http://www.library.yale.edu/ beinecke/compb.htm
Commonplace. The recording of words and ideas in a common place. It was started many hundreds of years ago and became known as commonplace in the 1600′s. It is used to this day by writers, poets, speechwriters and songwriters – even scrap bookers. I started thinking about the practice of gathering ideas in a commonplace book as I was reading a blog about books.
Do you have any idea how many blogs there are just about books? There are blogs about mysteries and children’s literature and authors. There are Pearl Buck and Jane Austen blogs. There are blogs about decorating with books and making books, and, of course, many authors these days have their own blogs.
They are all commonplace.
I have kept card files on books I’ve read since my first Kiddie Lit class. I no longer include such things as publisher and copyright date, but, I do write a brief synopsis of the book, what it was about, the month and year I read it and sometimes, when I’m really full of myself, I rate it. ★★★★★ Commonplace.
I also have kept a book with quotes for some 15 years. If I hear something notable or read something, I will write it down and cite the author. Sometimes, I will cut a quote out of a magazine or on a greeting card and paste it onto a page of my quote book. Commonplace.
Emerson and Thoreau, Jefferson and Whitman, Hardy and Twain all kept such personal books. Many even learned the practice of commonplacing at Oxford or Harvard – or at their tutors direction.
My mother kept scrapbooks of pictures and memorabilia that I enjoy today and my father kept succinct books that recorded good fishing spots and articles.
I first heard such a collection of phrases mentioned as a commonplace in Tasha Tudor’s Heirloom Crafts. Tudor was, among many things, a crafter of dolls. Her dolls lived in intricate, homemade doll houses, so famed that they
Image of photograph by Richard Brown, Heirloom Crafts of Tasha Tudor, Tovah Martin and Richard Brown. Notice the tiny book the younger girl is holding.
were attracted to the folks at the Smithsonian and displayed there. Her dolls, clothed and appointed with furniture evoking the 1800′s, had their own commonplace book with tiny writing on the pages.
I love the idea of a commonplace book and was intrigued by the realization that I have kept such books not knowing their origins for much of my adult life. Quite exciting for something so common to me.
Do you practice commonplacing?
Do you keep a journal, special notebook, scrapbook, or log?
I too have a log of books I’ve read. It goes back to the early 80′s when my kids were finally old enough, and I had time to read “my books.” I have a 4-star rating system.
My mom kept meticulous journals of trips we took. At the end she knew exactly how much we spent – to the cent, how many miles we travelled and what we saw.
Do you keep your book log in a book?
Are your mom’s travel journals still around? What an example she must have set with those logs. I didn’t keep a travel journal until about 15 years ago and I wish I had done it all along. It doesn’t have to be wordy (which is my problem), but a way to remember, and keep tabs on how much is spent.
Happy Easter Sandy!
Yes, my book log is one of those fabric covered journals.
My mom still has some of her travel journals (spiral notebooks).
I have a journal my great Aunt Jane kept on her teaching sebatical trip, around the world. It’s a little leather bound book. She recorded the date and weather with each entry and a little about what or who she saw. Things she ate. She spent lots of time on freighters.
Oh, Sandy, what a treasure to have of a time now past from your Aunt Jane. Thank you for sharing these memories with me.
I kept a journal one summer of Celeste-isms. Funny things she said etc. She loves to look through it when she comes here.
We had a friend named Hildreth who kept a journal. When we would visit her she would say things like when you were here a year ago, it was sunny and we ate sugar cookies and milk and we talked about……. She would be about 100 if she were alive today. She was a great lady and a good friend.
What a great idea! Celeste-isms. I need to remember that for later on. It is nice for you to remember and for Celeste as she grows up.
Such a wonderful, old-fashioned name Hildreth is and she sounds like someone I would have liked to have known. Her journals were probably little snippets of history and life.
[...] on commonplace books, and a bit too busy right now to write a new post myself. I am reposting my own post on commonplace, which I wrote several years ago, in hopes that you will not only take the time to read Belle, but [...]