Let me state that when I call their products over-priced junk I should include that all notebooks, except for the classic black and white marble composition notebooks that can be purchased at any stationary store for around a dollar I count as junk. What seats Mead apart from their competitors in the field of junk is that they have the audacity to charge on average two dollars more for a notebook than the store brands that come with all of the same features, and work the same. Face it, if you are looking for a notebook that comes with gratuitous 'folders' that can barely hold paper torn out from its own pages, never mind the standard 8 1/2 by 11" paper most teachers use as syllabi and handouts then any notebook with non-functional folder will do. Of course one could say that you could purchase one of Mead's finely made folders (do they still make these?) that you can carry around with your notebook. Well that would be fine except that you're paying for the extra 'features' of the worthless pockets. (Yes, I know you can fold your papers and stick them in there, and when you need to get them later you can also shuffle through them in class trying to figure out which paper is which). To give Mead a certain amount of credit in the always sticky 'pocket' debate I must admit that the Mead Grad line of products do contain pockets large enough to hold all standard size syllabi and hand-outs. In my years of using and / or passing over their five-star line though I have never been satisfied with their 'pockets'.

The pocket issue aside it's essential to move on to the durability question. Except for the cheapo marble composition notebooks that I currently use and whole heartily endorse, no other notebook I've come across is durable. The wire binding on all of them bend on constant use, usually making a notebook lose its basic ability of being a book whose pages can be easily turned by the end of a semester. I don't think I've ever subjected any of my notebooks to some ridiculous amount of abuse, and I know that I haven't mistreated every notebook I've ever owned to abuse. It would seem that a notebook should be able to stand up to three or four months of constant use, apparently not though. But why pick on Mead and their Five-Star line for this? Simple because they insist on charging more by quite a lot to other notebooks you can find in stores.

So what are you getting for your money? A variety of colors? No. Every spiral notebook company makes their products in a variety of colors. It doesn't matter if you are purchasing Mead, the CVS brand, Staples brand or the one that your local college has made up with their logo on the cover. Notebooks always come in a variety of colors. What else could you be paying more for? Possibly the durable plastic covers? Maybe if you like this kind of thing, paying twice the amount for a notebook is a good idea. Personally I find the feel of the plastic covers to be the tactile equivalent of someone running their nails across a chalkboard. And if I think that turning pages is difficult after the wire bind gets decimated to a twisty mess of it's original self, then it only gets worse when a plastic cover that doesn't have any play around it's pre-punched holes is present. You pay extra for the plastic covers and in my opinion they only make the notebooks even more of a rip-off. The plastic covers are durable though, and unlike the cardboard covers they most likely will not fall off during a school semester. They will also withstand accidents with food and drink better. None of this matters too me though since the feel of them usually give me howling fantods.

What else could possibly make the notebooks cost so much more than their competitors? Oh I remember now, it's the label. They say Mead; they have five stars so they must be good. If you're in sixth grade probably all your friends have these and you don't want to look like ghetto white trash by having the same functionality at about half the cost in a no-name notebook. Maybe saving yourself the pains of being a social pariah are a good reason to throw away a couple of extra hard earned bucks when you're a socially miscreant teenager, but once you've gained some self-esteem and can ignore the cat-calls from notebook snobs there is no reason to give a rat's a** what brand of notebook you have. Maybe you can't pass up the military connotations of the five-stars, but if you really are into military ranking you could always draw a picture of high ranking General's stars on the cover of your cheaper notebook, with a Sharpie the money you saved on them allowed you to buy guilt free.

Should I get completely comprehensive about the notebooks? One, Mead like every other notebook company on the face of the earth are not very kind to left handed writers. I'm not left-handed, but writing with my hand on the spiral bind I imagine would not be pleasant.

Two, the added little charts and tables in a notebook. I think they are the same in every notebook. I have never found any reason to use them. I think that Mead even lets you fill out your class schedule in a handy little table. Again I never used this. Maybe I'm brilliant, but I could remember my class schedule after only a couple of days and the idea of checking inside my notebook to a handy table seemed way to dorky in high school to want to be seen doing in the hallways. With regards to the Math tables and conversion charts, I never found a use for them. If I needed something like this either a) the teacher supplied them via a handout I would have to fold to put in the pocket, or just stick in the notebook and let wear wreck havoc on it's tender edges, or b) it was in a test situation where peaking in a notebook would constitute academic fraud (i.e. cheating).

Thrid, the paper. It's ok paper. Most notebook paper is low quality. For awhile I was a notebook paper snob, and I handmade all of my notebooks at a Kinko's I worked at using 90lb True White Linen paper. They were wonderful to write on, but hell to read later since my normally bad handwriting degenerated into mere ciphers without lines. But anyway as far as notebook paper goes Mead has as good of paper as any other notebook. (Consumer be warned, some of the no-name notebook producers have really horrible paper. That's why it's good to open any notebook before purchasing it. I can assure you, getting home to find out you purchased a notebook with paper worse than in those recycled paper notebooks is not a pleasant experience.)

Since I have an opinion on everything, how about the perforated pages? These are good if you need to hand in a lot of hand written pieces to a teacher from your notebook. If you were using the notebook primarily to take notes then I'd recommend not indulging in this feature. Too much turning of pages may loosen the perforations enough that you will soon find a page of your notebook has freed itself from the stuffy confines of your notebook. This might not sound like a big deal, but I can guarantee you this is the one page you will need when it comes time to write a paper or study for finals. Basically on this point you need to think ahead to what your teacher will be expecting of you. For younger students the perforations will make more sense. For older students who will most likely be turning in typed (I mean computer printed) assignments the non-perforated pages would be a safer choice.

I'm probably missing something about the notebook, but I think I've made my point, Mead notebooks are about as good as any other on the market. I personally do not like spiral notebooks so I'm quite biased against their product, but I do know that you are ripping yourself off buying Mead over say the store brand notebook when you go back to school shopping. (Unless you go for their superior line of notebooks, the Grad - a good spiral notebook, wider and sleeker than the Five Star line, and unlike the Five Star line you usually cannot find a comparable make in the generic brands.) And one last gripe, Mead usually has less pages in their notebooks than the store brands put in theirs, again making the cheaper product a much better bargain.


Recommended:
No