Review: @FieldNotesBrand Night Sky Edition Notebooks

ABOUT

Size: 3.5 x 5.5 inches
Color: White
Ruling: Reticle Graph
Page Count: 48-page
Price: $9.95 (individuals sold out, subscriptions still available)
Where to buy: Field Notes

APPEARANCE

These are the 19th Field Notes COLORS edition, featuring black covers with white paper inside and very cool ruling - not quite dots, not quite grids. The ruling is a light grey reticle graph that makes me think of a star. The back of each of the three notebooks has different clusters of constellations seen in the early, mid, and late summer sky in holo-foil.

This awesomeness is topped off with glossy black staples, because silver staples would be ridiculous, of course.

PERFORMANCE & FEEL

I am a Field Notes COLORS subscriber because I love these notebooks, and I love getting them in the mail. I use them for just about everything on-the-go, and around the house. The paper has a neat feeling to it - like it wants to be used. It borders on sounding and feeling like it's thin and crinkly, but it's not really thin. It wants to be written on. Which is hard to do because it's really cool.

The paper is good with ballpoints, pencils, and gel pens. They're not really meant for fountain pens, but I have plenty of nice gel pens that I enjoy still.

The point is this: gel pens? Yes. Fountain pens? Not really. Unless it's a dry, fine nib. Or a dry wide nib that distributes an even amount of ink (such as the Pilot Parallel 6.0mm swab as seen here). Otherwise, you'll get bleed through.

PROS

• Gorgeous, unique notebooks.
• Isn't that enough?
• Pocket-sized.

CONS  

• If fountain pens are what you want to use these with, you'll be very limited.

OVERALL 

A few retailers may still have individual packs of the Night Sky notebooks, or you can sign up for a yearly COLORS subscription to get them (um... I'd do it for these). Otherwise, you can just enjoy the pictures of how cool they are. If you get a chance to pick up a set, do it.