A bookstore called Sanseido, in the Jinbo book selling district of Tokyo, on 1 April announced that they would be selling custom-made notebooks, and it wasn’t a joke.  In fact, they have been flying off the shelves, which is good because these books are ready to take away moments after ordering them.

The premise is similar to “on demand publishing” which trims mass printing down to a per order basis in about 10 minutes.  This process makes the idea of an “out of print” book extinct.  These custom notebooks use the same machine dubbed the “espresso book machine” but make things even easier with blank pages.  This leaves room for the options.

You can choose nearly every detail of your notebook from the type of paper used for each the covers and inside paper to the color and style of rings binding it.  In the beginning there were only 10 types of paper but each month new types are included up to about 100 now.

You can also spruce it up with accessories like buttons, latches, or images printed on the cover or pages.  All in all, there are about 1,760,000,000 unique combinations possible.

It’s a good idea that keys into our natural urge to decorate our notebooks – a habit especially enjoyed by women, the target market for this product.  However more guys are getting in on it too.  Sales have nearly doubled each month since starting.

Source:books-sanseido.co.jp via Nikkei Trendy (Japanese)