| What It Is | What It Is Not |
| A place to write down quotes, ideas, information for further reading or research | A collection of to do items, or your grocery list |
| A place to record sources for this same information | A finished piece of writing, or artwork |
What Do I Need?
- Something to write ON, like a notebook, or perhaps loose pages that you keep in a binder
- Something to write WITH, like a pen, pencil, or marker
What Do I Write Down?
Anything that interests you, or that you don’t want to forget. Here are a few examples
- Favorites lines from songs, poems, or books
- Books I want to read/how I found out about them
- Movies or TV shows that I want to watch/how I found out about them
- Recipes I want to try
- Notes, ideas, quotes from books, YouTube videos, or podcasts
Why Should I Keep One?
- ChatGPT says: “The purpose of a commonplace book is to help you process, understand, and retain information that’s valuable to you.”
- Author/speaker Ryan Holiday says: “I’ll want to have it around for later reference, for potentially using it in my writing or work, or for possible inspiration at some point in the future.”
OK. How Do I Keep My Book Organized? Here are some ideas
- Take the first few pages of your book and create a table of contents
- Put common ideas on a page
- Find a way to index similar subjects, or topics
- Migrate your best ideas into a computer system, like Evernote, Apple Notes, Obsidian, and so forth
Are There Different Types of Commonplace Books?
I consider there to be two broad categories of Commonplace books: General, and Specialized
General Books are a catch all for anything
Specialized books are usually organized by subject matter, or by topic. Here are a few examples
- New or favorite words
- Grammar or examples for learning Italian
- Songwriting ideas or exercises
- Sketchbook/art journal
Why Is It Called a Common Place book?
Here’s an excerpt from the wikipedia entry.
Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are similar to scrapbooks filled with items of many kinds: notes, proverbs, adages, aphorisms, maxims, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, prayers, legal formulas, and recipes.Entries are most often organized under systematic subject headings[1] and differ functionally from journals or diaries, which are chronological and introspective.[2]
Can’t I Just Use My Computer, or Tablet?
Sure. But there are two additional considerations. First, computers or tablets are usually less portable than a notebook and pen or pencil. Do you want to pull out your laptop when you think of something while waiting at your dentist appointment, or on a crowded bus?
Second, there are psychological studies that show that writing by hand is better for cementing memories and understanding than typing is. I’ve found one relatively recent example here. On the flip side, digital commonplace books might be easier to index and to find material that you are looking for.
My Journey
I didn’t know it at the time, but I’ve kept common place books for most of my life.
An early memory is listening to Led Zeppelin II and writing down the lyrics to some of the songs. I only knew one guitar chord, so I wrote down which fret I would play this chord on for the various lines of the lyrics.
Another early memory is reading about Captain Cook’s exploits and making notes on his ship design. I then drew a sketch of this ship from my imagination. (which my mother kept, and I now have it framed in my house!)
In more recent history, I indexed favorite magic effects from Genii Magazine-referencing the issue/page number, an overall summary of the effect, and a few sentences on the method.
A Few Common Place Book Creators You May Be Familiar With
- Ben Franklin
- Ronald Reagan
- George Carlin
- Eminem
- Kurt Cobain
- Frances Ford Coppola
- Martin Luther King
- Jim Morrison
How Can I Learn More?
Youtube Videos: ParkNotes has an extensive library of videos, as do many others
Reddit has sections on commonplace books
Jillian Hess has a detailed history of commonplace books, as well as a substack related to commonplace books
Sample Pages From My Most Recently Completed Common Place Book
This book was a hardbound A5 size dot journal with 240 pages that I found at Walmart.
Great introduction to one of my favourite ways to fill a notebook! I have kept one since I was a kid and copied down poetry and my favourite rhymes!