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Review: Monsieur Notebooks + Giveaway

By Karina, on September 26th, 2011

Brand: Monsieur Notebook

Size: A6 – 11 x 14.5 cm
A5 – 14.8 x 21 cm
A4 – 21 x 29.8 cm

Pages: 192 pages

Price: A6 – £9.99 ($15-16 USD)
A5 – £12.99 ($20-21 USD)
A4 – £21.99 ($34-35 USD)

Markings: Monsieur logo on the lower right hand corner of the back cover.

Features: Authentic leather cover, elastic band enclosure, ribbon page marker, comes in ruled or plain paper, sketchbook with 140gsm Cartridge paper also available, 3 different colours: black, tan and brown. According to the Monsieur website, starting this month, they have also introduced a limited range of landscape notebooks available + more colour variety, including green, red, turquoise among other colours.

Pros: Fantastic leather cover + great colours, good paper, elastic band closure, ribbon page marker, classic and simple look – very aesthetically pleasing.

Cons: No pocket and the ribbon page marker is unfortunately already fraying and I haven’t even really used the notebook yet.

Where to buy: Online you can buy these at Papernation – the shop is based in the UK, but they do ship worldwide. For a list of retail shops that carry Monsieur notebooks, check here.

Recommended? Yes

 

Size wise, the A5 Monsieur is comparable in length to a Large sized Moleskine, but as you can see, it is a bit larger in width. I’m beginning to really enjoy wider width notebooks – they add more room without actually making the notebook look or feel much larger than the more average sized A5′s out there (Moleskine, Rhodia).

Aside from the cover, the next best thing, in my opinion, is the design given to the front page – simple, yet classic. Perhaps you enjoy a more minimalistic approach, but I do think that the subtle design gives it a more luxurious feel. Plus, it’s a beautiful geometric inspired design – what’s not to like? I’d plaster my house in geometric designs if I could.

The leather cover of the notebook is nice – it’s harder than a softcover and yet much softer than a hardcover – I’m not sure what to call it, it’s somewhere in between. But because it is real leather, the cover will, over time give in and become a nice, easily bendable softcover. The edges have that nice rough leather feel which I think adds quite a bit to the overall look of the notebook. Appearance wise, the Monsieur gets a perfect 10.

When you first open the notebook, it’s a bit stiff, but the people behind Monsieur Notebook encourages us to bend it back – “If you want it to lie flat, bend the book back on itself. It can take the strain; they’re stronger than you think.” Although I am usually very careful with bending stiff notebooks, for the fear of breaking them completely, I took their advice and gave my Monsieur a few hard bends. And that is the outcome. Just as strong as before, and now lying perfectly flat, just the way I like it.

As for the paper, it seems to do quite well under a variety of different pens. The paper itself feels very smooth, with just enough grain to not make fountain pen inks, gel pens and markers run.

There is a bit of show through from markers and the medium tip fountain pen, but nothing that one couldn’t deal well with. Even the Sharpie did okay, when compared to how it does on the paper of other notebooks.

And, if any notebook should get a reward for it’s logo – it’s Monsieur. I mean, really? How awesome is that!

I think you do – and it’s very simple to win this lovely pocket, ruled Monsieur. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Leave one comment on this post, anytime between today and the night of Sunday, October 2nd, at 11:59PM Eastern Time. Only one entry per person please. If you have a blog, I’d appreciate it if you would spread the word, but it’s not required in order to win.

2. The winner will be picked at random, using the Random Generator at random.org. The comments will be numbered in the order they are received – so the first comment is #1 etc.

3. Contest winner will be posted on Monday, October 3rd. The winner will have one week to e-mail me with a shipping address, at notebooklovespen@gmail.com. If no e-mail is received within that week, I’ll use the Random Generator again, and another winner will be given a week to e-mail me, etc.

4. Contest is open to all of you, no matter what part of the world you’re from. I’ll ship anywhere, at my own expense. Package will come from Canada and will be marked as gift, for Customs purposes.

** Please note: Comments are moderated, so they will not show up automatically. Please remember, only one comment per person qualifies.

And that’s it! Good luck to everyone!

Related posts:

Notebook Reviews, Reviews
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73 comments to Review: Monsieur Notebooks + Giveaway

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