Review: Nanami Seven Seas Writer
The best perfect-bound journal-style notebook I have yet found is the Nanami Seven Seas Writer, from Nanami Paper of Irvine, California. This is the notebook that used to be called the Seven Seas Tomoe River Journal; it has been renamed and now sports a stiffer black cover, instead of the old red one. But it’s the same lined 480(!)-page thread-bound A5 journal, made of the amazing Tomoe River paper.
This paper, made by Japan’s Tomoegawa Co., Ltd., is indisputably, unapologetically the shit. It is very thin, yet quite tough (I haven’t accidentally torn a page yet) and mind-bogglingly smooth. Its cream color is easy on the eye. It is most commonly found in the form of loose sheets and pads, and is great for letter writing. But Nanami has bound it into these journals, and they are amazing.
For one thing, writing on this paper is deeply pleasurable. It’s nice with any pen or pencil, but if you like to use an extra-smooth pencil, like the Palomino Blackwing 602 or Tombow Mono 100, it’s particularly wonderful. And if you’re into fountain pens, this paper is peerless. It’s smoother, incredibly, than Rhodia paper. The only thing I’ve tried that comes near it is the C. D. Premium journal paper, which is thicker and lacks the special glassine quality of this stuff.
There’s no feathering and no bleedthrough with this paper, but it has two shortcomings: its thinness means the ink does show (not bleed!) through from the other side, and fountain pen ink takes a while to dry on it. You might, however, like me, enjoy the super-dense, palimpsesty feel of all the writing you can pack into one notebook, and you might, like me, enjoy the contemplative pause you must endure at the end of every page, while you wait for the ink to dry.
Because the paper is so supple—it falls across the hand like a bedsheet—and because of the sewn bindings, these journals will lay flat with very little coaxing. The beveled corners are a charming touch, as are the two (two!) different-colored page-marker ribbons.
And if you are concerned that a simple paper cover is inadequate protection for a notebook that, let’s be honest, is going to take you a hell of a long time to fill up, Nanami has you covered. They have commissioned leather covers from Gfeller Casemakers that are beautiful and simple and fit the journals perfectly. The notebook’s covers slide comfortably inside the fitted flaps when you open and close the book, and never bind up or crease. The Gfeller cover costs three times what you’ll pay for the notebook, but it’s worth it if you’re going to be shoving this thing into a satchel or backpack every day for the next couple of decades—which, believe me, you will start planning for, once you start scribbling in these journals.
Buy the special writer in your life a few Seven Seas Writers, accompanied by a Gfeller leather cover, and I promise, they will have SO much sex with you. If that’s a socially appropriate response, I mean. If it’s not, they’ll definitely think about you more often, and maybe they’ll thank you in the acknowledgments section of their poetry chapbook.
Buy the Seven Seas Writer here, along with lots of other great imported Japanese writing products.
Five stars, duh.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
