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commonplace book
Trends
- 1Readers urged to separate book logs from quote journals●The shelf and the commonplace book are two different records. Status and rating live on one, the passages you kept on th
A writer in the books community is drawing a distinction between two reading records: the shelf log, which tracks status and ratings, and the commonplace book, where passages are copied out for keeps. The advice is to keep the two in step so each stays true to its purpose. Other readers of journals and commonplace books are engaging with the idea of separating what you finished from what you kept.
- 2Commonplace Books in the Pforzheimer Collection Explored●Of Matrimonial Ladders and Mice: Commonplace Books in the Pforzheimer Collection
The New York Public Library has published a feature on commonplace books held in its Pforzheimer Collection, touching on curious subjects such as so-called matrimonial ladders and mice. The piece highlights how these handmade compilations of quotations, notes and drawings offer an intimate window into the everyday interests and preoccupations of their original compilers.
- 3The quiet art of the margin note●A margin note is a letter to a later self. You don't know yet who will read it, only that they will have the date and th
Readers and journalers are sharing reflections on writing notes in book margins, framing the practice as a letter to one's future self. The advice making the rounds is simple: write plainly, without worrying about who will read it, and let the date and the line of text carry the memory. The idea is resonating with people who keep reading journals and commonplace books as a way of recording thoughts alongside what they read.
- 4Readers revive the pencil-and-paper reading journal●The slowest way to read is with a pencil in hand, and it is the only way that leaves a record. A kept passage and a line
Book lovers are championing the humble reading journal: the practice of marking passages with a pencil and copying kept quotes into a notebook. Fans argue it is the slowest way to read, but the only one that leaves a record of what a passage meant to you at the time, echoing the old commonplace book tradition.
- 5The Quiet Pleasure of Following a Quote Back to Its Book●Sometimes a line meets you in the wild, on someone else's feed, and you follow it home to the book it came from. That wa
Readers are reflecting on the habit of encountering a striking line on someone else's feed and then tracking it down to the book it came from. The walk back to the source, they say, is half the pleasure; keeping the line afterwards, often in a commonplace book or reading journal, is the other half. It is a small reminder of how borrowed sentences can lead people back into whole books.