For this month's Keeping Company link-up, some questions were proposed, and I decided to use them as the basis for this post. I like easy. :)
My favorite part of keeping a commonplace is being intentional. Knowing I want to keep a record of what is important to me, I begin to *seek* for what is important.
I do my common placing wherever I read the book. Sometimes its in the bedroom - that's my reading home-base. I keep all my colorful gel pens and my notebooks in the bedside table drawers, and the books I'm currently reading (or plan on reading this year) on top. I also enjoy reading in my comfy living room chair, which is just outside the bedroom, so its easy to bring my notebook and pen out and write there instead. The other place I write is next to my computer - usually only when I found the quote online and that's the easiest way to save it. (I do also use Evernote, and have a Commonplace notebook there for saving quotes as well, which works when on the go.)
I get my inspiration from whatever books I'm reading each week. I follow several book discussions at Ambleside Online (what a great forum!), plus I'm reading the Bible through in a year again. I'm also reading a couple more books on my own! I love having a different book to read each day of the week, plus a "fun" one to fill in any extra reading time I get.
My favorite part of keeping a commonplace is being intentional. Knowing I want to keep a record of what is important to me, I begin to *seek* for what is important.
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| One of several pages since I began "keeping" last month |
I do my common placing wherever I read the book. Sometimes its in the bedroom - that's my reading home-base. I keep all my colorful gel pens and my notebooks in the bedside table drawers, and the books I'm currently reading (or plan on reading this year) on top. I also enjoy reading in my comfy living room chair, which is just outside the bedroom, so its easy to bring my notebook and pen out and write there instead. The other place I write is next to my computer - usually only when I found the quote online and that's the easiest way to save it. (I do also use Evernote, and have a Commonplace notebook there for saving quotes as well, which works when on the go.)
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| My reading and keeping "home base" |
I get my inspiration from whatever books I'm reading each week. I follow several book discussions at Ambleside Online (what a great forum!), plus I'm reading the Bible through in a year again. I'm also reading a couple more books on my own! I love having a different book to read each day of the week, plus a "fun" one to fill in any extra reading time I get.
Currently, in addition to the Bible, I'm reading Stepping Heavenward (love it!), Charlotte Mason's Volume 2: Parents and Children, Tennyson's Idylls of the King, Chesterton's Everlasting Man, Adler's How to Read a Book, and I am about to begin Watership Down. In spurts I also get back to Endangered Minds, Handbook of Nature Study, and books related to health challenges, such as Trim Healthy Mama.
I like your set-up and how you have a different book to read each day! Do you "assign" yourself a day to read a certain book or is it more just what you feel like reading on any given day?
ReplyDeleteI do some of both. The books that I'm reading with the group I try to read the day the discussion starts, or at least start it then. The discussion I lead, I try to read the day before so it can simmer before I post. The rest of them I rotate with my mood, and sometimes do binge read one that really captures my attention. If I were legalistic about it, it would steal my joy :)
DeleteI like the way you talk about the intentionality of your commonplace keeping ... that you seek out things to put in your journal. Bravo.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dawn!
DeleteI really enjoyed seeing your setup too! (And PS: I have had The Shallows on my list for ages.)
ReplyDeleteThanks. The Shallows was a gift a couple years ago, I started it then 'cleaned' and lost it. Just found it this week! Buried treasure ;)
DeleteI am always on the lookout for things to put in my commonplace, too, Laura. You have an impressive list of books, and I like the way you set aside a certain day of the week for a certain book. I should try that; my reading is somewhat here and there.. ;)
ReplyDeleteI would probably have not attempted half of those if not for the AO forum! One I forgot to mention is Consider This...we are going through it a page or two at a time so I tend to forget about it, but it's a Thursday book ;)
DeleteI love Stepping Heavenward too! I really really must start a Commonplace book again. I got distracted trying to index my books into topics, and then it got too complicated. I use Evernote as well, but there's nothing so satisfying as a notebook and pen...
ReplyDeleteDo start again! Simple is best for me as well, even though over-organization is tempting :)
DeleteThanks for sharing your setup. I like your Home Base. :) You have some interesting books there. I love Pocketful of Pinecones. I've been wanting to read The Shallows since I started listening to Christopher Perrin's audio-lectures; he mentions that book quite a few times.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
COMama