Just as the Strategist did with the 100 best pens, here's a ranking of the 100 best notebooks by a variety of criteria
Photo: Stella Blackmon/New York Magazine Hardcover or soft? Leather or cloth? Spiral-bound or sewn? Are the pages gridded? Are they a comfortable writing size? Do they tear out easily? Whether you use your notebook mainly for jotting, reporting, journaling, list-making — or some Beautiful Mind–esque combination of all of the above — the details really matter. And there are so many to consider. Finding the best options can be an obsessive quest — and thus one we couldn’t resist.
Page Quality: Is the paper smooth enough for writing? Is it thin or thick? Does the weight of the page make it feel luxurious or flimsy? Is the texture soft and smooth or coarse and scratchy? Is the paper recycled/recycled-feeling? Colored or unbleached or bleached bright white? Does the ink bleed through?
Each tester used a single notebook for at least one full day for all writing needs . And to get a real feel for the experience of actually living with the thing — carrying it around and stowing it in a bag — we all brought our test notebooks to meetings and on our commutes. Here, top 100 notebooks, ranked in order. Click here to jump to the top 80, top 60, top 40, or top 20.
I typically use lined or blank pages with a stitched binding, but this dotted spiral notebook made me reconsider everything I ever thought I wanted in a notebook. It was my favorite of the ones I tested for its lovely textured cover, for the way the cover flips back over the brass-colored spiral, and for the faint dots inside, which I found even more enjoyable to write on than lined paper . It’s simultaneously stately and accessible, and using it makes me feel productive.
I love the size and shape of this notebook. The pages are super-slick — kind of like bristol board but thinner — so my pen kind of glides across the page. I also really like how this notebook packs a ton of pages into a relatively thin book. Its grid pattern is unobtrusive, and each page has a faint little date area in the top right corner.
What is there to say about the Leuchtturm1917 Medium A5 Dotted Hardcover Notebook that hasn’t been said before? It’s a classic right up there in the ranks with Mead and Moleskine and is beloved by both bullet journalers and regular note-takers alike. While I am not a bullet journaler, I have used this notebook in the past and find it to be a reliable, versatile notebook. The level of quality is high without feeling too precious. And oh, the dotted grid! I absolutely adore it.
Request price at Kickstarter Buy 15. Stalogy 016 Vintage Notebook Type: Lined Design: 4 | Page Quality: 5 | Overall Feel: 4 | The Cover: 5 Full disclosure: I was really excited when I saw that I had been assigned the LIFE notebook. As an occasional lurker in stationery sub-Reddits and fountain-pen blogs, I’d heard a lot about these cult-y Japanese notebooks. They’re really expensive, though, which is why I’ve never bought one.
I love a good spiral notebook. This one in particular will never leave my desk because it’s too clunky to fit in my bag. But I admire how large it is for writing notes. There’s so much room to let my large handwriting breathe. Plus I can write in the margins and have enough space up top to properly label each page, making it easier to go back to my notes later. I find the brand name at the bottom of each page slightly distracting.
I found this one really interesting. There’s a whole section in the front with very loose “prompts” to draw or post a picture of yourself or places you find inspiring, jot down goals and priorities, etc. I found this kind of corny at first, but I actually think it’s a really nice touch now that I’ve had some time with the notebook.
While I’m not the kind of notebook user who needs her pages compartmentalized into “action” and “notes” and “date” boxes, this spiraled number almost convinced me that I should. The softcover is not overly structured, but with 160 pages, the notebook has enough structural integrity to hold in one hand while writing with the other. And it features perforated pages, which I now realize that I always needed. —SK$13 at Amazon Buy $13 at Amazon Buy 31.
I will start this off by saying that when I got the Smythson notebook to test, I felt like I won the lottery. I’ve used one of its Panama Diaries annually for the last several years, and like countless others, I am a huge fan of the brand for its aesthetics and its functional agendas. So it started out slightly ahead of the pack of other contenders.
Functionally, this notebook is maybe the best of all, even though I don’t necessarily love spirals. That’s because I do love being able to fold my notebooks , and the spiral just makes that so easy. Plus this has an elastic on its back cover that you can use to hold the notebook folded open to the page you’re writing on. The lines are lines — they’re not too dark or light and are a bit wider to allow for bigger penmanship.
Another minimalist pick from Muji, this one has dotted pages and a strap that adds a little to the overall design — although like the other Muji notebook I tested, it’s so simple that it doesn’t particularly stand out. That said, it does its job. The pages are still a little thin but thicker than the unlined Muji notebook pages, and the dots are in an unobtrusive shade of gray that helps keep my writing neat without feeling overly restrictive the way graph paper might.
This is a hefty notebook with nice, thick paper and a vegan-leather hardback cover that feels smooth to the touch. The one I tested has a light-pink cover with a floral pattern that feels a bit juvenile and cutesy, but it would be nice for someone who’s into that. I like that it’s simple: The pages are dot-gridded and the corners are rounded, a plus for me. There are two ribbon markers, a back pocket, an elastic pen holder, and an elastic band to keep the notebook closed.
What I like: It’s about as slender as the Monocle and Paperblanks ones . It’s got more lines per page , and they’re narrower — I like a narrower line. It’s also got an accordion pocket in the back — it’s not as big as the Monocle notebook’s, but honestly, that one may be too big for what you need . And it has an elastic band to keep the notebook open.
It doesn’t get more basic than this Muji notebook. It’s a lined softcover notebook with a brown-paper cover. If you like practical, this is for you. It’s small enough to tote around almost anywhere, but it’s only 30 sheets thick, so don’t expect to use this for any real length of time. Honestly, I don’t think it would last longer than the time it takes to fill 60 pages anyway. Just sitting on my desk for a few days, where I eat lunch, this already had a couple of oil stains.
There’s lots of room to write on these pages, and they feel effortlessly designed. The dotted grid is clear to follow but not distracting, though I do wish the blue was a little lighter in color. I would be remiss if I didn’t note that the pages of these Decomposition Books are made with 100 percent recycled paper, since that’s a main selling point. But the pages still feel smooth and easy to write on. They’re fairly lightweight, and there’s minimal bleed-through.
Designed to hold a softcover five-by-eight-inch Public Supply notebook, this leather cover dresses up a basic notebook. It features credit-card-size slit pockets and a loop to hold a pen or pencil. While it’s attractive , I found that the leather-covered notebook just didn’t add much to my writing experience. The inside paper is fine — with medium thickness and stylish dotted lines — but the notebook won’t lie flat, which made it difficult to write in whether I held it in my hands or on my desk.
The brand claimed that this notebook is waterproof, so the first thing I did was pour water on it. And it did not lie. The water dribbled off the page , and I could write on it afterward. I also decided to dunk it in a cup of water, and it came out just the same. I don’t know what kind of sorcery the company used to make this notebook, but I’m very impressed. The pages have a waxy texture, but I’m assuming that has to do with their being waterproof, so it’s a painless thing to look past.
This is a basic, retro-looking spiral notebook that reminds me of something you might see in a movie that takes place at a high school in the ’70s. There’s nothing particularly nice about it. But aesthetically, if you wanted to accessorize your corduroy bell-bottoms with a notebook, this would be it. It’s squarish in size, with green-tinted pages and blue narrow-ruled lines . The paper feels like standard notebook paper, i.e., cheap and a little thin. There are no margins.
Full disclosure: This notebook has been one of my go-tos for a while now. As far as simple, standard full-size lined notebooks are concerned, I’ve always bounced between this Moleskine Cahier and those Muji ones. I prefer the Moleskine because it’s a bit bigger and just feels a little more interesting. It’s a pretty big notebook, just a tiny bit smaller than a standard-size sheet of notebook paper, but for me that’s ultimately the most comfortable size to write in.
The gridded pages on this notebook are fine and certainly don’t feel overdesigned. They go from edge to edge, and the lines themselves mostly aren’t distracting. But the page doesn’t feel special or especially appealing to write on in any meaningful way, either. The ink doesn’t bleed through, but it’s still relatively lightweight, which is nice for an everyday notebook. It’s smooth for writing and feels surprisingly luxurious, especially given how mediocre the design is overall.
Its Wes Anderson vibes aside, this Field Notes notebook is nice. It’s small enough to fit in a chore-coat pocket, but vertical enough for jotting down lots of notes. It takes a bit of flattening to make it stay open on a desk, but as its name implies, Field Notes notebooks are really much better suited for someone on the go, rather than a desk-bound office drone.
Major points for surviving 60-plus years and actually being functional, and very cool that Rad & Hungry sells authentic Uruguayan notebooks, but the novelty wore off quickly. The sepia-singed pamphlet — it only has 16 pages — feels more suitable for a school-age child practicing cursive than a functional notebook you would take to a meeting. I docked it major points for flimsiness: When I flipped the cover over and back, the paper separated from its stapled binding.
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