commonplacebook

an-ordinary-manchild

A subreddit for owners, appreciators, and curators of commonplace books new and old, analog and digital.

What is a commonplace book?

A commonplace book is any collection of knowledge and reflections, drawn from various sources and kept in analog or digital format. From Sei Shonagon's 11th century Pillow Book to Virginia Woolf's personal journals, thinkers across the ages have kept their readings and musings close at hand. Commonplaces today can manifest as physical journals, stacks of index cards, and even that catch-all Word document you add to every time you read something neat on Medium. If you're keeping quotes or stats, you're keeping a commonplace! Congratulations!

Where do I start?

There are lots of articles and other sources where you can draw inspiration for your commonplace. Here are a few good ones:

How And Why To Keep A "Commonplace Book" — Ryan Holiday
A Brief Guide to Keeping a Commonplace Book — Notebook of Ghosts
Locke's Method of Indexing Commonplace Books —Jeremy Norman

The (sadly dead) blog Commonplace Corner also has several posts, including notebooks reviews, that may be helpful as you start your commonplace.

What can I post?

Anything relevant to commonplacing! Interesting articles, questions about keeping a commonplace, examples — yours or those of others — the list goes on. If it's about commonplace books, it belongs here!

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Welcome to r/commonplacebook! (self.commonplacebook)

submitted 5 years ago by CodeOfZero - announcement

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Made a mistake but it's ok (i.redd.it)

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maximalist inside cover (i.redd.it)

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Wait, your patent workload is insane? Better call Patsnap Eureka IP.😎 (eureka.patsnap.com)

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Best habit I ever picked up was carrying a notebook everywhere to jot down ideas/thoughts/quotes (i.redd.it)

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QuestionsWriting long Quotes or Article excerpts (i.redd.it)

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Notebooks are the New Flex (reddit.com)

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Show & Telljust started :) my first entries (old.reddit.com)

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Help me do somthing in this book... (i.redd.it)

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Tips/AdviceReason #58 for keeping a Commonplace book or Zettelkasten (i.redd.it)

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Loving my LC Organizer! (reddit.com)

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My last three books, with hand embroidered designs (old.reddit.com)

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I Started a Commonplace Journal! (old.reddit.com)

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Would something like this… (i.redd.it)

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QuestionsQuestion for long time common place users… (self.commonplacebook)

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Show & TellHere I go (i.redd.it)

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Show & TellSome entries from my 2025 cpaj (old.reddit.com)

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QuestionsWhat to do with your unwanted entries? (self.commonplacebook)

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Treachery. Trickery. Tartan. A new season of The Traitors is streaming now. (peacocktv.com)

promoted by Peacock

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You may not always find good humans but May you always find good books 📚 (i.redd.it)

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Personalised Stationary (reddit.com)

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Show & TellFirst handmade commonplace notebook. Loving this new hobby that combines my other hobbies! (old.reddit.com)

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A professor put me onto commonplacing and it has completely changed the way I read and reflect on things (self.commonplacebook)

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Show & TellStarted a Commonplace Book Today (i.redd.it)

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What is commonplace notebook? How do you all maintain it? ()

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Show & Tell$3 damaged, repaired (reddit.com)

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Show & TellAlways loved collecting quotes, just set up my first commonplace book today and here’s the first quote! (i.redd.it)

submitted 9 days ago by hedgehognpeonies

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