Commonplace Book
For some time since her operation, and without publication its goal, she had been jotting down without order or pattern, anecdotes gleaned from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, noting down those matters or events which moved her. One day these notes and fragments of thought might form a coherent mosaic and reveal to her her own spiritual autobiography as well as biography of her time.
Frederic Tuten The Green House
A commonplace book is a record or journal of memorable reading passages. Each of the following essays treats a different topic of the tradition of keeping such a collection.
Marks in the Margin describes the background of my own collection and the important role it plays in my reading experience.
Gathering Nectar traces the evolution of commonplace books from antiquity, through the Renaissance, and its various contemporary forms.
A Commonplace Book Survey reports the findings of the first-of-its-kind survey of individuals who currently keep a commonplace book.
The Electronic Future presents an overview of the recent appearance of commonplace books on the Web.
A Closer Look reports the results of the qualitative analysis of my own commonplace book, including the central themes of the passages I have recorded over the years.
Patterns Among the Passages considers the central themes revealed in the study and the way in which the experience of keeping a commonplace book has influenced my life.
The Commonplace Book Tradition concludes my discussion of commonplace books by examining technological developments that may affect the commonplace book tradition.
