If You Don’t Have a Commonplace Book, You’re Missing Out
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I first kept a commonplace book because I had to. I was taking a course on Paradise Lost and we were required to catalog 100 quotations over the course of the semester.
That assignment nearly put me off commonplace books entirely — not because it was a bad idea, but because of the intense hand cramps that came from writing 50 substantive Milton quotes in the 48 hours before the deadline (no typing allowed).
But I’ve since returned to commonplacing and have found that, when not artificially crammed into a two-day marathon of highlighting, the process can be incredibly worthwhile.
If you read, write, or reminisce, you should really have a commonplace book of your own. Here’s why.
What is a commonplace book?
Dating back centuries, commonplacing is simple: it’s the process of collecting quotations, passages, and observations as you encounter them. Great thinkers from John Milton to Mark Twain have maintained their own commonplace books, using them to store insights that later informed their written works and personal philosophies.
The key distinction between commonplacing and other forms of notetaking is that commonplace books are organized into thematic sections. Each entry is filed away under one or more topics, which might then be indexed in a table of contents. Over time, you develop a running repository of thoughts on topics that concern you the most.
Why bother?
Commonplacing has survived for centuries not by chance but because it’s intensely useful and rewarding.
You can use a commonplace book to:
- Store all those Medium highlights you’ve been collecting
- Mine an epigraph for your next essay
- Return to meaningful philosophies when you’re facing a crisis
- Study the craft of writing
- Reflect on emotions, and return to those reflections as you mature
- Gain inspiration for a creative project
- Sound smarter by always having a relevant allusion
You’ll likely develop your own reasons for commonplacing as the habit truly evolves alongside you.
How to keep a commonplace book
One of the major draws of commonplacing is that it’s completely customizable to your personality and interests. As such, you can jump right into the practice with just a notepad and see what works for you. If you’re collecting tidbits and sorting them thematically, you’re commonplacing, and you can sort out the details as you go. However, there are a few variables you can consider at the beginning to streamline the process.
Choosing a Medium: Does a Commonplace Book Need to Be Physical?
Commonplace purists will insist that a commonplace book should be a physical object — a notebook that you can take comfort in flipping through year after year. And there are some merits to the physical commonplace book. Besides being the traditional method of commonplacing, using a physical book also encourages you to reflect on quotations as you copy them by hand, helping you to internalize their meaning. It also allows you more freedom to sketch your own thoughts alongside your collection. (The professor who introduced me to commonplace books has a fantastic student example of the creative freedom afforded by a Moleskin and some markers.)
The major drawback of physical books is that it can be difficult to reorganize or expand categories, especially if you’re writing in a bound journal. If this bothers you, you might consider using a binder or even stacks of index cards.
The other danger is that storing and transporting physical commonplace books can quickly become unwieldy, especially with something that’s meant to be a lifelong habit. However, many practitioners consider this a worthy trade-off, and the physical books become cherished mementos over time.
Some prefer to keep their commonplace books entirely digital, and there are many advantages to this too. So long as you’re careful to back them up, digital commonplace books can be just as lasting, and they’re far easier to organize and search. Still, they lack the intangible allure of ink on paper, which is a dealbreaker for some.
I personally take a hybrid approach to commonplacing, keeping a “master” commonplace book in Evernote while also copying my frequently-referenced tidbits into a special journal. I find this approach offers an ideal balance of convenience and sentimentality.
What Should I Copy into a Commonplace Book?
We extract only those Things which are Choice and Excellent, either for the Matter itself, or else the Elegancy of the Expression, and not what comes next …— John Locke on commonplacing
The short answer? Anything meaningful to you.
A commonplace book is an intensely personal thing, and everyone has their own criteria for what makes the cut. If you’re a writer, you might, like Locke, choose certain passages for their “elegance of […] expression” and use the book to improve your own craft. You might also choose to catalog text that makes you think or feel a certain way, regardless of its stylistic merit. You could even write down moments you’ve experienced, conversations you’ve overheard, or interesting facts you want to refer to later.
There’s no rule saying that commonplace books can only be for stodgy texts, so find ways to make yours unique and useful for your own life. If that means yours only contains Coldplay lyrics, then so be it.
How to organize a commonplace book
The topic of organization tends to paralyze beginning commonplacers — especially the perfectionists among us. What if you do it wrong, or you need to change it later, or a note falls into multiple categories? Won’t it get messier and messier until it’s impossible to find anything?
Breathe.
There are infinite possibilities for organizing a commonplace book, and you’ll develop your own style over time. If you’re writing by hand, you’ll likely want to document page numbers and develop an index of topics in your book. If you’re worried about neatness, it’s often helpful to record preliminary notes in a temporary notebook, then transfer them into categories once you’ve had time to reflect on their content.
On a computer, it’s simpler. I highly recommend Evernote for digital commonplace books: simply create a stack of notebooks called “Commonplace” and nest individual topic notebooks underneath. You can also use an “uncategorized” notebook as a catch-all, then move notes to new or existing categories as you see fit. If you don’t want to install a new tool, you can also make do with any text processor, especially if you take advantage of a hyperlinked table of contents.
In either case, it’s best to let the topics emerge organically as you build your collection. There’s no need to force everything you find into one of a few preset categories — let the table of contents grow over time as you discover the network of connections between your quotations.
Parting words
Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are. — John Milton
If you’re a reader, you know that a good story can live in your head long after you’ve turned the last page. You know the meaning that can be packed into a slight turn of phrase. And you know how words can live alongside us, informing our decisions even as those decisions redefine our interpretations.
A commonplace book celebrates this power, growing with you into a lifelong source of comfort, solace, and inspiration.
For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them.
