Review on Ancicraft Refillable Leather Journal - A5 Lined Craft Paper Notebook With Simple Classic Brown Handmade Cover For Men And Women, Perfect Diary by Ashley Long

This cover has pluses and minuses:First - there seems to be confusion in some reviews about the paper size. It's A5, which is a standard metric size (A,B,C,.) everywhere except in the U.S. If you order replacement books made in Japan, Europe, or just about anywhere else an A5 book will fit. Moleskine (not standard) will not fit.Pen loop - apparently there are two versions, one with and one without. Mine doesn't have one.Now on to the review:== Overall well made and solid. The color is a deep brown mat finish. I haven't extensively used mine, but no particular wear seems to be evident.== This is made from relatively thick leather. That isn't a criticism - like many things it depends on what you want. I have other leather covers (G.Feller, Midori) that use thinner leather. The thicker leather doesn't make the cover stronger or last longer, and the cover/insert weighs more and takes up more space. For me the thinner leathers are preferred, since a thinner, lighter notebook is more likely to be with me when I need it. If it spends its life on your desk it probably doesn't matter. For ME this is a negative.== The end tabs (where you insert the covers) cover only half the page. This makes it easier to insert the blank book, but means that for some pages on either end you are writing over a bump. The best books have inside covers that span the entire page, making for smooth writing at both ends of the book. A negative.== Cover will stain anything it's in contact with. I put a different (expensive) A5 insert into the book, and within a short time pages on each end of the insert were stained brown with the dye used on the leather. Paper notebooks on a bookshelf next to the cover ended up with brown stain on their covers. Will this eventually stop? No idea, but it makes me unwilling to put the notebook next to anything I care about, so it gets little use. A notebook cover that damages other items is a big negative.Overall I would rate the notebook construction and material a 4, and worth owning and using - the two first negatives are very minor. But one additional demerit for damaging other items, so a 3.I did not use and have no comment in the included paper insert.