Ever since listening to the ‘nuance window’ in the BBC4 ‘Your Dead to me Podcast’ on the history of fandom, I have been interested in the concept of a Common-Place Book.
In this podcast, historian Dr Corin Throsby describes them as a personal tool for the recording of reading – somewhere to copy down of favourite passages – which later became a sort of social media of the late 17th century. What had been a predominantly private, male, habit increasingly became a female and subsequently public one – showing off your taste in reading, having the book signed by friends and visitors. She notes that “In their heyday, Commonplace books are an example of fan culture at its very best. A creative, social, form of self-expression that offered a sense of connection in an increasingly mediated world.”
For me, however, I was captivated by the earlier idea of copying quotes, book passages, other interesting snippets of information for easy reference. But I’ve been a long-time notebook carrier, so what is the difference? What would be the benefit of starting a new one?
On carrying out further research, I was enlightened. It seems, that as Commonplace books were originally a source of reference – for scholars – they traditionally have some form of index, for quick cross referencing. This index could be a single document across all volumes – as over the years collections would inevitably expand – or specific to the individual book.
Whilst I got into indexing my individual notebooks fairly recently – on reading a how to guide to bullet point journaling in 2018 – this only covers individual books and is fairly generic. For example, I note that something is a writing point, but I don’t identify if it is a fantasy idea, or a description of a tree. With Commonplace Books – though this no doubt changes through time and individual preference – the index is intended to be both clear and thematic.
This is particularly noted in a fascinating article by forte Labs – ‘Commonplace Books: Creative Note-Taking Through History’, published January 2019, and subsequently updated in 2021. Reading this, has drawn my attention to the online copy of a book written by the philosopher Dr John Locke ‘A New Method of Making Common-Place Books’, which I have bookmarked and added to my (admittedly quite long) ‘to read’ pile.
Locke’s particular system is explored more deeply in ‘The Public Domain Reviews’ article ‘John Locke’s Method for Common-Place Books (1685)’. It seems to be a particularly complicated method, whereby (if I have understood right – I intend to review some of Locke’s Common-Place books to examine this more closely) blank pages are numbered and allocated a heading based on the first letter and the subsequent vowel (so if writing about Elephants, Ee, or if writing about Flamingos, Fa) and the entry added to the relevant page. It seems that this has some benefit in saving paper – important at a time when paper is expensive, but “result[s] in a wonderfully tangled mixture of reading and writing, where disparate ideas could be fruitfully thrown together onto the same pages, fixed together only by a formal method”.
Whilst this potentially removes the risk of extractions from the one source taking up a block of pages (which by their nature avoid the mixing of writers, topics, and subjects) it is a complex process. Given my tendency to over-think things generally, this is a step I will aim to simplify – with a standard alphabet system, perhaps with a classification against each entry identifying if it is an overheard quote, extract from a fiction book etc.
There is a long history of Common-Place note-taking, stretching back into the classical period, but looking more widely, I have discovered that it is still an active concept. There are a number of excellent articles exploring Common-Place books in the contemporary world, some are personal blogs, others are more formal ‘publications’:
Masterclass articles – How to keep a Common-Place Book
The Paper Kind – Common-Place Books
Many of these articles discuss the pros and cons of different formats, of keeping a paper version or keeping it electronically – using specialist social media platforms such as Goodreads or Tumblr, or simply using an electronic note-taking system. They all consider a Common-Place book a positive thing.
Writing down extracts, interesting snippets and such like allows your brain to better process the information, and to reflect on the content and possible wider implications. It can mean you gain a greater understanding or memory of the book you are reading, or information you have learned.
The books can be a central library/ source for research – a “personalized encyclopedia of quotations, references, and ideas” (Masterclass). As with Locke’s ‘mixed’ books, the contrast and juxtaposition of different ideas, topics and phrases can be a source of inspiration.
Whilst electronic systems can allow for quick and easy searching, handwriting the content is also a good way in itself for processing and absorbing, as “Writing by hand engages your brain in a way which typing on a keyboard doesn’t.” (Paperkind).
All of which are good reasons why I have decided to keep a Common-Place Book. As a writer, having a means of processing ideas, reflecting on – and enjoying – examples of other writing, and having a means of recording and accessing facts and inspiration is essential.
As a 40 at 40 activity, it will be a long term reminder of this celebratory year.
Most of the articles on current practice focus on Common-Place Books for Readers. As a means of enhancing a reading experience, storing information on current reading material. But when I visited Norwich Archives and reviewed a couple of examples, I was interested to note that more than extracts from literature were contained within the pages.
One in particular, that of Richenda Buxton (Norwich Archive reference MC 2773/3/1, 1032X2) aged 14 in 1834 (a name and character I have lodged in my memory banks as a potentially interesting story in and of herself), covered a broad spectrum of information. This included the poem ‘Enigma’ by Lord Byron; extracts from Shakespeare; epitaphs; extracts from letters; poems written – in person – by other family members; newspaper clippings; lecture notes; weather conditions. Several pages in 1855 were dedicated to a tragic accident at Ipswich where a sank off the coast with only one survivor – Richenda Buxton includes a list of those lost and their relatives. It is an insight into a Richenda’s sense of awareness, interest and family experiences.
As previously discussed, I do always carry a notebook, as much a means of getting my ideas down and tracking my to do lists (including shopping lists) as a record of information – so they are always a jumble of content. They sometimes even include drawings I sketch when my sketch book isn’t to hand. I also have dedicated notebooks for research relevant to the stories I am researching and writing. In these I put larger, specifically focused extracts/ notes as well as ideas and plot or character developments. If such notes were entirely allocated to a Common-Place Book there would be a mass of text dedicated to one theme, not the mixing of ideas that sounds so appealing.
There is therefore no issue with having a dedicated book for small quotes and snippets and my current notebooks – the day-to-day notebook and the research ones. I probably need to consider the possibility of creating a centralised index for these, separate from the index for the Common-Place Book, so that I can access ideas, observations and research more easily in the future. But for now, I shall just focus on the one.
My first Common-Place Book was started on 6th of August, utilising a special notebook that I was given many years ago and have been deciding how best to use. It has an elaborately decorated – with velvet spirals – cover, a ribbon tie, and tissue paper page dividers (which is now making me think that it was perhaps intended as a photograph album!). The paper is thick, but unfortunately not great with ink pens (my preferred pen for a ‘nice’ handwriting), as the ink spreads out a fraction – sadly – and my traditional Tudor ink and quill pen is far to weak to show effectively.
I am enjoying taking the time to savour my reading, to mix a range of topics, styles and genres. So far, I’ve included a wise statement overheard in the shopping queue, fiction snippets from Tom Holt, extracts of Victorian history by A. N. Wilson, and inspirational notes from Lowestoft Writers Group.
Long may it continue.