First Impressions: Field Notes Coastal edition

The new Field Notes edition has been announced: the Coastal edition is two three-packs depicting either the east or west coast. The day before it was released, we recorded a mini episode of the podcast to make Field Notes and Blackwing preditions. Now having seen the new edition, here are our first impressions...

I was expecting echoes of America the Beautiful but the inspiration seems tied to Night Sky, including the reticle graph and the holographic foils. Like Night Sky, which sold in less than a week if memory serves, the Coastal edition seems to have been met with widespread acclaim (which is atypical from fickle notebook fans). One thing about this edition unlike anything Field Notes has done before is that the ink on the inside pages is blue, green, and mostly somewhere in between -- "a split fountain of ink" they call it. I tend to prefer the simpler editions but I love the way this looks. -Adam

I'll be honest, I don't get hyped about every Field Notes release, even when they are widely beloved. Sometimes I feel like the limitations of the pocket notebook just inherently limit how much awe they can inspire. This isn't to say I don't love the books; clearly that ship has sailed. That said, this edition created in me an immediate sense of wonder and awe. I posited a "green flash" idea based on Adam's prediction around the coastlines. He nailed the edition with his prediction, obviously, and in a weird way the print features of this edition grasp the magic of the green flash without expressly citing it. The holographic technique is wonderful, with allusions to seashells and green flashes and beach sand, all wrapped in a pitch-perfect topographic design. Interestingly, the "sun" didn't play a huge role in the theme. It's more about the land. Reticle grid also plays a strong role, I'm interested to see how it plays in daily use, as I haven't used it in a while. Conclusion: this is the first edition I've purchased immediately...ever. - Ted