Commonplace may not be the best word to describe the contents of a book that are not so commonplace after all. This annotated personal anthology can consist of anything that appeals to and stimulates the compiler: song lyrics, aphorisms, poems, newspaper clippings, recipes, prayers and even overheard conversations. Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci filled hundreds of pages with observations from his explorations while writer Virginia Woolf treated hers as a capricious hold-all with a mass of odds and ends about her creative endeavours. In modern times, even the genial but “warmly ruthless” former US president Ronald Reagan kept a collection of jokes and stories.
If ideas were quantifiable, collecting them would be similar to earning compound interest on an investment. Logging an illuminating realisation or discovery makes it easier for you to think up new ones and note the things in your life that awaken your muse. Although some of the brightest ideas in business, science and politics began as doodles on a napkin from underneath a cocktail glass, a good system for storing your thoughts helps to shepherd your aim into action. Call this bank of ideas your commonplace book.
The commonplace book is believed to have begun in antiquity. Copying your favourite lines from another person’s work into your annotated notebook was a common exercise in Renaissance Europe. This tradition reached notable popularity during the modern period, when literate people were discombobulated by the stream of information that the printing press had unleashed on them. By appropriating nuggets of wisdom or philosophy from others, you can create a nest of information threaded with your own personality and subtle interjection.
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