One of my job responsibilities is to answer telephone calls from clients, colleagues, and anybody else who may call.  Sometimes this means providing them with information or making an appointment, but most often I need to write down a message for my boss so message books are an office supply that I use on a daily basis. Our preferred way of taking down such messages is by using the Adams Phone Message Book (SC1154D).

Since it is a small office, whenever a supply is running low, one of us simply goes out and purchases it, and if a new or different product is available, we often give it a try.  Instead of our regular phone message book, recently we started using the Adams Self-Stick Removable Phone Message Book (SC1153WS) instead, and we will be returning to Adams regular message book as soon as possible.

Both message books contain four messages per 11" by 5" page and are spiral-bound.  The traditional message book contains 400 messages, while the one with self-stick messages contains 200 messages.  Both are carbon-less and you do not have to press very hard on the top copy to create an imprint on the second page, but it is necessary to make sure you place the included piece of cardboard between sets so that you are only imprinting on the page that you want and not the next set of messages.

The sheet on which you write is white with blue imprinting and a very light pink background, and the copy which remains in the book is yellow.  The words "PHONE CALL" are imprinted sideways along the left margin and there are spaces labeled:  for, date, time (am/pm), M___, of, phone, message and signed.  I find that there is  plenty of room to write all of the information I need to include from most telephone calls on these slips, while I tend to run out of room while using the messages in the self-stick book.

There are also boxes that can be checked off to indicate if the person: telephoned, returned your call, please call, will call again, came to see you, and wants to see you.  In such a small office such as mine, these boxes are usually not used since we use the message slips more as simple reminders to return a call as we generally personally discuss each call that has come into the office.

There are perforations along the left margin as well as between each of the four messages one the page, and I find that they rip out of the book quite easily.  I almost never have a ripped message, while getting the self-stick messages out of that book is a chore and usually ends up with at least one one of the four messages on each page ripped.

Once the messages are taken out of the book, the yellow pages are easy to flip through if I need to look up a telephone number or confirm the date a message was taken.  Even after leafing through the book a number of times, the pages remain securely attached.

Our only issue with the messages from this book is that they are thin and lightweight, meaning that they often fly off of a desk and can easily be misplaced.  This is why we thought that using the Adams Self-Stick messages might be a good idea, but those are too sticky and once they stick to each other, they are very difficult to separate, and they do not remove from the book easily.

The standard Adams message book is priced at $7.99 for two books of 400 sets, while the self-stick one contains 200 sets and is $8.99 for one book.  We will be "sticking" with the non-stick Adams Phone Message Book (SC1154D) in the future.

Recommended: Yes