Really excited about your new direction! I've been thinking about taking my own newsletter in a different direction for a long time, and reading your post this morning helps give me more courage/feeling of license to do it myself. Thank you, Tsh!
I love this! I started one years ago in late jr high, but never knew it had a formal name. I began clipping the fun quotes off of celestial seasonings tea boxes and pasting them in a little book. Later adding quotes/scripture that were meaningful to me. I may have my girls begin this practice as they devour books this summer. Thanks for the fun idea. And I love the name change!
I love keeping quotes I love but never knew about a commonplace book. Going to have to start one of those. Thank you for mentioning it. For now, I have them listed on my blog (https://wellreadsoutherner.com/favoritequotes/) but a pretty journal would be more permanent.
Wait, there's a name for what I've done for over 20 years?? It's not just an odd quirk of mine? This is all so exciting - I'm actually commenting here for the first time! Thank you for the history of this habit (and for sharing your words so graciously).
Florilegium! How wonderful is that?!? I’m writing that and the meaning on the cover of my newest commonplace book. Commonplace is such a fitting title for this newsletter, love it. Thank you so much for sharing your writing, opening your emails always evokes a cozy space with thoughtful, good conversation amid friends and I glean value from each one.
I love this! What a freeing thing to have found a name that allows you the flexibility to write about whatever matters to you most at any given moment. And the focus on community, too. Such a wonderful new direction!
I don’t have a book with quotes, but I do have a little black Moleskine with Bible verses that a pastor encouraged me to keep, verses that speak to me of God’s good fatherhood to me. It’s been a source of peace in anxious times for me. Perhaps I need a new Moleskine for a commonplace book now too!
I love the new and very fitting title. I did wonder, when you started this corner of the internet, if Books & Crannies was a bookstore name before the Wingfeather Saga. It's just too good of a books and other sundries name. :) When you posted last week about sharing quotes we love, I realized I haven't copied down meaningful quotes recently. I used to do it more often in both paper journals and digital note spaces. I remember commonplace notebooks we started as children. I think that's where my love of journals began.
I've wanted to keep a commonplace book for a long time, but it took me forever to find the right format. I loved the *idea* of doing it in a notebook, but being on the go and reading digitally made that difficult. I started using the app/website Readwise.io at the beginning of the year and it's wonderful for this. It imports all of my Kindle and other highlights, I can manually add quotes easily, and then it serves up a couple to me each morning - little gems from the past.
I use Evernote and each month I open a new note entitled, "A Place to Drop My Thoughts" with the month and year added. I've been doing this for several years now. It's the place I gather powerful, fun, insightful quotes of all sorts, jot down concepts and ideas, store any mid-night inspiration, and exploring creating new things. It's always fun to go back each year, to look and see the journey, what took off and what lies fallow still.
I'm hopeful in the years to come I'll make a hard copy of them all, bind them, and perhaps pass them on to anyone who wants to wander the path of what was on my mind or caught my attention as I moved through life. This isn't the goal by any means, but perhaps an investment others by way of opening myself up to them.
I am reading the book Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren. I went back to the beginning this morning and this sentence popped out to me.
“I no longer define grief simply as a response to tragedy. Grief is commonplace.”
Tsh, I am a little on the hesitant and embarrassed side to ask, but since you put it out there, I will...i also didn’t know where/how to ask privately so...I am interested in subscribing but finances are a real concern for me. I just lost my husband in March of this year and finances are really hard right now.
Oh, this is a perfect name for your space here! I love it. Thank you for sharing about florilegium. I have been keeping a commonplace book off and on for a few years. Describing it as gathering a bouquet of thoughts is perfectly fitting.
I do keep a commonplace book -- and I love the little book qua book almost as much as I love what I've written in it. The one I carry in my purse right now is a purple-and-green plaid (Isle of Skye tartan) and is called "Waverley Genuine Tartan Cloth Commonplace Notebook." They come in a huge variety of plaids and I have a different one on my shelf to use when my current one is full.
Really excited about your new direction! I've been thinking about taking my own newsletter in a different direction for a long time, and reading your post this morning helps give me more courage/feeling of license to do it myself. Thank you, Tsh!
I love this, Tsh. Commonplace also makes me think of my favorite collection of Wendell Berry essays, The Art of the Commonplace!
I love this! I started one years ago in late jr high, but never knew it had a formal name. I began clipping the fun quotes off of celestial seasonings tea boxes and pasting them in a little book. Later adding quotes/scripture that were meaningful to me. I may have my girls begin this practice as they devour books this summer. Thanks for the fun idea. And I love the name change!
I love keeping quotes I love but never knew about a commonplace book. Going to have to start one of those. Thank you for mentioning it. For now, I have them listed on my blog (https://wellreadsoutherner.com/favoritequotes/) but a pretty journal would be more permanent.
Wait, there's a name for what I've done for over 20 years?? It's not just an odd quirk of mine? This is all so exciting - I'm actually commenting here for the first time! Thank you for the history of this habit (and for sharing your words so graciously).
Florilegium! How wonderful is that?!? I’m writing that and the meaning on the cover of my newest commonplace book. Commonplace is such a fitting title for this newsletter, love it. Thank you so much for sharing your writing, opening your emails always evokes a cozy space with thoughtful, good conversation amid friends and I glean value from each one.
I keep a commonplace notebook too, I just didn’t know it had a name. Love the new newsletter name too!
I love this! What a freeing thing to have found a name that allows you the flexibility to write about whatever matters to you most at any given moment. And the focus on community, too. Such a wonderful new direction!
I don’t have a book with quotes, but I do have a little black Moleskine with Bible verses that a pastor encouraged me to keep, verses that speak to me of God’s good fatherhood to me. It’s been a source of peace in anxious times for me. Perhaps I need a new Moleskine for a commonplace book now too!
I love the new and very fitting title. I did wonder, when you started this corner of the internet, if Books & Crannies was a bookstore name before the Wingfeather Saga. It's just too good of a books and other sundries name. :) When you posted last week about sharing quotes we love, I realized I haven't copied down meaningful quotes recently. I used to do it more often in both paper journals and digital note spaces. I remember commonplace notebooks we started as children. I think that's where my love of journals began.
I've wanted to keep a commonplace book for a long time, but it took me forever to find the right format. I loved the *idea* of doing it in a notebook, but being on the go and reading digitally made that difficult. I started using the app/website Readwise.io at the beginning of the year and it's wonderful for this. It imports all of my Kindle and other highlights, I can manually add quotes easily, and then it serves up a couple to me each morning - little gems from the past.
“Florilegium is a portmanteau of the Latin words flos (flower) and legere (to gather): literally, a gathering of flowers.”
Love this! I have been keeping a commonplace note on my iPhone, one for each year, filled with quotes from books or a podcast. I started in 2017.
Love this!!
I use Evernote and each month I open a new note entitled, "A Place to Drop My Thoughts" with the month and year added. I've been doing this for several years now. It's the place I gather powerful, fun, insightful quotes of all sorts, jot down concepts and ideas, store any mid-night inspiration, and exploring creating new things. It's always fun to go back each year, to look and see the journey, what took off and what lies fallow still.
I'm hopeful in the years to come I'll make a hard copy of them all, bind them, and perhaps pass them on to anyone who wants to wander the path of what was on my mind or caught my attention as I moved through life. This isn't the goal by any means, but perhaps an investment others by way of opening myself up to them.
I am reading the book Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren. I went back to the beginning this morning and this sentence popped out to me.
“I no longer define grief simply as a response to tragedy. Grief is commonplace.”
Tsh, I am a little on the hesitant and embarrassed side to ask, but since you put it out there, I will...i also didn’t know where/how to ask privately so...I am interested in subscribing but finances are a real concern for me. I just lost my husband in March of this year and finances are really hard right now.
Humbly thanks for considering.
Oh, this is a perfect name for your space here! I love it. Thank you for sharing about florilegium. I have been keeping a commonplace book off and on for a few years. Describing it as gathering a bouquet of thoughts is perfectly fitting.
I do keep a commonplace book -- and I love the little book qua book almost as much as I love what I've written in it. The one I carry in my purse right now is a purple-and-green plaid (Isle of Skye tartan) and is called "Waverley Genuine Tartan Cloth Commonplace Notebook." They come in a huge variety of plaids and I have a different one on my shelf to use when my current one is full.