Commonplace Books: the Real Life Pinterest

Emma Allmann spends most of her time writing, reading, and ice-cream eating. She talks about all the books she reads on her blog, https://emryal.wordpress.com/. Follow her on Twitter @Emryal.

A commonplace book is a real life Pinterest quote board; a place to collect and organize quotes you like from books. When I started mine, it was an assignment for a class I was taking. I’ve since filled up that original notebook and am on my third. Why? I can hear you asking all the way through space, time, and the internet, why keep a commonplace book when quote boards on Pinterest do, in fact, exist? I’ve found it’s helped me become a more critical reader. We all know the feeling of getting so swept up in a well-written, captivating story that by the time we finish we need to take a few moments to regroup and think about it. Sometimes, rushing through a story like that makes us miss some beautiful details. Keeping a commonplace book has forced me to slow down and really chew on the bits of a story that are exciting. I get to think about what, exactly, the book is saying, and how it’s saying it so well. My standards for quotes and books have risen because I’m beginning to notice and appreciate truly well done, insightful writing.

I’m a bit old fashioned, but I think there is something special about writing things down on paper. Finding the perfect notebook and writing all over it always feels good. There have also been some studies that say people remember things better when they write them down instead of type them. It always feels cool to know that you have a relevant quote for a conversation and you can actually quote the whole thing instead of ending with, “It goes something like that, I’ll send it to you later.”