These sketchbooks are really affordable for what they are, the paper quality is great for regular sketching and drawing, my daughter uses markers (including sharpie) in hers and and there's minimal bleed through. The pages are not bright white, they are very slightly off white & much easier on the eyes than copy paper. I use mine to sketch out ideas that I then transfer to digital or watercolour paper & as a general place to noodle around & get my hours in.I'm not sure why people have said they're not sturdy, I've bought 3 of the 2 packs so far over the last 2 years, used 2 books myself & my daughter has used the other 4... she's 11 now &, like a lot of creatives, a bit of a mess. She's not easy on these things and they've not had any issue standing up to her.Basically if you're looking for archival quality sketchbooks, these aren't it (but also you should be expecting to pay 10-20x this price for this many pages of that) if you're looking for something to practice in, sketch daily, doodle, these can't be beat for the price. My daughter has even used watercolour in hers several times & they stood up to that (not ideal paper for watercolours but it was good enough for her to play around with them in).Artistic skill comes with practice, LOTS of practice, & these are a great size & quality to get some real use out of for that.