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I was picking up some nice Staples copy paper (see another post for details on this) and stumbled upon a hard back composition book with paper made in Brazil...for only $1. I picked up a couple as I need a hard back for the wet days here in Oregon. I grabbed a red and a black cover and are wide ruled (I may sneak back and grab a couple more, but I have a plethora of Brazilian books and I am risking a grumpy -but amazing -wife).

Brian Goulet just made an awesome video on "Back to School", a guide for using fountain pens in school. It's something that I've been looking for and this summer I just got into fountain pens. The video is very informative. http://www.inknouveau.com/2014/08/fp101-back-to-school-shopping.html One thing I want to point out, everyone says that if you write in cursive it will improve your memory because you have to concentrate more on what you're writing, I disagree with this. I write everything in cursive and I have done so for years now, so writing in cursive is effortless for me, no it's not gorgeous, but I do not concentrate very hard on this. The concept is that you have to be concentrating harder, the study was also conducted with people who don't normally write in cursive. So if you're like me and write in cursive all the time, switch to writing in print, I find I concentrate harder when doing so and I remember things better when I switch to print because I'm not used to forming the letters in print. I could be entirely wrong here so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong I don't mind. =) Also, today I picked up four cheap Composition notebooks from Wal-Mart. Three were made in Brazil, the other was made in Vietnam.....Holy....Cow. I am shocked at the differences. The one from Vietnam threhad more tooth and wasn't smooth, it was more absorbent and feathered badly. The three from Brazil feathered VERY little, and there was hardly any bleed through. Like none. A few spots here and there from where I started the stroke or ended it. The paper was very smooth, more tooth than Rhodia, but still very smooth. The pens stayed truer to their marked size. I wrote with three pens. 1. Monteverde Impressa with Fine nib, the ink was Diamine Ancient Copper 2. Noodler's Ahab with flex nib, the ink was Diamine Ancient Copper 3. Pilot Metropolitan with M nib, the ink was Diamine Grey The Grey had the overall least amount of bleed through. These notebooks were on sale for $.50! I did find several ones made in Brazil that had more tooth to them, I didn't purchase them so I don't know how they perform, the three from Brazil that I bought had very smooth paper. So be aware, it seems as if even the ones from Brazil aren't made as consistently as one might think.