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Galen’s Tomoe Leather Notebook wins the limbo contest

Lots of notebooks claim to be ‘lay flat’. In most cases, that means ‘doesn’t shut itself if you take your hand off the page’. In the case of the Galen Leather Notebook (the ‘Everyday Book’), ‘lay flat’ means exactly what it says. Even from new, with no break in, and whatever page you open it to, it flops completely open with no resistance at all. The pages lay truly flat.

In fact, the whole notebook is super flexible, making it ideal to stuff into a crammed bag in a way that would be impossible with a hardback notebook, or one with a stiffer or card cover.

This limbo feat is a neat (and very useful) party trick, and one that doesn’t seem to have compromised the solidity of the square-spine binding at all.

I’ve been using this notebook for work for a few weeks now, and it’s holding up a treat. As always with a Tomoe notebook, you can tell how far through you are just by looking at the page edges, but the cover and binding are showing no signs of wear.

The lay-flat binding is not the only thing this notebook has going for it.

For £27 (in A5 size) you get a decent 400 pages of the 52g variant of Tomoe River, with neat charcoal-black cover sheets at front and back.

You get a super soft and flexible leather cover, with some of the neatest trimming and rounded corners I’ve ever seen.

And you get a pretty cardboard presentation box with Galen’s ornate branding to make the first unboxing a delight.

While the only printing option is blank — no grid, dot or lines, no page numbers, no perforations, no fancy productivity pages — Galen includes thick paper guides with both grid and lined options. They also include a leather blotter, which works much better than I thought it would.

The front cover and spine are featureless, but Galen have imprinted their logo and the notebook’s specs prettily but unobtrusively on the rear cover.

With its leather cover, mine in Crazy Horse Brown, the Galen Leather Notebook is one of the most attractive and durable Tomoe options out there.

After 400 pages of carry, it should look beautifully worn. And yet the leather cover is not thick, bulky or inflexible. If you normally use a protective cover with your A5 books, you’ll be able to fit it to this notebook too.

At £27, with its volume of Tomoe, leather cover and high-quality finish, handmade in Turkey, this is a bargain of a notebook.

I got sent mine for free from Galen for review. As soon as I’ve depleted my stock of Tomoe, I will be buying another. You can get yours here.

7 Comments

  1. James Goodstadt

    I have a set of the pocket sized Galen notebooks. I’m using one of them as my everyday carry book, sitting in my back pocket. I think it’s superb, but not sure I’d bother getting them again and paying the VAT / admin fees (I got these as an extra when I bought a pan case).

    • James Goodstadt

      Forgot to say, that notebook looks ace.

      As always, thanks for your review! Brill as ever!

    • Anthony

      Yeah the import duty gets old fast. I have one of the pocket notebooks too, and the tear-off notepads. Awesome quality.

  2. slightlyunnerved

    Thanks for the timely review. I’m about 2/3 of the way through a Sakae TR book and it’s time to think where my next notebook is coming from. The price makes this look a good option!

    • Anthony

      The Sakae one is good, pretty thick with completely rigid covers and sharp square corners, right? This is a very different experience!

      • slightlyunnerved

        It’s a card cover, but comes with a plastic jacket (a bit like Midori one). The page count is similar to the Galen book.

  3. fredklier

    I got one a few days ago and is not here yet. I’m happy to see is that good. I also got a set of the little ones too, do you have it?

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