Travel notebooks are one of those things that you never think about unless you have a bad one. Then you curse it every day. Today’s WoWasis review is about a notebook with blank ruled pages, the kind of thing you use constantly when you travel. You take notes, set itineraries, write down addresses, staple business cards to the pages. When you put a date at the top, you’re creating a travel diary. And if it’s got pages that are easily torn out, you can ask a vendor to write one in the book in case he or she doesn’t have a receipt handy.

Now that we’ve set the stage, let’s describe why the Maruman Sept Couleur B6 notebook (6.93” x 4.92”) is the best book on the market. We’ve used a lot of notebooks in our time, so let’s start with the cover. It’s smooth, bendable hard ribbed plastic. Rigid material won’t bend along with the bag pocket you keep it in, and might actually tear your sack material. Paper or cardboard-covered notebooks are easily damaged within the first week of use. Maruman’s cover is smooth, so it slips in everywhere. Because the outer plastic is diagonally ribbed, it won’t accidentally slip out of a pocket. It’s translucent, so you can tape a business card on the inside so that if you ever lose it, people will know immediately to whom it belongs. It’s got 80 pages with 26 lines each, with 7mm line spacing. That’s a lot of writing space. It’s double spiral-bound so is flexible, takes a beating, and allows for tear-outs when you need to do that.

It’s also aesthetically beautiful. It’s called “sept coleur” because it comes in seven colors. We’re coming to the final pages of the pretty orange Maruman that we started at the end of 2012. Now we wish we had a replacement. A search on the internet finds the A5 size (slightly larger) commonly in lime, hot pink, blue, and orange. They’re about nine dollars, and in our opinion, worth every penny. We haven’t triedA5 size yet, but if they’re like the B6, they’re flexible, beautiful, and fit just about anywhere. We bought our B6 at the Isotan store near Siam Square in Bangkok. Until we get back, we’ll be using another company’s notebook. But we don’t think we’ll love it as much as the Maruman B6. When we’re in Bangkok, we’re going to buy a dozen. Should last us a lifetime.

The Maruman B6 sept couleur notebook is, without a doubt, one of the greatest designs we’ve ever seen in a utilitarian product.