The book itself is great --- it does lay flat, I really like the design of having white space around the edges, and the cover is a kind of heavy black matte card stock. The pages are clearly numbered, too, and the paper is thick and the dots spaced 5mm apart --- great for everyday use of all kinds.
Northbooks has clearly thought over how to best improve their books, and this is a great step towards that goal. As a side note, when I ordered the book it came with a slightly damaged/crumpled corner. I emailed Northbooks with the issue, and they sent me a replacement, no questions or hassles, and it arrived VERY quickly. This is the essence of good customer service, imho --- problems will come up, but they fixed it in an efficient and reasonable way.
Excellent company!