I've been using the green and black Piccadilly Wir-o notebook for awhile. I mainly bought it to record my trip to Taiwan in 2010. It worked lovely there and took quite the beating in my opinion. The photos below are current, I didn't take any before because I hadn't planned on reviewing the book. I picked it up from a local Half Price Book Store for about $5. I chose this specific one because I loved the design. Green is my favorite color but I loved the intrinsically designed flowers.
The cover has some dents from being pressed against various items in my packed bag. Also the corners are a bit bent from the abuse but still holding up nicely. Also the wires got a little bent but I could easily bend them back into place. They are holding up well still! Not bad for 2 years worth of abuse. I'm almost done with this journal. For awhile after my trip I just left it thinking I was done but ended up using it as a catch all journal. I used less than 1/4 of the journal for the trip and didn't want to waste the rest.
I used some tabbed sticky notes to divide the notebook up to various sections. One was for my Taiwan trip, another was for my catch all, then some notes for my comics, and then another section for quotes I found that I liked and wrote down.
I didn't get as much time as I wanted to write in it during the trip. I was either sleeping or doing something but I wrote when I could. Didn't help I didn't really know how to spell a lot of the words because they speak Mandarin Chinese. lol
The above was written with a regular BIC Crystal ballpoint pen which wrote fine on this paper. The last two quotes above are written in fountain pen. With my Lamy Safari and Noodler's Black ink. I'm happy to say it did rather well on this paper. Hardly any feathering at all! You can see below a close up of the writing.
Just some back shots of the notebook that I thought were worth some close ups. :)
Overall, I loved this journal. Was hardy with great paper and lasted me awhile but I'm slow going through any book. Loved the design and the paper performance was wonderful. In fact, I loved it so much I ended up getting another journal from them a year or so later. However, this one was not up to par to the other....
I picked this journal up thinking it was going to be just like the other journal. I was extremely disappointed. I still loved the cover and design but the paper inside was horrible. I don't know if it was the texture or thinness of it but I definitely do not like writing in it as much. The paper was gritty. The nibs, even ballpoints, would scratch on the paper and the ink would not absorb as nicely as the other journal.
I just didn't enjoy writing in this journal as much as the previous so I don't know if it was in need of quality control or what but I think I got a bad journal...So make sure you feel the paper and make sure it's smooth instead of gritty to ensure you'll have a good journal and writing experience with these types of journals! These types of journals could be great if you like hard back, wire bound, and fairly inexpensive journals! :D
The cover has some dents from being pressed against various items in my packed bag. Also the corners are a bit bent from the abuse but still holding up nicely. Also the wires got a little bent but I could easily bend them back into place. They are holding up well still! Not bad for 2 years worth of abuse. I'm almost done with this journal. For awhile after my trip I just left it thinking I was done but ended up using it as a catch all journal. I used less than 1/4 of the journal for the trip and didn't want to waste the rest.
I used some tabbed sticky notes to divide the notebook up to various sections. One was for my Taiwan trip, another was for my catch all, then some notes for my comics, and then another section for quotes I found that I liked and wrote down.
I didn't get as much time as I wanted to write in it during the trip. I was either sleeping or doing something but I wrote when I could. Didn't help I didn't really know how to spell a lot of the words because they speak Mandarin Chinese. lol
I actually really liked the paper in this book. It was smooth and didn't bleed through when I wrote. It has thin black rulings at 7mm I believe and the paper color is a slight off white, sort of gray color that matched the exterior of the book. Here are some shots of the paper and my writing. (It's actually much brighter than it shows in the pictures below. I just took the pictures in a dark room.)
The above was written with a regular BIC Crystal ballpoint pen which wrote fine on this paper. The last two quotes above are written in fountain pen. With my Lamy Safari and Noodler's Black ink. I'm happy to say it did rather well on this paper. Hardly any feathering at all! You can see below a close up of the writing.
Just some back shots of the notebook that I thought were worth some close ups. :)
Overall, I loved this journal. Was hardy with great paper and lasted me awhile but I'm slow going through any book. Loved the design and the paper performance was wonderful. In fact, I loved it so much I ended up getting another journal from them a year or so later. However, this one was not up to par to the other....
I picked this journal up thinking it was going to be just like the other journal. I was extremely disappointed. I still loved the cover and design but the paper inside was horrible. I don't know if it was the texture or thinness of it but I definitely do not like writing in it as much. The paper was gritty. The nibs, even ballpoints, would scratch on the paper and the ink would not absorb as nicely as the other journal.
I just didn't enjoy writing in this journal as much as the previous so I don't know if it was in need of quality control or what but I think I got a bad journal...So make sure you feel the paper and make sure it's smooth instead of gritty to ensure you'll have a good journal and writing experience with these types of journals! These types of journals could be great if you like hard back, wire bound, and fairly inexpensive journals! :D
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