Maruman Mnemosyne — A notebook worth noting

The Maruman Mnemosyne was a wonderful first step into great stationary, for me. It’s a fountain pen friendly notebook worthy of note.

When I began my journey into the fountain pen rabbit hole, it quickly became apparent to me that a pen and ink was only half of the important stuff. Great stationary is the other element that raises the experience to new levels of joy. So I read some blogs, looked around, and ordered one of these notebooks. Let’s dive in and see how it’s going.

The good

• Fountain pen friendly paper
• Shows shading quite well
• Tough cover materials
• Perforated pages
• Nice title space for organization
• Available in tons of sizes and configurations

The less good

• Has some light ghosting
• Can bleed through with wet inks and big/flex nibs
• Doesn’t seem to like my Noodler’s inks
• Longer dry times

Maruman Mnemosyne — In the hand

The fit and finish of the Maruman Mnemosyne notebooks is excellent. The cover material is a black plastic material that offers a bit of protection for the notebook. While it’s a hard material, it’s thin enough to flex easily. The texture on the notebooks feels nice and grippy. When it comes to binding, it’s a solid metal twin-ring binding. Not much to worry about in terms of durability for a “softcover” style of notebook.

Of course with being ring-bound, the notebooks can be opened flat or swung entirely around to present a single page. As a lefty, I find the rings to be pretty unobtrusive. Surprisingly, as I’m typically an over-writer, the top bound version bothers me slightly more then the standard side-bound style. Another nice little touch is the heavy yellow page in the front of the book. I’m not sure it serves a purpose, but it looks nice!

Writing in the Maruman Mnemosyne notebooks

What really matters with a notebook is what happens when pen meets paper. The Mnemosyne doesn’t disappoint. It offers a luxuriously smooth writing experience. All of my nibs glide across the paper. Even my Platinum Procyon with a Japanese fine nib feels silky smooth without diminishing its signature feedback.

The paper Maruman uses for these notebooks does an excellent job with shading inks as well. I have a feeling that the coating on this paper is rather hardcore. The flip side of shading quite well is that it tends to have longer dry times than my other notebooks. Particularly with my Noodler’s inks. I’ve used Air Corps and Southwest Sunset in it a fair amount, and both can take upwards of twenty minutes before they are smudge proof. That’s a buzzkill as a lefty.

I’m not sure if it’s the coating in the notebook, or something in the Noodler’s that causes this. Maybe it’s both. Either way, if you’re a Noodler’s ink user, it’s worth giving it a test to see if it’s something you can live with. I either use something for a blotter under my hand now, or stick to more standard inks in this notebook.

However, all of my other inks are quite usable. The writing sample above was done with De Atramentis Document Blue-Grey in my Platinum Preppy. I was able to write full speed and had no smearing issues with that ink at all. I love the way the paper shows off shading, saturation, and ink color so well. It really pops in person.

Feathering, ghosting, and bleed-through

The Maruman Mnemosyne is a decent performer when it comes to these characteristics. I have yet to see an ink feather on it even a little. There’s not much spread to speak of, either. The paper does show through a bit. The example above is on the extreme side and lit in such a way to show it better. When using the 1.5mm Lamy stub and really flexing my Ahab, I got a few pinpoints of bleed-through.

The medium nib pens do ghost a touch, but they’re not so bad as to discourage me from writing on the backs of the pages. None of the smaller nibs or lighter colored inks ghosted enough to even be noted. In normal lighting, even the spots that bled aren’t bad. I probably wouldn’t write on the back of a page with tons of heavy flex writing, but everything short of that gets a pass from me.

Maruman Mnemosyne — A fountain pen friendly keeper

Overall, I’m quite pleased with my Maruman Mnemosyne notebooks. Sure, they’re not perfect for heavy flexing and huge pools of ink. However, they are great for about everything else. I won’t call it my favorite notebook currently, but I enjoy using them so much that I have three and even gifted my wife one. I love that they have tons of pages, a durable cover, and show off my inks so well. They also feel extraordinary to write in.

If you’re on the hunt for a good notebook for your fountain pens, I won’t hesitate to recommend trying one of these. They’re pretty affordable in the world of premium notebooks and offer good value for money, in my opinion. I certainly don’t regret purchasing mine!