Homage to the composition notebook

[blINK]

I use the Mead 5-Star College Ruled composition books made in Vietnam for journaling. I write on both sides of the paper, and so far I've found them to be fountain-pen friendly.

May I ask where you are able to find these? Once in awhile, I will find some Brazil Comp books in the local walmart. I have been eyeing the Mead books online but I haven't been able to find out the country of origin. Thanks!

[Yaakova]

May I ask where you are able to find these? Once in awhile, I will find some Brazil Comp books in the local walmart. I have been eyeing the Mead books online but I haven't been able to find out the country of origin. Thanks!

 

I pick the 9.5 x 7.5 inch books up at the local Target. They have the brightly-colored plastic covers (my current one is blue), and there's a removable sticker on the front that tells the country in which they were made. Target also carriers a smaller pocket size, 7 x 5 inch, and those are made in China. The paper is not quite as good as the larger ones - just a little show-through - but I still use my fountain pen to write in them. The main problem with the small ones is that sometimes the paper is cut crooked which makes the lines slant ever so slightly up the page. It wouldn't bother a lot of folks, but it makes me twitch.

[blINK]

Great. Thank you. Next time I am in Target, I will look for them.

[polydeucesL5@gmail.com]

My wife who teaches first grade brought home a number of unused "made in Brazil" composition notebooks at the end of May. After reading these entries I tried one with my Pilot 78G stub and Waterman black ink. The paper is definitely fp friendly and quite smooth. No bleed through on the paper. I decided though that the cover needed a little jazzing up and ordered a faux leather cover from this seller on Etsy at a reasonable price. I let you know how it works out when it arrives.

[mwpannell]

Staples has Brazilian comp books on sale for 50-cents each at the moment, or did a couple of days ago when I was in there. I use them a lot and though I have a fair supply, I picked up a couple--well, four--particularly because they had college ruled which isn't as easy to find as wide. That plus the fact it seems my nearest Staples hasn't had Brazilian paper comp books for quite a while. I especially like the quad comp books but I didn't notice those on sale.

 

Vivo Brazilian!

[Jimmy Joe]

I especially like the quad comp books but I didn't notice those on sale.

Shoot. This is the part that always gets me. I teach math, so all my work-related notebooks are quad ruled, but they seem to go on sale less often and with less of a discount than their line-ruled counterparts.

[mwpannell]

Yeah, Jimmy Joe, it's always great to be able to pick up half a dozen comp books for half a buck each, but then see that for the same money you can only get one quad comp book.

 

And polydeucesL5@gmail.com/Marcus, what a boon to get useful "free" notebooks. That's great. And that cover looks pretty interesting. After a bit of day-to-day use, could you post your impressions? If you do and put it in a new, separate post, could you mention it here with a link? Would appreciate it.

[gweimer1]

The Norcom composition notebooks from Brazil came and went in less than a day. Back to School aisles at the Walmarts here look like there's been a feeding frenzy.

[napalm]

1) The unsightly cover. That marbling is bad enough with black, and when they put other colors on them, I just find them too hideous to look at.

 

+1

[Jimmy Joe]

I had a chance to get to Staples today. Boxes of wide-ruled and college-ruled composition books made in Brazil, but not on sale. The quad-ruled ones were on sale for a dollar each. And all gone.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Jimmy Joe

[blINK]

I had a chance to get to Staples today. Boxes of wide-ruled and college-ruled composition books made in Brazil, but not on sale. The quad-ruled ones were on sale for a dollar each. And all gone.

That's crazy how Staples has different sales in different areas. Maybe based on when the kids go back to school? I was in yesterday and picked up 10 college-ruled Brazilian comp books. They were on sake for $.50 each. But in my store, the quad books were not on sale.

[dothgrin]

I found some Brazilian made composition books at Office Max yesterday and snatched up four of them. I also picked up a three pack Target's Yoobi journals for $7. They are made out of Vietnam and are not too bad if one wants an upgrade in composition books, and also handle fountain pen ink quite well. The paper is also fairly smooth.

[gweimer1]

The Walmart near me scrambled to restock - now they have the Norcom books from Columbia and the USA on sale.

[blINK]

I picked up a Columbia book yesterday to try it out. Most of them were USA made.

 

The Columbia was very good. Not as good as Brazil, but still very cooperative - and hard to beat for 50 cents.

[indigoskye]

Due to this thread, I went to my local Staples. Sure enough, the Brazilian Comp books in college rule were on sale for 50 cents each. I bought 5 of them. Now...I just need to find Brazilian quad for my bullet journal next year and I'm all set.

[Boochie]

Due to this thread, I went to my local Staples. Sure enough, the Brazilian Comp books in college rule were on sale for 50 cents each. I bought 5 of them. Now...I just need to find Brazilian quad for my bullet journal next year and I'm all set.

 

Yep. Just stumbled up on this thread but like you, I bought two of the them at Staples and bought two more at my local walmart. Spent a total of $2.00 (they were 50 cents apiece).

[dothgrin]

Time for a Staples run here this week to see if I can find some Brazilians...since school does not start here for a few more weeks I may be able to get some before the back to school carnage.

[fiberdrunk]

The Staples composition books are on sale for 50 cents online. Both the wide rule and college rule. I haven't tried these particular composition books to see how fountain pen-friendly they are. If you have Staples Rewards the shipping is free. If you don't have Rewards, then you can get free shipping by picking it up at the store. I've been hoping their Sustainable Earth comp books will go on sale.

[cellmatrix]

I've found that since last year, staples brazillian bagasse composition books and the notebooks too are not nearly as good as they used to be. The paper bleeds thru more and there is some line widening, which is especially noticeable if you use a cursive italic.

 

To answer the question of one of the posters above, office max produces a brazillian quad composition book. It is marginally better than the staples, albeit more expensive.

 

However the best cheap composition book I've come across is the 'made in india' comp books sold by dollar tree stores. Yes they cost a dollar, not fifty cents, but if you can afford the extra fifty cents per notebook, they are far better, far smoother, hold line width better and less bleed through than brazillian notebooks at either staples or office max.

 

In fact, I like the made in india dollar tree composition books so much, I bought some of the dollar tree red labeled made in india writing pads which have the same excellent paper and now its pretty much all that I write with. Personally, I like this dollar tree paper better than other papers costing far more including rhodia/clairefontaine/apica/kokoyu/tomoe river.

[napalm]

Can someone enlighten me, what peculiar characteristics are making a notebook worthy of the "composition" appelative?