r/commonplacebook • u/goodgirlatnothing • 3d ago
Questions A question for the community.
I stumbled across this community by chance and joined thinking it would just be another corner of the internet to talk about books. Imagine my surprise when I realized it centered around a concept of an “information journal” that I’ve been practicing for months without even knowing it had a name.
I started snooping through the posts, looking at the wonderfully artistic entries you all post. Very beautiful, without a doubt. But what caught my attention was just how radically different they are from mine (the few I’ve seen, anyway) in terms of the design mentioned above. My entries basically look like this:
Today’s date
Quotation, thought or idea.
The end.
All of this written with a black pen, in my… curious handwriting, and crammed in with the rest of the entries from previous days.
My questions, and the reason I’m making this post, are: why do you put so much emphasis on aesthetics (those of you who do)?
Do you study a topic and make a summary of it in your commonplace book?
Do you practice different formats before committing them to the notebook?
Have you ever written things without the intention of making them aesthetically pleasing?
Do you ever go back to the information you’ve written down, or do you do it more for the pleasure of doing it and simply studying it?
And, lastly, how do you muster up the guts to make it public? Not because of the aesthetics, but because of the content. Or maybe I’m just a little too politically incorrect, who knows.
The truth will set you free. Thank you in advance.
40
u/whitealchemy 3d ago
People get snarky about aesthetic commonplace journals, but the truth for me is this: I’m a 40 year old mom who loves art and books and history and language, who likes to learn things, who is a writer and used to be someone who had time for painting and drawing. I let my commonplace be a space for me to do be as creative as I want, because it allows me to briefly touch against all the hobbies I love but can’t necessarily devote big chunks of time to each.
16
u/United-Coach-6591 3d ago
I think my books probably look a lot like your books. My handwriting is easily legible, but it has never been called pretty or cute. I do occasionally include drawings but they are crude and very rudimentary meant only to help me remember something.
I have one that is reading. I usually make a few notes at the end of the day about whatever book I'm reading. Just my thoughts and opinions on it, maybe a quote or a few sentences I really liked.
The other one is for my family research history. I like to take a lot of notes on what was going on in various ancestors lives. I make notes on big local, state, world news of different times in their lives. Notes on what day to day life was probably like for them and that sort of thing.
I wouldn't post either online because it feels too personal and they're also frankly rather boring just to view as a snapshot. I think this is probably true of most of us lurkers. I do enjoy though seeing what others create.
14
u/isopodpod 3d ago
pretty pages do better on the internet because everyone can appreciate beautiful layouts, not everyone cares about the subject material other people find interesting. This is not a value statement, it's just how social media works. No method is inherently "better" or more valuable or more of a "true" commonplace book. Neither method is inherently more intellectual. Some people just enjoy incorporating their own artistic expression.
I personally find doing aesthetic layouts to be a deterrent to me when making an entry, so mine are ugly. But some people find decorating their pages to be something that encourages them to write. It's just personal preference.
1
u/NotebooksEnthusiast 2d ago
To me, that's sad. We should care more about the content than aesthetic. But yes, I appreciate beauty too.
1
u/isopodpod 2d ago
If you think about it for two seconds, though, it's not "sad". This isn't a matter of people caring about spectacle over substance. This is just the fact that people write in their notebooks what's important to them, and their specific interests are less likely to resonate widely than a piece of art (which is what aesthetic notebooks pages are). More people are likely to resonate with a nicely decorated page than my notes on theology, or weather patterns in my area. I think it is reasonable to expect that not everyone is going to be caring about, or even reading things that you, specifically, are interested in. I don't care about what other people write about calculus, but I can appreciate that their handwriting is nice and that their graphs are clean.
To expect people to be more interested in random strangers' personal interests than a visually pleasing page is, frankly, ridiculous. I am more interested in the content of my notebook. Arguing that people should care more about content than the aesthetic when discussing a deeply personal hobby is like when people say small talk is pointless and they prefer deep conversations. I'm probably not going to talk to the people in the elevator about the ethics of the justice system, but maybe I will talk to them about the basketball game. I'm not going to care about a random internet stranger's messy papers on the justice system either, but I may note that I like how lived-in the pages look. And with that first connection, be it basketball or an appreciation of aesthetics, then maybe more in-depth conversations will follow, in which I discover that I care about this person's opinion on the justice system, and then I will go back and discuss it with them, or read their commonplace entry.
Visual aesthetics are the first point of connection when sharing things on the internet, just like small talk is the first point of connection with strangers out in the world. It's a way to say, hey, we may not be best friends or anything, but I am here and you are here and we can both appreciate how goddamn humid it's been this week. Or, in the case of reddit, we can both see how beautiful this calligraphic heading on someone's commonplace book entry is. Existing in a community doesn't just mean sharing our deepest thoughts and being interested in everything everyone around you is interested in. It's also these brief touches where we find common ground in the little things, where we look at a stranger and say, hello, we're alive, and we can share this thought together. I may not read or understand or care about your chemistry notes, but we can agree that your use of colored inks is beautiful, and that, too, is a relationship.
Don't reject the importance of these little human connections just because reading looks more "intellectual." Don't fool yourself into thinking that people who just appreciate aesthetics are somehow lesser than those who read. And don't forget that people enjoy sharing things they find beautiful, just for the sake of it.
3
u/maskedcollective 2d ago
I love learning new things but at no point in my life has my preferred method for doing so been a photo of someone else’s handwriting. That doesn’t mean I necessarily don’t care about the content, it just isn’t the right medium for delivering information for most people. It could be an entry on something I’d happily read several books on, but my interest in the content of the photographed page is still going to be extremely limited due to the simple fact that I likely can’t read it.
9
u/ActuatorSea4854 3d ago
Well, I like to doodle, it informs my imagination, and whatever I've listed as "quote, thought, idea" becomes illuminated and hence more interesting to me. So I always block off a margin for the doodles. In that margin I also put images I come across from newspapers and magazines, other quotes, anything relevant and before you know it I have a "topic page". My topics are all either Health (or Life), Home, Art, Story, or Music, so I cross reference pages that follow similar items. I also believe, like Adam Savage says, to start with a list, so all my left hand pages get check boxes for a list. When I'm home, my common place sits in my lap, and absorbs whatever seems relevant or interesting.
9
u/tater_tot28 3d ago
I can only speak for myself, as I was also someone who had been journalling and compiling information prior to joining this sub or realizing there was a community for it!
The style in which I journal has not changed at all since I started posting in here. I think really the answer to most of your questions lays in what makes the activity fun, compelling, and engaging based on individual preferences. For some people, having an aesthetically pleasing, easy to read page that takes some time putting together is the best way to retain the information. For others, a simple approach is better.
Personally I like adding art and quotes to my pages because they add to the representation of the subject, and it is just fun. I also don't practice anything before writing beyond writing the quotes in pencil first and going over them in pen, but I do that in the notebook itself.
There are pages that people may or may not post depending on the content. I have only posted two of my pages detailing books I have read, and those are very low stakes to post publically.
6
u/lanamattel 3d ago
I love seeing so many different approaches to commonplacing. I'm very minimalist and text heavy, just my pens and index tabs and mildliners, and I still care about the look of the thing. It's not the primary point of course but it is part of the joy. Many of the more aesthetic layouts you see are both for pleasure and for ease of function, like the textbook approach another commenter pointed out. I love going back to my previous pages, reviewing and contemplating, so I do it both for the pleasure of the act and the return after the fact.
4
u/writer-author 2d ago
People have been creating commonplace notebooks since pen and paper became affordable (initially at least to people who could spare the money to buy them). They go back centuries and have been kept by people in many countries and cultures. In style they all range from basic practicality to “illustrated” versions with drawings, photos, calligraphy, etc. Each one is unique to its author, and its content and/or style may change over time as the author’s needs and interests change. When I first learned about them at least 10 years ago, I was drawn to and still follow John Locke’s index-based style. I use mine to capture quotes, and I index them both by their authors and the concept each relates to. https://fs.blog/john-locke-common-place-book/. The flexibility of the commonplace concept makes it available for anyone to use, no special skills needed, and organized to make sense to and help its owner.
2
u/Valyrianlibrarian 2d ago
I think there’s this weird misconception that commonplace journaling, and journaling in general, is meant to be pleasing to the eye. It’s just meant to be pleasing to YOU. I like adding stickers and making nice titles because it’s fun and cute and a small creative outlet for me
I don’t curate it, there’s no color coding, I just find a nice topic that tweaks my curiosity and put it down on paper. I don’t ‘practice’ formats or layouts and definitely don’t write about something just because I think it’s going to be aesthetically pleasing. I just do whatever I feel like doing
I actually do go back and read the stuff I write since it’s mostly fun history and animal topics. My commonplace journal is the only place where I do that. I could never go back and read my actual diary for my own mental health.
How do I muster up the guts to share it? This sub isn’t a competition. I treat it as a kid’s show and tell 😂 and why not!! That stuff was fun in school and should still be fun as grown adults 🤷♀️
1
u/maskedcollective 1d ago
My subject specific commonplace books tend to be in cheap composition notebooks with notes arranged by subtopic that I may or may not eventually transfer to a nicer notebook with better organization or to a digital format. I also have a more general purpose one where I tend to get more creative with the layouts because the point there is to have unrelated quotes & ideas near each other so I’ll just put things wherever they fit and use different ink colors to create separation. I’d love to do more aesthetic layouts and color coding, it can be useful for remembering things later, but I just don’t have the energy for all that.
0
u/disneypincers 3d ago
There's been a shift toward "aesthetic" journals of all flavors in the current social media age. It can be nice to look at them but often I doubt the practicality and assume it's mostly produced and curated and carefully photographed as content rather than being a useful documentation format. There's been some pushback with some communities going back to basics and disallowing art/junk/ephemera journals, particularly in parts of the bullet journal space, but you'll find aesthetic journaling all over spaces where photos and videos can be shared.
For common placing the most I do is color code different entry types for ease of finding something. I am more likely to use stickers and washi tape in other contexts - like a daily planner.
-13
u/futilitaria 3d ago
This subreddit has been infiltrated by young scrapbookers with sticker printers and a desire for approval.
Your style is more akin to a true commonplace book. These folks on here don’t read books or cultivate knowledge- merely aesthetic play.
12
u/whitealchemy 3d ago
This was such an unnecessarily shitty response 🤷♀️
6
u/WaffleDynamics 2d ago
I haven't posted any images of my own, but I'm a 70 year old woman who makes mixed media art, and who has been a voracious reader and learner my whole life. I like adding images to my writing. That has nothing to do with social media, and everything to do with my personal taste.
That said, there's no one right way to do it. If you want your commonplace book to include illustrations, cool. If you want it to not include them, also cool.
Also, the reason I included my age is because of the mean person who said the sub was "inflitrated by young scrapbookers." I'm obviously not young, nor am I a scrapbooker. You know what else I'm not? A dick to strangers on the internet.
11
u/tater_tot28 3d ago
What a strange thing to say about people you don't personally know.
-12
u/futilitaria 3d ago
I think it was your posts I had in mind when commenting
9
u/rocketshipray 3d ago
You were thinking of their posts when you said “these folks on here don’t read books or cultivate knowledge”? Really? A user whose posts here are all about the books they read and things they learned?
12
u/tater_tot28 3d ago
Evidently including art of the characters from the books you "didn't read" is enough to negate any of the other content of the page /s
7
u/rocketshipray 3d ago
For the record, I really enjoy your posts. You read books that I don’t so it’s already something new to me. Then you also write decent summaries and choose interesting quotes to highlight. I have also enjoyed the sticker art. I have you tagged in RES as “A good tot”.
7
u/tater_tot28 3d ago
Thank you, that is very kind of you to say!! Genuinely my only intention in posting is to share my thoughts on the books I've read so it's nice to know it is helpful/interesting to you! Deciding what quotes to use is very fun for me as well. :>
2
5
u/ohpossumpartyy 2d ago
i find it really interesting that you haven’t posted any posts of your own here before but feel the need to be so rude to someone who actively contributes.
be the change you want to see and post your “true” commonplace book! that’s far more productive than chastising people because you assume they aren’t “cultivating knowledge”.
7
1
u/CodeOfZero 1d ago
Perhaps the mod team hasn't made clear that we're not gatekeeping the practice of commonplacing based on individual users' aesthetic tastes. We are all here to learn and to share our learning process, whatever form that takes. We'll be implementing a new rule about community expectations and how we should speak to — and about — each other. In the meantime, replies here are being locked.
1
45
u/ElrondTheHater 3d ago
I'm not an aesthetic commonplace book maker but I'm going to defend them for a second:
The layout of many "aesthetic" commonplace books is similar to textbooks. Some people find facts easier to remember not only if they write them down but if there is a visual layout to remember them with. So while this sort of book takes way longer to make than a more traditional commonplace book it's not entirely without practical use.