A Mini Milestone

Filling up my first commonplace journal

I started keeping a commonplace journal (recording striking quotes from the books I read) over two years ago. A couple of days ago, I filled up the last page. For a chronic starter (and rare finisher) of various kinds of journals, the fact that I have turned commonplacing into a consistent habit is a mini miracle. This is especially true when I consider that these two-plus years of commonplacing encompassed the birth of my second child, a move from the midwest to the east coast, and the ups and downs of keeping chickens.

It may seem a small and silly thing to be proud of, but maintaining this practice is representative of greater hopes and aspirations. For example, the intellectual life has always been an essential component of both my sense of self and my faith. As is the case with so many women, becoming a stay at home mom has presented challenges to giving my intellectual life time and attention. Starting, and keeping up with, my commonplace journal has been one simple way to do so. This simple habit, in turn, birthed the idea for a more substantial way to attend to my intellectual life: creating this Substack.

Grafting my desire to write onto an already established habit of commonplace journaling has proven to be an excellent decision. My Substack has already lasted longer than any writing project I’ve embarked on outside of academia. In addition to serving as a way to give my intellectual life the time and attention it deserves, writing on Substack has also helped fill another need in my life: the need for connection with others.

By writing about the quotes preserved in my commonplace journal, I’ve discovered the ability to touch the hearts and minds of real people who, unlike my supportive family and friends, aren’t obligated to say nice things about and/or like my posts. In comments, likes, and shares, I have been reminded, again and again, that in this crazy, wonderful, heartbreaking, and overwhelming life, I am not alone. What’s more, I’ve been dreaming of becoming a published author almost as long as I can remember. This Substack has helped make that dream feel just a tiny bit realer. Maybe the moneymaking/official book making part of that dream will come later. Maybe it won’t. But for now, I am pretty content with the beginning I have made in this surprisingly lovely corner of the internet.

Outside of my intellectual aspirations, my commonplace journal is symbolic of other hopes I have for my life. I struggle hard to maintain a healthy sense of detachment from technology/the internet, particularly as mediated by my smartphone. Having at least one consistent habit that replaces mindless scrolling and quick googling with deliberate recording and thoughtful curating is key. It reminds me that I shouldn’t depend on technology for entertainment and dopamine hits, and that time is a precious gift, not a thing to waste. By commonplacing I am engaging with the world in a way that requires an active response, rather than mere passive consumption, from me. When I scroll on my phone, I can all too easily ‘objectify’ others; their ideas, their videos, their photos are things that exist for my enjoyment.

On the other hand, when I commonplace, my attitude is more humble, and more thoughtful. As I decide what to record, and later what to write about, I am thinking about what I can, and have, learned from those whose works I have read, and what I can share with others about that learning. I receive, I reflect, and (on this Substack) I attempt to ‘give back’ in an act of gratitude and love. And this process inevitably becomes spiritual in nature. All of creation, and much of human subcreation, reflects the glory of its Creator. Commonplacing has helped me to notice this reflection more and more deeply.

Finally, as my children grow older and more aware, I hope that my commonplacing can become an important example to them. I hope that they will see that in addition to being their Mom, I am also a person with interests and ideas that extend to the wider world. And in seeing that, I hope they will learn to cultivate their own interests and ideas no matter what vocation God calls them too. I hope that they will see that there is a magic to pens and inks and beautiful journals that mere screens can’t replicate. I hope they will realize that the books we read leave imprints on our soul, for better or worse, and that cultivating a healthy series of imprints is a noble task. I hope they will remember that looking back and learning from the past is just as important as imaging the future in our “progress” obsessed society.

In short, if you haven’t started your own commonplace journal, I hope you are encouraged to start one now! There’s lots of ways to do it, from my simple “find quote that is funny/poignant/thought-provoking/beautiful/true, write down” shtick to whole systems of organizing, commenting, and reflecting.

Finally, I thought I’d share the list of books recorded in my commonplace journal, alone with the number of quotes I picked from each book next to its title. It’s interesting to look at the bigger picture. My favorite book of all time, The Lord of the Rings, has less quotes recorded than a book like Middlemarch, which I love, but wouldn’t put in my top five favorites. I found True Grit to be a better and more enjoyable book than say, Paris to the Moon, but I recorded only two quotes from it to the other’s four. Also interesting is comparing this book list to my Goodreads list, where I track everything I read. There are books I read that don’t make the ‘cut’ quote wise, even if I think they are books worth reading (such as Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies). In any case, I hope you find the list interesting, and get some good book recommendations out of it. Happy reading, and happy commonplacing!

*Final note: I keep a separate commonplace journal for the specifically religious/theological texts I read, though there are some books (Like A Severe Mercy or Heretics) that could be recorded in either journal.

1. Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen (10)

2. Brooklyn: Colm Toibin (2)

   1. Side note-this book was turned into an absolutely lovely movie that is, dare I say it, better than the book?

3. The Vicar of Wakefield: Oliver Goldsmith (7)

4. Death Comes for the Archbishop: Willa Cather (8)

5. Ender’s Game: Orson Scott Card (6)

6. Speaker for the Dead: Orson Scott Card (9)

7. Ethan Frome: Edith Wharton (5)

8. Tremendous Trifles: G.K. Chesterton (14)

9. The Riddle: Alison Croggon (2)

10. Silas Marner: George Eliot (13)

11. The Silmarillion: J.R.R. Tolkien (9)

12. Diary of a Country Priest: Georges Bernanos (17)

13. Emma: Jane Austen (16)

14. Paris to the Moon: Adam Gopnik (4)

15. The Fellowship of the Ring: J.R.R. Tolkien (15)

16. The Two Towers: J.R.R. Tolkien (9)

17. The Return of the King: J.R.R. Tolkien (12)

18. A Christmas Carol: Charles Dickens (5)

19. Heretics: G.K. Chesterton (9)

20. Their Eyes Were Watching God: Zora Neale Hurston (10)

21. Eugenie Grandet: Honore de Balzac (11)

22. The Ladies Paradise: Emile Zola (5)

23. Various Sherlock Holmes Stories/Novels: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (7)

24. How to Read and Why: Harold Bloom (10)

25. Middlemarch: George Eliot (34)

26. Quicksand: Nella Larsen (8)

27. The Optimist’s Daughter: Eudora Welty (8)

28. A Morbid Taste for Bones: Ellis Peters (5)

29. One Corpse Too Many: Ellis Peter (3)

30. The Overstory: Richard Powers (7)

31. Wives and Daughters: Elizabeth Gaskell (12)

32. The Robber Bridegroom: Eudora Welty (4)

33. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: Muriel Spark (6)

34. Hannah Coulter: Wendell Berry (18)

35. Rob Roy: Sir Walter Scott (6)

36. The Scarlett Letter: Nathanial Hawthorne (12)

37. The Memory of Old Jack: Wendell Berry (15)

38. Agamemnon: Euripides (7)

39. The Libation Bearers: Euripides (2)

40. The Eumenides: Euripides (6)

41. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Betty Smith (11)

42. Northanger Abbey: Jane Austen (8)

43. Delta Wedding: Eudora Welty (12)

44. Mansfield Park: Jane Austen (14)

45. Omeros: Derek Walcott (10)

46. The Virginian: Owen Wister (8)

47. The Picture of Dorian Gray: Oscar Wilde (12)

48. Charis in the World of Wonders: Marly Youmans (12)

49. House Made of Dawn: N. Scott Momaday (6)

50. A Canticle for Leibowitz: Walter M. Miller Junior (14)

51. Dracula: Bram Stoker (7)

52. Little Women: Louisa May Alcott (29)

53. True Grit: Charles Portis (2)

54. The Warden: Anthony Trollope (10)

55. Barchester Towers: Anthony Trollope (11)

56. The Road: Cormac McCarthy (7)

57. Lost Horizon: James Hilton (5)

58. A Severe Mercy: Sheldon Vanaukan (13)

59. The Hobbit: J.R.R. Tolkien (7)

60. Anne of Green Gables: L.M. Montgomery (14)

61. Anne of Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery (9)

62. Anne of the Island: L.M. Montgomery (7)

63. The Aeneid: Virgil (10)

64. Brideshead Revisited: Evelyn Waugh (19)

65. Sense and Sensibility: Jane Austen (11)