittsburgh area anymore. Which is too bad because they were a good value for the money. I wrote to the company at one point but they said that around here they were only available at one bookstore (which has since closed).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

There are 256 pages.

[K. Cakes]

That journal is beautiful, and very well priced. I would definitely pick one of these up if only I didn't need guides to keep a straight line while writing! Nice review though, I think these might make great holiday gifts.

 

Don't let the unlined pages deter you, K. Cakes. Up until a few weeks ago I thought I needed lines to keep my writing straight across the page. But then I thought, why does my writing have to be straight across the page? Why does handwriting have to be perfectly perpendicular to the edge of a page? I did the following exercise, and I urge you to do so. Take a few sheets of blank paper and fill each side with freewriting, minding the direction you're trying to write in, minding your line-spacing, minding your margins. When I did this, my lines weren't perfectly straight; and the line-spacing varied a little, up and down the page and from page to page. But I found the experience liberating. I don't need my handwriting to be perfectly straight across the page anymore. I don't need my line-spacing to be uniform anymore. I enjoy unlined pages now. I saw the unruled sheets in this Bombay Journal and instead of thinking, oh I need lines I can't buy this, as I certainly would've up till a few weeks ago, I thought, ohhhh baby. I still write on ruled pages. But I don't need them anymore, and I'm thankful I don't.

 

You are very right! I went out earlier today and picked up the smaller sized one in black leather. It looks even nicer in person. Thank you so much for the review.

[lovemy51]

thx for the post, Bookman. i always wondered about these, but didn't think they were FP friendly. it is handsome :clap1: .

[inkstainedruth]

I looked at these over the weekend. The larger size one was a little bigger than I want for pages (and all of the journals were shrink-wrapped ). There was one of the smaller size ones, and it was open. I couldn't tell how well the signatures were sewn in on it, and I wasn't overly enamored of the yellow pages (although brown or sepia ink would probably look quite nice).

Looked at a whole lot of other journals there as well. The soft-cover fake leather bound notebooks from Miquelrius were nice and fat, but only seem to be carried at B&N -- or at least that particular one -- with graph paper. The girl at the customer service desk didn't seem capable of being able to check to see if they had different ones at other locations -- which is a strong possibility: my husband really likes the 8-1/2" x 11" spiral-bound Miquelrius notebooks that have regular lined pages, unlined (I think) pages and graph paper pages in one notebook, and has *only* been able to find them at a B&N in Massachusetts....

I ended up making notes about prices and page counts of various brands, but not buying any (I don't need a new journal yet, and I already have a replacement volume ready to go -- a "what ever brand of stationery supplies they had on clearance at Office Max a couple of weeks ago" journal).

Although I do have a query in to the Miquelrius-USA website about the fake leather soft-cover ones (their website shows regular lined pages, as well as more cover colors than just black and red, and in three different page counts).

The Bombay Journals are definitely something to keep in mind, though, if you want a leather cover: the smaller 4" x 6" size would maybe be nice for travel if you're at a premium for packing space (and a whole lot FP-friendlier paper than a similar looking 3" x 4" hand-made one I bought in August for around the same price).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[penultress]

I've seen these gorgeous journals at Barnes & Noble, but haven't picked up any. Thanks to your review, I will add this to my journal collection!

Nice handwriting, too. I also like the Sailor Jentle Blue ink.

[Bookman]

That journal is beautiful, and very well priced. I would definitely pick one of these up if only I didn't need guides to keep a straight line while writing! Nice review though, I think these might make great holiday gifts.

 

Don't let the unlined pages deter you, K. Cakes. Up until a few weeks ago I thought I needed lines to keep my writing straight across the page. But then I thought, why does my writing have to be straight across the page? Why does handwriting have to be perfectly perpendicular to the edge of a page? I did the following exercise, and I urge you to do so. Take a few sheets of blank paper and fill each side with freewriting, minding the direction you're trying to write in, minding your line-spacing, minding your margins. When I did this, my lines weren't perfectly straight; and the line-spacing varied a little, up and down the page and from page to page. But I found the experience liberating. I don't need my handwriting to be perfectly straight across the page anymore. I don't need my line-spacing to be uniform anymore. I enjoy unlined pages now. I saw the unruled sheets in this Bombay Journal and instead of thinking, oh I need lines I can't buy this, as I certainly would've up till a few weeks ago, I thought, ohhhh baby. I still write on ruled pages. But I don't need them anymore, and I'm thankful I don't.

 

You are very right! I went out earlier today and picked up the smaller sized one in black leather. It looks even nicer in person. Thank you so much for the review.

 

You're welcome.

[Bookman]

I've seen these gorgeous journals at Barnes & Noble, but haven't picked up any. Thanks to your review, I will add this to my journal collection!

Nice handwriting, too. I also like the Sailor Jentle Blue ink.

 

You're welcome. I loved this Bombay Journal so much I couldn't stand the idea of not writing in it every day, using it only as a travel journal. So I bought another one last week to use as my regular journal.

 

Bluntly put, I have never actually enjoyed writing in any journal before. I can get lost in my writing in any medium and can therefore find enjoyment in my expression. But every journaling medium I've used—computer, hardbound journals, manufactured spiralbound notebooks, semi-homemade spiralbound FedEx Kinko's notebooks—has been an unexciting means to an end. Until now, that is.

 

In my seemingly never-ending quest to find some pleasurable (as opposed to satisfactory) journaling medium, I bought a Levenger Ledgerdomain Journal online a few weeks ago. It so underwhelmed me I elected to shelve it fewer than ten pages in. To replace it I bought another Moleskine A4 Folio, a product I'd used satisfactorily before, although to try and spice things up I bought an unlined one for a change; and while I do recommend the Moleskine A4 Folio and declare they are satisfactory, I must say I've never found them pleasurable. And perhaps because my previous A4 Folios were unexciting—and in fact this new one would simply have been a better version of the Levenger Ledgerdomain that underwhelmed me—I kept the wrapper on it and I forced myself to keep using the Levenger, hoping I would eventually learn to live with it and avoid flushing the price of it down the toilet. But then I wrote in my travel Bombay Journal and I realized what I'd been missing, the pleasure I'd been looking for and that I was entitled to have. At which point I concluded that, under the circumstances, I could more easily live with flushing my Levenger journal down the toilet than continuing to write in it. I returned it to the shelf, returned my unused A4 Folio for a refund, and bought a new Bombay Journal.

 

I love this journal. Writing in it is a pleasure.

[legume]

Thank you so much for the review! I've had this journal sitting on my bookself forever and I wasn't sure it was fp friendly.

[J.R.]

Just got mine today (B&N is a long trip, for me) - I got a couple of the journals, along with two or three more, that looked like bargains. Since they're only a few hours old, it's only a first impression, but... The paper isn't what "I" call parchment, it is, however, very friendly and when I open the leather, it just invites me to write.

 

Thank you, Bookman, for telling everyone about the terrific journals, and the bargain that they so genuinely are !

 

My first one will be for memories...should anyone bother to go through my "junk" when I'm gone, they might be tempted to hold on to it. Or, maybe not, I don't care, it's just for me anyway.

 

Gotta go, I've got ink to spill !

 

Take care,

JR

[PenCity.com]

Wow, that is a really good looking journal. Thanks for the review. I'm going to have to sample this merchandise!

[Arkhangelsk]

Hopefully this doesn't count as thread necromancy.

I picked up a copy for myself recently as I read your review, and I'm a huge fan of smaller, 'pocket-size' leather-bound journals. I was using a rustico prior, and put up a review of it myself. The problem with that one was that it was a glued spine, so it would not lay flat *at all*.

 

That and the paper was not fountain pen friendly in the slightest. Feathering, bleedthrough, you name it.

 

Not entirely the case with this one! Now I did buy the smaller one as well, and yes, the thicker bundle of the paper is a challenge to work with at first, that actually just motivates me to write in it more to get past that hurdle.

 

I also discovered a trait in the paper itself concerning the unlined nature of it.

 

On the one hand, your philosophy concerning handwriting not needing to be perfectly straight is liberating. On the other, such symmetry can be rather pleasing to the eye. In the journal I purchased, the parchment paper has these ridges, or slight bumps to them that you can use to a certain extent to keep your lines rather straight. A sort of touch line if that makes any sense.

 

So yes, while the journal is far from 'perfect' if one wishes to use that term, you get a lot of bang for your buck. Should; and god forbid, you lose it, the investment would not yield a major loss. Similar to the reason I use a $20 Noodler's flex pen at the moment. I could drop a couple hundred on a Pilot or Waterman flex nib, but should I happen to lose it....

 

Anyways, as a contributory gesture I've attached a couple of pics here, and to display my horrendous growing pains in relearning my cursive, scarring the perfect face of these pages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ScottT]

Reviving an almost year-old thread? Probably does, but then again, this IS the month for things like that!

 

Your cursive looks better than mine, I like the variations too. I'm assuming that's the flex aspect causing the variations?

 

I was just in a B&N last week, now I have an excuse to return..bwaahaahaa!

[Arkhangelsk]

The flex pen I am using right this moment is an Ahab Flex Pen by Noodler's that I picked up on Friday. The previous photos that are shown were with the 'Creaper' model which requires much more exertion to get the thick/thin variations.

 

Here are a couple of photo's of a couple of entry header's I've put up.

 

 

 

 

 

The writing style is modeled after user: "fifthblackbird" and a couple of videos up on youtube, one was made for this site apparently, and I haven't seen it since I made a still a couple of days ago.

 

The other is by Leigh Reyes,

 

 

 

Called "Strange Overtones Calligraphic Tribute"

[bogiesan]

Barnes and Nobel once had a refillable version of a similarly wrap-around journal. It was about 20 years ago they had a cahier-style refills (some of them are still on the shelves) in three sizes, lined and unlined, to fit an entire line of covers. I purchased many for friends' birthdays and xmasses. This unit appears to have the paperblock permanently stitched in.

 

B&N offers a nice selection of journals, notebooks and diaries from a wide variety of mfrs. You might also visit your locally owned bookseller. Here in Boise, we have Rediscovered Books, one of the only remaining independent sellers. They have some notebooks no one else sells.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Thread revived again after almost another month. I got one of these, and have to say it does make a good first impression. I'm less than half done with my current journal, so I'm not really ready to start on this one, but I did fill both sides of one of those two loose sheets. It was an interesting idea for them to include them, although if they were going to include any loose sheets, they might have made it a few more. I don't know if they count as two of the 256 pages, but I suspect not. Of course, I realize that counting them is an option, but I get bored easily.

 

The paper has a very slightly rough feel, but not enough to be unpleasant. No show through with the pens that I tried, no feathering. I like the yellowing color, and the texture. I'm already thinking of getting a couple more of them, although I'm not going to run through all my unused journals and notebooks for several years at least. The unlined paper is not really an issue, in fact I rather like writing this way. My current main journal, a Franklin Christoph, has graph paper, which was probably not the best choice for me.