Commonplacing as Transcendent Connection

Celebrating the January Commonplace Book Club (CBC)

I have always thought of keeping a commonplace book as a kind of transcendent connection. Writing out my favorite lines from my favorite authors feels like forming a community that transcends time and space. In transcribing an author’s words, I appoint that author as a kindred spirit. No matter that this author might have died centuries ago. No matter that I don’t always agree with everything the author writes; their ideas are still worth pondering.

For the month of January, I woke each morning with Seneca’s words. Doing so conditioned me to see the world through his eyes. I started to understand my own particular circumstances (the good, the bad, the banal) through Seneca’s philosophy. I travelled through January with Seneca. And also with those of you who participated in the CBC.

Keeping my commonplace book in community with you has felt like another kind of transcendent connection. We come from different corners of the globe, reading and writing in different time-zones. We brought different experiences to our practice. And yet, so much of what you chose to keep in your commonplace book resonated with me. There is so much I want to keep from our January threads.

Before we get to the communal commonplace book, some housekeeping:

First, the prizes! Many of you maintained a daily practice through January—and of those who did, I drew three names from the lottery. Here are the winners:

• Sabrina Morelli
  : a handmade notebook

• Rowland Jones
  : A copy of my book, How Romantics and Victorians Organized Information

• Simon
  : a year’s subscription to Noted

Congratulations!

Second, our next club: For this, our first year of the CBC, I decided to convene seasonally (September for Autumn, January for Winter, March/April for Spring and June for Summer).¹ From the survey, April won for our Spring meeting. I’m already dreaming up which author I want to focus on for that session of the CBC.

While I hope you’ll join our April CBC, I understand that four times a year might be too much for some. Please use the CBC in whatever way serves you. For my part, I’ve found it deeply enriching. I’ve never been so consistent with my commonplacing habit, and it is all because of your companionship.

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To celebrate the January CBC’s conclusion, I’ve assembled a communal commonplace book filled with quotations from community members who granted me permission to reproduce their entries.