Uni-ball NanoDia Wooden Pencil - 2B - Blue Body - Pack of 3

as dark and smooth as the blackwing, but with the added bonus of being able to keep a point.

the nanoDia isn't the most pretty or "adult" pencil but it's awesome for jotting down notes.

at a dollar each it's quite a steal.

This is not just a red pencil, or just another quite good red pencil. Good and very good red pencils are plenty and so easily available... but they do not manage to write a real red line or mark, but only reddish or very reddish at best.
THIS IS THE RED PENCIL. No reddish, but fully RED.
So whatever high praise I could write would fall very short: as far as I know, this RED remains unsurpassed.
Your money would be perfectly spent, not wasted at all.

I like to use red wooden pencils for marking in books as I read. I've tried so many different brands from Ticonderoga, Prismacolor, etc. The biggest problem I've found is that most red wooden pencils tend to have hard lead, and thus leave a very light - almost pink - marking when I write. Prismacolor coloring pencils have less of an issue with hardness, but the lead doesn't seem to be as sturdy (often breaking internally if dropped) and seems almost too soft for my purpose. These are by far the best I have used to date. The Mitsubishi blue/red wooden pencil on this website are very nice as well, but in the end I prefer these. If you're looking for a red wooden pencil to mark in books or similar - the Uni-ball NanoDia should serve you well at a good price.