I
was happy to see that Barnes & Noble has picked up the Piccadilly
line of notebooks after the closing of Borders. On a whim I picked up an
orange colored medium Primo Journal. The primo journals come in orange,
black, brown, blue, teal and red. Not all of the colors are available
at B&N. They only come lined. The book is 4.5×6.75 inches in size
and ¾ of an inch thick. This size fits perfectly into my jacket pockets. It is smythe sewn so it will open flat and be relatively sturdy.

The
covers are a rubbery textured vinyl imprinted with a grid pattern of
imprinted of squares. The vinyl is glued to a flexible fibery material
that feels substantial and comfortable in hand. The cut of the covers is
not totally square to the imprinted texture. The covers are not well glued either. A small amount of glue stick stuck it back in place. Holding the journal shut
is a round off white elastic that is threaded through two holes in the
spine. The elastic as it came was loose. Getting it tighter was as easy
as pulling the elastic through the spine and tying a knot in the
elastic. The place marker is the same color as the cover. It is not glued in place well and came loose as I opened and closed the journal. It was an easy repair with a little white glue.


The
paper is relatively heavy and smooth. The lines are blue gray and not
obtrusive. The color is a warm cream color. It’s easy on the eyes. gel
ink, roller balls, and micro points do well on the smooth paper.
Fountain pens fair less well. Ink glides on smoothly. I tested a variety
of pens and nibs including a Pilot Prera M with Quink blue ink, a TWSBI
530 M with Diamine Chocolate ink, a Kaweco Sport M with Noodler’s Heart
of Darkness. All inks and nibs feathered in the same weird spidery way
they feather on a Moleskine. The larger nibs had plenty of show through
and some soak through. I tested the inks on both sides of the page. One
side was definitely smoother and showed less soak and show through than
the other side.




The
medium was $6.35 including taxes. Which I don’t see as a bad price for
288 pages of decent paper. With fine nibs the feathering isn’t a deal
breaker, especially given the price. I really like the feel of the
rubberized and flexible cover. This is a budget friendly journal good for scrawling down novel ideas or grocery lists. buying a journal for less than $10 isn't going to get you the kind of great quality spending $20 on a Rhodia webbie will get you but this is not a bad journal for the price.