I also collect quotes for the calendar my organization has published for the last 28 years. It's a passion and a delight to gather, remember and share lines of poetry, prose and bumper stickers with the perfect photographs.
This year our calendar was about the campus we are constructing for disabled kids here in India - the photos were all glimpses of different stages of the building. My favorite (well, one of) was a photo of a chief fundraiser sitting beside a big pile of bricks with a big smile on her face. I found the quote here in your blog:
I have a five year diary which I write something the kids have done to amuse me. Not the big events but the little things that you forget. For example, yesterday my middle one called nostrils, nose holes which is hilarious but I would soon forget. Now I can laugh about it every year.
of The Beach Bum as some sort of debauched Wonder Years threw me. My great grandfather Maris Henry Garton kept a commonplace book, which has been a treasure for his descendants. Although way less special than a hand written notebook, I enjoy keeping one on Tumbler https://nicolegarton.tumblr.com/
"I think there’s a kind of magic of seeing everything laid out on the pages and flipping through the book, coming across unexpected things I had forgotten." - Austin Kleon
I have kept a commonplace book for the past 25 years or so, but until about a year ago didn’t even know that’s what it was called. I just always jotted down quotes, passages, lyrics, whatever moved me at the moment. Over the years, I have pulled a few out to create smaller books to gift to people for Christmas.
After learning about the notecard method that Ryan Holiday, Robert Green and do many others use, I decided to start putting the quotes on cards to better organize them. When I make the gift journals I have to flip through pages that have no rhyme or reason. I’m trying to be better about organizing. But in the process of placing quotes on note cards, I find it interesting to see what still resonates with me-20-30 years later and what no longer serves me.
This post was such an inspiration! My wife and I bought one of these journals to take notes on how the world around us is changing with the seasons, as part of an act of noticing. Our goal is to come up with our own local list of micro-seasons, inspired by the Japanese idea. https://www.fieldandnest.com/journal/japans-72-poetic-micro-seasons
But when we miss a day or are out of town, in goes a quote. I’m looking forward to seeing what connections come up.
I have kept a commonplace book since Junior High School (over 40 years ago.) Started off by stashing quotes and favorite poems alongside my overly dramatic teenage efforts at poetry. Evolved to include all the funny things my husband and son say... I still have all those notebooks, and many more of my own scribblings. And I compulsively copy stuff I don't want to lose into a digital notes file as well. I think in my case, the commonplace book probably qualifies as an addiction...
My first philosophy teacher in high school challeged us to buy a special notebook, and find something inspiring or striking enough from each work to copy into it. I bought one of the most beautiful notebooks I've ever owned. I didn't fill it with that class, and not every book I read had something striking enough to be worth noting down. I've now been slowly filling the notebook for 14 years, and it's almost out of room. I've loved going back over the years, occassionally adding, sometims just reading all the most precious moments and song lyrics from my life.
i started my first commonplace book 2 years ago after reading about your practice. i didn’t keep it up at the time but i dug it out again this year and started over. seeing your post today is another of the many ways you’ve inspired me Austin.
my life got an unexpected (voluntary & mostly positive) overhaul last october and now that i’m resettled i‘ve created a little studio in our new apartment, started the 100 Day Project, and subscribed to the various musings of the artists i admire, you included.
thank you for being inspirational, for being...you...and for helping an old woman to believe that the desire to create doesn’t have to fade and die just because it didn’t get its chance when she was young.
It’s happening. Right now. My mom did it, and you did it, and I’m going to do it
I loved this post. Today a friend quoted his 4 year old daughter, “Where do the seasons go?”
The question is, "would you do it again?... and why?🤫
Is it possible to attach photos in these comments?
I also collect quotes for the calendar my organization has published for the last 28 years. It's a passion and a delight to gather, remember and share lines of poetry, prose and bumper stickers with the perfect photographs.
This year our calendar was about the campus we are constructing for disabled kids here in India - the photos were all glimpses of different stages of the building. My favorite (well, one of) was a photo of a chief fundraiser sitting beside a big pile of bricks with a big smile on her face. I found the quote here in your blog:
"It’s a good day today.
It’s a good day, got no problems.
The bills are paid."
Thanks for that!
I have a five year diary which I write something the kids have done to amuse me. Not the big events but the little things that you forget. For example, yesterday my middle one called nostrils, nose holes which is hilarious but I would soon forget. Now I can laugh about it every year.
I’m glad I didn’t unsubscribe. The allusion
of The Beach Bum as some sort of debauched Wonder Years threw me. My great grandfather Maris Henry Garton kept a commonplace book, which has been a treasure for his descendants. Although way less special than a hand written notebook, I enjoy keeping one on Tumbler https://nicolegarton.tumblr.com/
"I think there’s a kind of magic of seeing everything laid out on the pages and flipping through the book, coming across unexpected things I had forgotten." - Austin Kleon
This will be my entry for today. <3
Thank you for always being so inspiring
I have kept a commonplace book for the past 25 years or so, but until about a year ago didn’t even know that’s what it was called. I just always jotted down quotes, passages, lyrics, whatever moved me at the moment. Over the years, I have pulled a few out to create smaller books to gift to people for Christmas.
After learning about the notecard method that Ryan Holiday, Robert Green and do many others use, I decided to start putting the quotes on cards to better organize them. When I make the gift journals I have to flip through pages that have no rhyme or reason. I’m trying to be better about organizing. But in the process of placing quotes on note cards, I find it interesting to see what still resonates with me-20-30 years later and what no longer serves me.
This post was such an inspiration! My wife and I bought one of these journals to take notes on how the world around us is changing with the seasons, as part of an act of noticing. Our goal is to come up with our own local list of micro-seasons, inspired by the Japanese idea. https://www.fieldandnest.com/journal/japans-72-poetic-micro-seasons
But when we miss a day or are out of town, in goes a quote. I’m looking forward to seeing what connections come up.
This is so interesting--the Kleon Crafters!
I have kept a commonplace book since Junior High School (over 40 years ago.) Started off by stashing quotes and favorite poems alongside my overly dramatic teenage efforts at poetry. Evolved to include all the funny things my husband and son say... I still have all those notebooks, and many more of my own scribblings. And I compulsively copy stuff I don't want to lose into a digital notes file as well. I think in my case, the commonplace book probably qualifies as an addiction...
My first philosophy teacher in high school challeged us to buy a special notebook, and find something inspiring or striking enough from each work to copy into it. I bought one of the most beautiful notebooks I've ever owned. I didn't fill it with that class, and not every book I read had something striking enough to be worth noting down. I've now been slowly filling the notebook for 14 years, and it's almost out of room. I've loved going back over the years, occassionally adding, sometims just reading all the most precious moments and song lyrics from my life.
i started my first commonplace book 2 years ago after reading about your practice. i didn’t keep it up at the time but i dug it out again this year and started over. seeing your post today is another of the many ways you’ve inspired me Austin.
my life got an unexpected (voluntary & mostly positive) overhaul last october and now that i’m resettled i‘ve created a little studio in our new apartment, started the 100 Day Project, and subscribed to the various musings of the artists i admire, you included.
thank you for being inspirational, for being...you...and for helping an old woman to believe that the desire to create doesn’t have to fade and die just because it didn’t get its chance when she was young.
"I don’t think we talk enough about amusement as a worthy enough reason to do things."
Feels like most of our cultural amusements are passive now, rather than active. Consuming phones, games, TV, whatever.
The quote from the Ohio sewer district person resonated the most with me! (I'm from Ohio btw.)
so am I :)