What is a commonplace book?

Being writers and visual artists, wonder | wander | women love collecting and filling up notebooks. Our post at the beginning of the year talked about our notebook review and the journals we filled up last year. 

Sketchbook with wonder | wander | women’s own handcrafted cover!

Each journal serves a specific purpose: Morning Pages for stream of consciousness journaling, planners for scheduling and keeping track of events, sketchbooks and art books for creative outlets, idea factories and honing our skills. 

Leuchtturm notebook with Japanese cover:
Our planner and temporary Morning Pages journal 

There is one notebook that we carry everywhere. Unlike our strategic, intentional notebook keeping, this one is simply a catch-all for any thought or observation that passes throughout the day.

This year’s commonplace book:
Moleskine plain softcover with sticker by kiriska

Ryan Holiday calls this the “commonplace book” and it seems that people have a long history of writing down quotes, ideas, pieces of conversations, lists of things to look up, anything that comes to mind. 

Commonplace book with current reading:
a good combination for getting more out of your books

The commonplace book is “a central resource for ideas, quotes, anecdotes, observations, and information you come across during your life…the purpose of this book is to record and organise these gems for later use.”

Reading notes, daily diary, and sketching: your memories in a notebook

According to The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen, in 1512 the priest Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote a guide to writing and rhetoric known today as De Copia. 

The Notebook: chapter on commonplace books

In it he encourages “the copious accumulation of proofs and arguments” from many sources, and he urges readers to assemble this collected knowledge according to their needs, by subject, in “common places”.

Currently-reading book list, with washi tape by TheCoffeeMonsterzCo

Philosophers, scientists and writers alike learned and taught how to keep these “common-place” books. John Locke and Francis Bacon wrote guides on how to create and organise them, the way today’s YouTubers create videos explaining their journaling and planning systems.

Notes on commonplace books, with help from ParkNotes

Today it only requires a notebook, a pen, and a curious mind to start creating this pocket library for yourself. Commonplace books have come back to life online and in daily practice, although like us, you may have already had one without knowing it. 

Ideas for future artwork series

Mini travel diary