Do you keep a commonplace book?

[Hyacinth]

If so, would you please tell me about it? Do you organize it somehow? Do you have a routine/practice for writing in it or do you just always have it handy and jot in it when something strikes you as worthy of noting? Anything else you care to share? Thank you!

[Grace Hopper]

I suppose if I complied all the notes in my iPhone app, it would be 75% contents for a commonplace book. But that’s not a lovely method for compiling such things. 
 

Now that you’ve mentioned it, I believe that as I’m aging, I’d maybe like to start a more…elegant?…one. Something my kids might appreciate when I’m gone. 
 

I will pay attention to this thread, thanks for asking, Hyacinth. 

[Tina]

I;ve just started the need to write things down the last couple years, but I've let them go for periods of time.  Trying to find details and compile them again now.  

Menu-  here and there I keep a log on my pc

Bought a beautiful datebook last year that I thought would keep me, but it got misplaced during the summer and stuff moving around.  

Bought a pretty notebook that I thought I could write in at least monthly, but that got misplaced in the shuffling of stuff from my folks house here, too. Actually started it a couple years back. 

Started it with a list of some goals and a breakdown of ways to get them accomplished.  Made a list of kitchen goals/ plans, work goals/plans, creativity and life plans and thoughts, then a few quotes.

Picked up last year.  Place to reflect on the prior month.  What happened.  Garden items- where I ordered what seeds, drawings of plans, etc.  Books read, YouTube channels I watched.  Most important:  online classes I bought so I can go back to them!  Also a few recipes to remember to try or that we loved, like Christmas Punch, which I plan to made a tradition.  

When I lost my folks, skipped to a different notebook to write to my mom for a while, and the first notebook went by the wayside again.  

Now I'm assembling all the notebooks again so I will know where they are and use them.  

I did order a new planner that should hold lots of notes, plans and ideas, but will keep writing in the first one each month again, too.

[Clarita]

Yes but it's not beautiful and I don't think anyone else would ever read it. I organize it as bullet journal, but plain and I don't put everything in the table of contents.

I keep notes from books and things I read in there. my thoughts on things, my rough drafts of things, recipes. event plans, to do lists etc. I have it handy and just jot things when they come up. I did this when I was working and I just continued with it because I loved it for work. At work I did keep a larger but less portable notebook because I needed that, along with a smaller sized notebook.  

 

[Grace Hopper]

Now I’m curious as to what OP means to keep in a commonplace book. I think of it as a place to keep quotes, bits of wisdom, profound thoughts and info one might want to pass along. 
 

I think of a personal journal (which for me contains prayers among other thoughts) as something different. Not really something I’d want to pass along but as a personal mental processing tool. These are all written in red notebooks which my family has instructions to burn without reading. (And I’ve dispatched older volumes already myself.)
 

Recipes and rough drafts are also kept separate. And I have a reading list and reading journal, where I write book notes. I could see including some quotes from books that really strike me in a commonplace book. 
 

So I guess my hijack question is, how do you define “commonplace book”?  

@Clarita I  think yours must be beautiful simply due to its organization. I love the idea of bullet journaling but have never been able to maintain one. 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Grace Hopper

[Hyacinth]

My husband gave me a beautiful bound notebook several years ago: Heavy pages, college ruled lines, a really pretty floral cover, and one of those leather ties that says this is a special journal. So of course I put it on a shelf so as not to desecrate it with my scribbles. 🙄😁 In the spirit of “use the good china and burn the pretty candles” I’d like to use the beautiful journal and I love the idea of a commonplace book. 

I’m thinking it would primarily be quotes. Beautifully constructed sentences from fiction, thought-provoking lines from non-fiction, song lyrics, nuggets of wisdom, etc. Words that I find meaningful for one reason or another.

I have several notebooks for daily/weekly to-do lists, TBR lists, random brain dumps. I’m thinking the commonplace book would be more….intentional.

Should I section out the pages? Song lyrics on these pages, quotes from favorite authors on these pages, etc. I like the idea of some kind of organization. On the other hand, there is something to be said for just copying whatever strikes me whenever it strikes me on the next blank line. I think I just talked myself into the latter so as to quit overthinking this, but I'd still still like to hear about your practices.  

[marbel]

I'm not very good at keeping a commonplace book, but when I do, I don't organize it. I like a chronological book rather than something with sections. Part of that is because I fear filling a section and having to start a new book even though there are empty pages on other sections. 

[Tina]

43 minutes ago, Hyacinth said:

My husband gave me a beautiful bound notebook several years ago: Heavy pages, college ruled lines, a really pretty floral cover, and one of those leather ties that says this is a special journal. So of course I put it on a shelf so as not to desecrate it with my scribbles. 🙄😁 In the spirit of “use the good china and burn the pretty candles” I’d like to use the beautiful journal and I love the idea of a commonplace book. 

I’m thinking it would primarily be quotes. Beautifully constructed sentences from fiction, thought-provoking lines from non-fiction, song lyrics, nuggets of wisdom, etc. Words that I find meaningful for one reason or another.

I have several notebooks for daily/weekly to-do lists, TBR lists, random brain dumps. I’m thinking the commonplace book would be more….intentional.

Should I section out the pages? Song lyrics on these pages, quotes from favorite authors on these pages, etc. I like the idea of some kind of organization. On the other hand, there is something to be said for just copying whatever strikes me whenever it strikes me on the next blank line. I think I just talked myself into the latter so as to quit overthinking this, but I'd still still like to hear about your practices.  

You could date your entries.  Sometimes they may be tied to things happening around you?

[Grace Hopper]

18 minutes ago, Tina said:

You could date your entries.  Sometimes they may be tied to things happening around you?

Yes, this is the only organization I would add to a commonplace book. IMO it can definitely display different eras and/or patterns in one’s life and character, just by virtue of the content. IMO it also feels more artistic that way, less business-like. 
 

@Hyacinth I like the description you shared and think that is more what I thought a commonplace book to be. My analogy, take the socks off those toe shoes! We used to cover our new pretty satin point shoes with football socks so they’d stay clean; it was always fun to wear them without socks after performances, to be pretty in practice even if they got dirty. So take the socks off that lovely journal your dh gave you and get to messing it up!

[scholarly]

I do! I use mine for quotations. They are chronological and it is really nice to read through sometimes and follow the trail of the reading I have done over time. It's also a kick in the pants sometimes when I realize I haven't written in it in awhile. I don't mind reading a fair amount of trash, but when I haven't read anything inspiring or beautiful in a long time, I try to fix that.

[PaulainTx]

I do.  I use a journal with a pretty cover.  I don't organize it, but just write down quotes and passages I want to remember or especially like that I come across in my reading.  

[Ausmumof3]

I treat myself to the literary life podcast one each year: most years I only fill a few pages but it’s kind of a promise to myself that I will read and take some time out 

[stephanier.1765]

I bought one of those spiral notebooks that already has a table of contents at the front and it's where I keep my brain. It does contain my favorite quotes. It's also my address book, a list of books I've checked out from the library and their return dates, health notes, ideas for various projects, books I want to read as well as TV shows and audiobooks, and it's also where I keep my lists for Christmas. I'm sure I'm forgetting a thing or two but that's why I have this notebook. LOL

[Hyacinth]

10 minutes ago, stephanier.1765 said:

I bought one of those spiral notebooks that already has a table of contents at the front and it's where I keep my brain. It does contain my favorite quotes. It's also my address book, a list of books I've checked out from the library and their return dates, health notes, ideas for various projects, books I want to read as well as TV shows and audiobooks, and it's also where I keep my lists for Christmas. I'm sure I'm forgetting a thing or two but that's why I have this notebook. LOL

Yes, I have a brain notebook or two as well. I don’t know how people function without lists!

[ktgrok]

not exactly, but I do most of my reading in the Kindle app and you can select text and do an "image quote", which I then share to a photo album on Facebook. So, basically a digital album of quotes from books that I liked. Every now and then I go back through it. Keep in mind that I'm a romance reader primarily, and I write romance, so often I'm grabbing quotes that trigger a certain feeling of love/acceptance/comfort rather than say, something existential, lol. 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10159203737308666&type=3 I think the link may work? I set the album to public, but not sure if that automatically makes all the photos in it public.