I first purchased this as I was trying to find a reasonable alternative to the Moleskin. I wanted something that was durable, nice looking, but a little less expensive. I feel like this has checked all the boxes for me as I just purchased my fourth BookFactory journal. The Moleskin I have is marginally nicer, but for my uses it makes very little difference.I use it for daily journaling and jotting down thoughts and ideas. I use a regular BIC round stick pen, so I don’t have any experience with bleed through.What I like:As I mentioned, I’m about to start my fourth one. It’s held up to (mostly) daily use and a decent amount of traveling, so it’s durable. I like that it’s simple and classic looking and find the red to be a nice touch. It looks nice on my shelf and it fits in with the Moleskin. I like this fact, because if the quality of these decline or if they become difficult to find I can seamlessly transition to a Moleskin.What I don’t like:My only gripe was the silver stamped logo. My current one is embossed though, so this is hopefully a non factor anymore.I like this journal enough to have filled it after 3 months. Not too bad, honestly.It really is a nice journal, it has some good and bad, but mostly good. I'm picky when it comes to my daily writing, so I probably won't be buying another, but still - it was nice.PROSAwesome paper quality here. The paper is thick, white and it doesn't let ink bleed through. I can barely see any "shadowing" from the other side of the page when I'm writing, even with super-dark ink.The color is also nice. The flat black paper-wrapped hard cover goes very well with the red ribbon and elastic band.It's a straightforward, simple notebook. No frills, just lined pages.CONSThe nice cover is only nice when you get it, and sometimes not even then. It didn't hold up very well to shipping or general wear and tear.The ruling on the lines is a little bit wide for my taste. I write small, so the likes of Leuchtturm and Moleskine are better suited for me.No little folder on the back cover! This made me sad.OVERALLLike I said - it's a decent little journal that I like, but I don't love it. I'd recommend it to people looking for something to just jot ideas down in, but if you're a serious journaling person, go for the Leuchtturm1917. I won't go back to anything else.This Journal is exactly what I needed to record my thoughts! I'd been looking for something that was nice looking, but not over the top in decorations. I wanted a journal that didn't remind me of my teenage writing days with the overly busy covers, and the sleek black look of this one was perfect! I'd been searching for the perfect journal for some time and was so happy to have found this one!The binding is beautiful! It's easy to open and write on both sides of the paper with ease. The red elastic holding it together is awesome! It's just stretchy enough to go over the book, but stiff enough that it doesn't slip off. This feature was exceptionally important to me for when I travel so the page didn't get bent. The string to mark my place will come in handy as I get further into the journal; there is nothing worse than having to search for your spot. I love that the pages look so elegant and are double sided! I may need to search for a nice pen to use with it!I would absolutely recommend this product to someone who is contemplating a purchase. You will not be disappointed with it! I look forward to repurchasing when this one is filled up.I originally purchased one of these in green for use as a work notebook.While Moleskine is the go-to known brand for notebooks like this but I didn't want to put down that much money and pick up that much snobbery for something that I wasn't sure I was going to use often. I also ordered these pens to go with it, based on my preference for the style and other reviewers indication that it does not bleed through the page Let me tell you about this little blue book (or whatever color you bought).It is perfect. The perfect size, color, shape, pages etc. Why do I say that? Well being in the military we receive these grass green issued notebooks that are great- but boring. BORING. Everything is green. We want COLOR.So...how did we come across these little guys? I work in a job where briefing is required and note taking consumes our 12 hour days out here on deployment. So when a lieutenant walked in flashing a purple and blue notebook we all kind of whipped our heads toward her. We WANTED THE BLUE BOOKS. So we all got on our Amazon Prime account since we have nothing to do but stare at sand all day and we decided to bring some color to the desert. Now everyone has a gorgeous journal to brighten their day. You may be reading this and thinking, why are you not focusing on fighting the war?! WELL WE ARE, but now we are doing it in style.Thank you bookfactory for providing us colorful journals that go with us everywhere. If I have ANY complaints its that there aren't more colors!!! And they ship super fast also! We even have some of the coalition utilizing them, they are that loved over here.These are great! They look great, and are very pleasant to write in. Price is good for how many pages are inside! :-)A little pricey but needed a diary asap so prompt and clean packaging / delivwryVery expensive for itemAs described and fast deliveryExcellent quality