I draw a distinction between my commonplace book and my reading journal. My reading journal is where I keep a list of all the books I have read that month, with author, format, and number of pages (the latter two being new this year), with all of the quotes from each book below its entry. My commonplace book holds quotes from other sources: newsletters, magazines, overheard comments, etc.
This month, I joined @Jillian Hess on her Noted Substack for a communal commonplace book, and for that, I used a separate five-year diary with space for only one quote per day (an idea borrowed from @Austin Kleon). At the moment, this is the only one in handwritten form; my reading journal is in Evernote, and my commonplace book is in Notion.
Oh interesting! I love to hear what works for other people! I have not tried out notion yet but I keep hearing things about it. I have such a struggle between the digital and physical!
I go back and forth with keeping a reading journal/list because I use goodreads and I like that so it seems like double duty to also write it down, but I also love having things in my notebooks.
I had some of the same thoughts about keeping a journal with all the books I've read, but Park Notes convinced me it's worth the double duty. Maybe my kids will find it interesting to see what mom was reading when they were kids. 🤷♀️😄
Thank you, ladies. I am really wanting to lean into commonplacing and found your insights helpful and inspiring. I found a journal that has numbered pages with an index at the front so I'm thinking I'll try reading a book, highlighting as I read, and then going back once finished to enter my quotes. I just started with my first book and it took several nights but I finally got it done.
So after writing all my quotes I can then enter on the index page under the column for "Pages" 1-14 and then the column for subject, "Simplified Organization by Mystie Winckler." I'm sure I'll do more pruning of quotes in the future as I learn what sort of things are worth returning to over the years. 14 pages of quotes was a lot, but it was a really great book!
Oh I am so glad it was helpful! I actually took Elise's advice and started doing the same thing (where I finish a book and then go through and commonplace). I used sticky note flags (I think I tagged them above...there are a TON and they were like $6) this time and that was helpful for going through a longer book. I did some good winnowing for sure because I loved the writing so much that I wanted to write down every well crafted sentence!
I did my commonplacing on Sunday while everyone was watching football and it seemed like a very Sabbath appropriate activity.
I draw a distinction between my commonplace book and my reading journal. My reading journal is where I keep a list of all the books I have read that month, with author, format, and number of pages (the latter two being new this year), with all of the quotes from each book below its entry. My commonplace book holds quotes from other sources: newsletters, magazines, overheard comments, etc.
This month, I joined @Jillian Hess on her Noted Substack for a communal commonplace book, and for that, I used a separate five-year diary with space for only one quote per day (an idea borrowed from @Austin Kleon). At the moment, this is the only one in handwritten form; my reading journal is in Evernote, and my commonplace book is in Notion.
Oh interesting! I love to hear what works for other people! I have not tried out notion yet but I keep hearing things about it. I have such a struggle between the digital and physical!
I go back and forth with keeping a reading journal/list because I use goodreads and I like that so it seems like double duty to also write it down, but I also love having things in my notebooks.
I had some of the same thoughts about keeping a journal with all the books I've read, but Park Notes convinced me it's worth the double duty. Maybe my kids will find it interesting to see what mom was reading when they were kids. 🤷♀️😄
Park Notes channel
https://youtu.be/_bToCXlmfGo?si=COhoJZM_hHdkIYjm
I'm pretty sure my kids will have thousands of notebooks to go through bc all my planners are half notebook too...its a mess!
Thank you, ladies. I am really wanting to lean into commonplacing and found your insights helpful and inspiring. I found a journal that has numbered pages with an index at the front so I'm thinking I'll try reading a book, highlighting as I read, and then going back once finished to enter my quotes. I just started with my first book and it took several nights but I finally got it done.
So after writing all my quotes I can then enter on the index page under the column for "Pages" 1-14 and then the column for subject, "Simplified Organization by Mystie Winckler." I'm sure I'll do more pruning of quotes in the future as I learn what sort of things are worth returning to over the years. 14 pages of quotes was a lot, but it was a really great book!
Oh I am so glad it was helpful! I actually took Elise's advice and started doing the same thing (where I finish a book and then go through and commonplace). I used sticky note flags (I think I tagged them above...there are a TON and they were like $6) this time and that was helpful for going through a longer book. I did some good winnowing for sure because I loved the writing so much that I wanted to write down every well crafted sentence!
I did my commonplacing on Sunday while everyone was watching football and it seemed like a very Sabbath appropriate activity.