Forest Choice Medium Flex Notebook Review

Forest Choice notebooks are made by Palomino, of (modern) Blackwing fame. They’re cardboard-covered pocket books, a segment with rather a lot of competition. Do they stand out?

Size: 13cm by 21cm (5″ by 8.25″)
Price: $13 (for a three-pack)
Pages: 80
Cover: cardboard
Paper: 70gsm
Ruling: plain, ruled or squared

I used this notebook from 20^th August until 1^st November. It spent that time in a cover in my back pocket and it held up well. There are signs of wear on the cover but no indication at all of anything coming apart. There’s a pocket inside the back cover but this isn’t very strong at all and is pretty much useless.

The pages are bound with thread and it’s very strong. There’s no way the pages are going to work their way loose. If you do want to take a page out then the last eight pages are perforated and tear out easily.

The FSM-certified paper has a slight yellow tint to it. It is not particularly fountain pen friendly. It doesn’t feather too much with a fine nib but it bleeds through like nobody’s business. Rollerballs, likewise, will bleed through. Other pens are safe enough, as, of course, are pencils.

I mostly used pencil, for notes and quick little sketches.

During the time I was using this notebook, it was used for hangman games with my children (which I totally failed to win at), the occasional shopping list, explanations of molecular bonding (my son explaining it to me) and random notes and reminders. It was started in Italy and was finished in Yeovil.

These are good little notebooks. The binding is very strong and the paper is reasonable. The design is utilitarian but tasteful. They’re good but they don’t stand out.

Pros

Very strong binding

Cons

Back pocket is useless
Not fountain pen friendly