The Commonplace Book Club Starts September 1st!

Because notes are best when shared

I love that Noted’s anniversary falls at the beginning of the academic year. It’s a time to renew our intellectual ambitions, a time to think deeply and play with ideas.

So, as part of Noted’s two year anniversary celebration, I’m announcing

Whether you are a seasoned commonplacer or a newbie, I think you’ll find it energizing to collect quotes in community. I know I will!

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What is a Commonplace Book?

Do you write out quotes or facts that you want to remember? Then you keep a commonplace book!

The commonplace book is an ancient tradition for copying out quotations. Brilliant thinkers throughout history have kept commonplace books including John Milton, Lewis Carroll, Virginia Woolf, and Octavia Butler.

Commonplace books of John Milton, Lewis Carroll, Octavia Butler, and Virginia Woolf (clockwise)

As many of you know, almost all of my academic writing has focused on commonplace books. I published an academic book on the subject in 2022: How Romantics and Victorians Organized Information.

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Why Keep a Commonplace Book?

When I dreamed up the CBC, I wrote out the following reasons why I love keeping a commonplace book:

1. Developing a personal relationship with literature.

2. Keeping track of my reading.

3. Revisiting (& remembering) favorite lines.

4. Being able to think through lines slowly as I rewrite them.

5. Sharing my collection of quotes with other people.

But don’t take my word for it! Here is what great thinkers have written about their collections of quotes:

Virginia Woolf describes keeping a commonplace book as a way to heighten her reading experience. She reads as though she were on a hunt:

That’s the real point of my little brown book…that it makes me read —with a pen—following the scent…¹

Walt Whitman describes

… a certain old, well-thumb’d common-place book, filled with favorite excerpts, I carried in my pocket for three summers, and absorb’d over and over again, when the mood invited. I find so much in having a poem or fine suggestion sink into me (a little then goes a great ways) prepar’d by these vacant-sane and natural influenced.²

And then of course, here is Seneca’s fantastic metaphor for commonplacing:

We also, I say, ought to copy these bees, and sift whatever we have gathered from a varied course of reading, for such things are better preserved if they are kept separate; then, by applying the supervising care with which our nature has endowed us, – in other words, our natural gifts, – we should so blend those several flavours into one delicious compound that, even though it betrays its origin, yet it nevertheless is clearly a different thing from that whence it came.³

If you have the habit of keeping a collection of quotes, you already know its value. If you don’t, this is a great opportunity to start. In just 5-10 minutes a day, you can start a commonplacing habit!

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Why I Started the CBC:

Over the past two years, Noted’s readers have sent me images of their notes—and I’ve loved it! (You’ll see what I mean on Monday with our anniversary post.) Many of you are avid note-takers. Many of you wish you were better note-takers.

This is the perfect opportunity to work on our note-taking practice in community! And, to be honest, I’d also love some companionship as I continue my own commonplacing journey.

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Some Inspiration:

Here are some recent images from my own collection:

I’ve begun writing out a quote every day in a 5-year journal (inspired by the endlessly creative

Austin Kleon

). Here are some quotes from earlier this summer:

Typed quotes are also welcome!

Remember: There is no wrong way to keep a commonplace book!

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Let’s Form a Note-Taking Habit!

Part of my goal for the CBC is to foster a daily commonplace book habit (for myself and for you). We’ll start small with just one quote a day—typed or handwritten.

Of course, you don’t have to post your quotes—this is totally optional—but, I hope you’ll post at least once. I never tire of looking at other people’s notes!

As an added incentive, if you post a picture of a quote everyday for all 30 days, I’ll enter you in a raffle to win one of the following prizes🏆:

1. A personalized notebook (handmade by me)

2. A signed copy of my book

3. A complimentary 1 year subscription to Noted (this will extend your subscription for an extra year at no cost to you)

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How to Join

The Commonplace Book Club (CBC) is a perk for paid subscribers. And this is a great time to join as I’m offering a 20% discount for our anniversary sale!⁴

• The CBC will take place on our private chat:

• It will look something like our Earth Day chat:

• Every evening in September, I will start a new thread with my own image of a quote (at around 8/9pm Eastern Standard Time). That way, the thread will be available for early birds and international participants.

• I’ll open the first thread this Saturday evening (August 31st). The first thread (and only the first) will be available to free subscribers—that way, you can decide if this is something you’d like to participate in.

I’ve been writing out quotes since I was a teenager. I can’t wait to do it in community with you!

Will you join? I hope so! Let me know, and post any questions you have in the comments.

I’m so excited to start!

1. Woolf, Virginia. A Writer’s Diary, Harcourt, 1982, p. 301.

2. Whitman, Walt. Complete Prose Works: Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Good Bye My Fancy. D. Appleton and Company, 1910.

3. Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Epistle LXXXIV, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1971.

4. I believe that education and community are for everyone. As always, if you can’t swing the subscription fee right now, send me a message via email (notedbee@gmail.com) or through the Substack chat and I’ll comp you for the next few months so you can join in the fun. In return, I ask that you post to our chat at least once.