Category Archives: Review

Van der Spek Codex Standard

The Van der Spek Codex was introduced by the small Dutch family company back in January 2016 it was initially available in A5 and A6 sizes.

The Codex has been designed with the Hobonichi bound planner primarily, but any bound planner of these sizes will work. The Codex is a Custom Hand Made item and it is available in a large range of colours and leather finishes. Here are a selection of them.

The A5 and A6 were joined by the Codex Standard, this is for the Hobonichi Weeks size of planner (186x96mm) like the other two sizes it is a custom hand made to order item again with the huge range of leather choices.

There are a limited number of custom options you can add to your order in the form of clap closures, pen loops, book marks, and if you want further customisation just contact Petra and I’m sure she will be able to satisfy your specific design requirements.

Petra and the team recently introduced a number of designs improvements to the Codex and it really is a great design with the benefit of superb leatherwork and impeccable customer service, you should be considering the Van der Spek Codex to be the home for your Hobonichi Weeks.

Available to order today at Van der Spek the makers of not just the Codex but also the Nomad Travellers Notebook covers and their full range of ring bound organisers as well.

Thank you to Petra Van der Spek for the sample photographs

 

Van der Spek ‘Touch Me’ Nomad

The Van der Spek Nomad has been around now for coming up for two years. Last year Van der Spek introduced the same design but in the mass produced Touch Me range using five new buffalo leathers sourced in France. The Touch Me Model is the complete design with a full range of pockets and with a pen loop as well.

The leather is great and it is soft and very supple and hard wearing. I have an organiser made out of the Tabac (2nd from the right) and it has not suffered at all from every day use.

Van der Spek NOMAD size is compatible with 210 x 110 mm size inserts and comes with 4 equal length elastics

 

The interior design is as follows:

  • Left hand side: 1 full height slip pocket | 2 vertical credit card pockets | 2 horizontal slip pockets.
  • Right hand side: 1secretarial flap | 1 horizontal slip pocket | elasticated leather pen loop

Here are the names of the five leather colours.

And now the best bit… for 24 hours there is a limited offer on the Touch Me Nomad.

You can of course order a custom model and pick and choose which options you have, including a vast range of interior and exterior leathers. And other sizes as well. See the Van der Spek website for details of the Custom Nomads

 

 

 

The Pocket Notebook Book by Ray Blake

I have never been the biggest user of notebooks over the years. As you know I am more of a ring bound organiser user.

That said I have been using small notebooks as Travellers Notebooks in the last few years with mixed results, so this book I thought might hold some clues as to how to make better use of them.

And Ray Blake didn’t disappoint. Ray sent me a free copy of the book to review it and this post is the result.

According to the page on Amazon, the book if it was printed would be 90 pages in length. I did wonder at first what can you write about notebooks that would take 90 pages! How wrong was I.

Ray eases us in with the history of notebooks and buying a pocket notebook, this includes information about sizes and types, things to look out for, paper types etc. All very useful stuff for people who want a comprehensive guide.

The book then continues about how to set up your pocket notebook so you get the best from it.

The next few chapters cover different uses of pocket notebooks and Ray includes plenty of examples and drawings to illustrate the methods and examples shown.

Ray also goes in to the detail about how to index and archive your notes and notebooks. I know he is writing from experience as he explained this process to me in a podcast interview about how he uses his own pocket notebooks.

Whilst it isn’t a long read by any means, I can really recommend the book to anyone who uses a Pocket Notebook or like me has tinkered with them in the past, but never got the full benefits from them.

The book is available on Amazon for the Kindle, although you can get Kindle apps for most devices these days even if you don’t own a Kindle.

Thank you Ray for the chance to review your book, I will be digging out some unused pocket notebooks myself to put in to use soon.

Check out Ray’s blog (My Life All In One Place) for lots of other useful information.