keep a commonplace book

I’ve been journalling for the past few days as I have had quite rambling thoughts on M – 11 pages of thoughts in fact. The book I am using is interesting because I have used it for two previous bursts of thoughts, in 2002 (34.5 pages in 5 days) and 2006 (documenting my feelings on starting to draw, which is fascinating) so it is quite revealing, I have obviously turned to writing in it at intense periods of feeling. I kept a daily diary in 1999 and beginning of 2000 and I used livejournal for a few months in 2004. So I have quite a lot of records of my life.

M wondered whether emails would form the new collected works of writers, as letters and journals have in the past. I am not sure. There are so many outlets for our thoughts now. We dabble in different sites, blogs and message boards. The internet is so huge and passwords mean much of our writing is inaccessible. What we write may never be found. I am not sure how I feel about that.

like a handwritten 43T.

I DO THIS ALREADY! I researched the concept a bit more and I do this.

I keep a journal in my purse where I write EVERYTHING in it. Observations, notes, measurements, dates of importance, directions, etc. (My father also does this, must be genetic!)

I just didn’t know it had a name of “COMMONPLACE” book.

I think that this will help me appreciate what I read a little more. I’ve been collecting quotes for a while and this enables me to put a name to it.

I don’t know if it will be a commonplace book per se but more of a journal with quotes, wishes and thoughts.

mine is kinda different to other common place books…
its images
and words.
but i love it!

I took my commponplace book (which was just a spiral at the top notebook with 500 pages) with me overseas. I didnt really write in it, but tore pages out and took with me every day for if i found something. i did find things which was good.
Even though it pretty much stayed packed, the pages were getting close to falling out, so in the end, I tore them out.

I can’t believe I did it! There were like 15 pages or something.

I still have the pages, and I plan to buy a really nice book and make a fantastic commonplace book. I just have to re-write the stuff.

I guess it is a chance to actually make it nice, and its better now than later because it did look pretty scabby

I splurged and bought myself a leather-bound journal to use as my commonplace book. It has a bottle-green cover with a tasteful Celtic knot design embossed on it, and 240 lined pages, which should be enough to get me started. ;-) In the past, when I’ve been given fancy journals like this, I’ve never had the nerve to write in them because they seemed so precious, and as though every word committed to their pages should be perfectly chosen and true for all time. But I’ve decided it was time to get over this kind of writer’s block.

I’m putting two-and-two together and pairing this goal with another of my goals, to do the A-Z Author challenge. My A author is Paul Auster, and the book is The Brooklyn Follies.

I steeled myself and wrote my first entry in my journal:

p. 31 – ”’Without the drudgery, no bliss.’”

This line is spoken by a character who’s explaining why he enjoys his job, a job which others see as routine and boring, and a waste of his talent.