I enjoy blogging but I also enjoy working in my favourite notebook, which is a 600 page, grid-lined Miquelrius notebook. I keep quotes, writing ideas and miscellaneous information there. I try to work in it every day.

A hundred years ago it would be called a commonplace book or a silva rerum (a forest of things) and loads of people had them.

Today I came across a quote by Joan Didion about the importance of keeping a notebook:

“We are not talking here about the kind of notebook that is patently for public consumption, a structural conceit for binding together a series of graceful pensees; we are talking about something private, about bits of the mind’s string too short to use, an indiscriminate and erratic assemblage with meaning only for its maker.”

I really like the phrase, ‘bits of the mind’s string’.

I take my notebook everywhere, subscribing to Oscar Wilde’s statement: “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”

I’m much more involved with my inner world than my outer world so my notebook is filled with thoughts on fiction I’m writing (plot ideas, dialogue, characters) or quotes that mean something to me. Writing down scraps of information I like helps me draw connections I might not have seen otherwise.

I’ve been reorganizing my commonplace book, which is a repository of all the quotes and information I find interesting. This blog is very much a commonplace book, which I put out there for the elucidation of the interconnected world.

I previously had my commonplaces, also known as a locus communis or silva rerum (a forest of things) spread over several text documents, in a database, and in handwritten notes. The new one will bring all of those together in a highly-organised text document. Each book will have a four digit number, and each entry will have it’s own number. Hence, 0024.05 will be entry number 5 in book 24. The numerical order is just as I begin books, as I’ll easily be able to find entries through ctrl-f.

Each entry having a unique number will make it easier for indexing and cross-referencing.

It’ll be a life-long project, but one I should enjoy greatly.