Mead Graph Composition Book, Square Deal, Black Marble, 7.5 x 9.75 Inches (09000)

it is nice to be able to use this pad for sketching and notes below

I love this type of format for the kind of writing and designing projects I do, and the price seemed almost way to good, but I thought it was worth a try. If you are ordering these notebooks, just be wary of the products poor paper quality upfront. It might not even matter to you, all depending on your actual needs.The paper is very thin, so pencils work fine, and I have also tested two ballpoints that were at least usable, but then every other type of pen, including your better ballpoints with decent flow, all bled right through the pages- making the reverse side unusable, and any kind of felt tip pen will go through several pages very easily.On the upside, I made a game out of this bad feature. I decided to use it only for designing certain things such as logos and some furniture designs. I use a pen I know will go through easily to the reverse side, and I made a quick little plastic sheet cut to the books page size to limit the bleed to that one page.I then do my design and notes or whatever as usual. Then the next day, as a great designers exercise, I open it to the page with the bled through, mirrored (reversed) rendering of whatever I did the day before. I use more than one type of pen and several pencils, etc on everything, so my reverse image is not a total ink-fest, and after looking about ten of them over, I saw an opportunity to make good out of bad, and this was how the "game" was born.If you want to feel better about having bought some of these notebooks, and you want to challenge yourself like I do, then give it a whirl.It is a super simple concept, and you can probably easily adapt my version to fit whatever it is you are interested in. My rules are this:Rule #1. I wait one day after the front page drawing, so as not to be stuck in the same mindset as I was when I working on the original design. But that's just me, so feel free to throw out rule #1 if you want.Rule #2. Make sure you are using a PENCIL (that is very important if you really don't want to ruin the design on the front side of the page). After you mess around with this awhile, you can try different things like I did, such as adding in certain ink pens so as to actually accent and enhance features on the original drawing on the front side. But just be mindful of what you are and aren't willing to throw away if it goes awry.Rule #3. Look at the bleed through for at least 5 minutes before setting pencil to paper, and try to see something completely different than what you drew on the front. This is great because you might see something that becomes a viable design of its own, which is awesome, and the more you do this exercise, the more it happens.Rule #4. If there is just no way to disassociate yourself from the original design on the front, for whatever reason, then what I found was that I could then sit down with a set of pencils and colored pencils and just take some time to see what sort of variations I can add to my original design, using the images that came through as a framework, and the non-bleeding pencils as an easy way to color code and track the variations. Of all the different things I have tried so far, some of these "alternate" design versions of the original sketches have been very rewarding to me as a designer, and in a few cases, this whole process of trying not to feel bad about an Amazon buy and not wanting to waste even bad paper has led me to re-thinking my own process and opening up my options to include actually offering the "optional" add-ons as very real, and very doable real world product options.If you are a designer who makes money from hours and hours of sketch work and note writing, then you probably know just how great it is when you can discover even one tiny thing that makes you see and work even a bit differently here and there. It is even better when an unforeseen thing like a bad notebook can lead to you becoming a better designer. And if you are not a professional designer, there is still plenty of real benefit from this "game", since these ways of challenging your mind are known to keep your cognitive abilities sharper, and also help to ward off many of the issues we face as we get older, as we are seeing with Alzheimer's and the like.Rule #5- Have fun, don't waste paper or opportunities. Make as many more rules as you want if it challenges you, or throw the idea of rules out and just go nuts. This isn't pro quality gear in any shape or form, and probably not even great for DIY or handy work type people if they are at all picky, but it is great for experimenting with stuff, and there is always a kid somewhere in your family or neighborhood that wants to design things, so if you can't make it work for you, then buy a set of pencils and gift it to someone who might one day change the world if they had someone to nudge them forward.I know that all this might sound weird to most people, but if you are a designer like myself, then you already know that these kinds of opportunities are great to keep your flow flowing and to challenge yourself.If you are not a designer or doodler, then just think of this review as a reminder that it is much less stress to repurpose poorly made cheap products than there is trying to return them or deal with customer service reps over a couple of bucks. It is also better to have taken a chance on something like a cheap notebook once in a blue moon because it could just as easily turn out to be far better than a $40 notebook.That said, the only reason I would purchase this product again, no matter how cheap, would be to continue that little game, or to gift to a kid who is into the graph/lined paper combo, and of course I would include some pencils or crayons with the purchase, (depending on their age), because, at this price, any kid would love to have something like this.

I like these books. Each page has a graph design on the upper half of the page and lines on the lower half. For some reason, I find this more effective that just a lined notebook for taking notes. I put the urgent "to dos" in the graph portion and just the fact that they are in the graph section makes me less likely to miss something. I also used one of the books (I bought 4) to plan some home improvement projects. I used the graph portion to sketch out the room I was working on to scale and then made notes regarding what I wanted to do in the lined portion. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because it's constructed like all other composition books - i.e., tear out one page in the front and a page in the back will have to be removed as well.

Next to my planner, this is becoming my next favorite notebook. I use this book to plan my daily schedule. I use the grid for the schedule, the lined part for the notes I make for my goals of the day. Also write a word of encouragement to myself or write an uplifting quote. Since I have decided that I like it, I am working on making it my own with colored pens and maybe later use stickers or something. Kind of like a bullet journal is done, only I am not artistic, so will have to rely on stickers. I will be buying more of these notebooks.

I like to make beaded jewelry. Just looking at the book the way its divided I thought it might be useful in making a pattern since it has the squares/boxes.Underneath where you write, I felt that's where I would put my instructions. I haven't done it yet but before I had the book I would try to do it on plain paper then I couldn't figure out exactly what it was.I have graphic paper but I like this better just because you can write below it . It's real neat.

The bleed-through is not severe, and I have no problem using both sides of the page. (I use Pilot gel ink pens.) These are essentially a lab notebook for the masses (inexpensive binding cf. spiral binding, no numbered pages, etc). I use them to take notes over the whole page or to diagram on the top and annotate on the bottom.

the teacher asked for them. it works great.

PROS:These are great! Each page is quad ruled on the top half and line ruled on the bottom half. What could be better? A few things but not many. People that have seen me using these say "Wow, where did you get that?" And I say "Where does anybody get anything, Amazon of course!" Then they say "I'm going to order some of those." Then I say "Yeah, do that!" Then they say "I will!"CONS:They don't have spellcheck.

Original

Es una excelente libreta ya que tiene un tamaño justo, no tan grande, ni tan pequeña. Ademas de tiene la mitad en raya y la mitad en cuadro chico lo que la hace ideal para cualquier tipo de notas.

Excelente libreta, un poco cara pero me encantó, notas excelentes, resitente y de uso rudo. Soy profesor y la uso para mis apuntes de clase.