A Commonplace Blog

As early as the 15th century people have been writing down snippets of wisdom, bits and pieces of knowledge, quotes they wanted to remember. These collections became known as Commonplace Books. Or Commonplaces for short. 

In 1685 the philosopher John Locke wrote a lengthy essay, in French, detailing his method of keeping a commonplace book. The treatise was translated into English in 1706 with the title A New Method of Making Common-Place-Books. 

Locke suggests that when we “extract anything out of an author which is like to be of future use, we may be able to find it without any trouble.” I know exactly what he means. When you read a lot, it is often difficult to put your finger on just where a particular quote came from, or where again to find a piece of information. 

Our brains process and store and yes, retrieve instantly a lot of information. In general we can rely on the amazing recall most of us have. However, if you are like me and read a lot on specific subjects, then you are reliant on notes taken, and if you don’t have a system of subject related recall, then you can find yourself floundering around. Especially if you are writing an article, and wanting to cite a particular quote. 

Enter our friend John Locke. “It is an Old Saying,” he says “That that is the Truest Poverty, when if you have Occasion for any Thing, you can’t use it, because you know not where ’tis laid.” 

Locke suggests that when you are new to a subject, when you first begin your study of it, the student does not know what is and isn’t useful. That sounds fair. It takes time to develop a feeling for, and a basic knowledge of a new topic. The process is aided by questions posed if you happen to be doing a course of study. You are focused  on the essay question you are required to write an answer to. But, if you are just studying something for general knowledge and interest the task becomes all the more difficult. 

The temptation is to make notes of everything. Locke warns against doing this. Write down only “what is most Worthy of Observation, and to mark the Place of the Author from whence you Extracted it.” 

Locke goes on to say “Neither ought any Thing to be Collected whilst you are busied in Reading; if by taking the Pen in Hand the Thread of your Reading be broken off, for that will make the reading both Tedious and Unpleasant.” 

How then are we expected to take notes? 

I can see our friend John Locke with a handy collection of post it notes on his desk as he reads. For he continues: “The Places we design to extract from are to be marked upon a piece of Paper, that we may do it after we have read the Book out; neither is it to be done just after the First Reading over of the Book, but when we have read it a second time.” 

He advocates here for a thorough reading of a text. I wonder how many of us are that dedicated to the material we read, regardless of our purpose in reading it? 

Locke goes on to give details for what is essentially a tagged index system: Making notes and then flagging them by theme and subject, jotting them down in a notebook that is ready to hand when reading or studying. 

But, fast forward to the 21st century with massive amounts of online material: Articles, ebooks, PDFs, web pages. A myriad of subjects, whole libraries of knowledge. A nightmare keeping track of everything you read, let alone everything you want to use in your writing. 

Yet, a commonplace book is exactly what is needed, albeit a digital one, as you highlight and read on screen, to take and keep those thoughts and quotes for later use.  You just have to decide on a system to make it happen. The point however, is not what you use, but the gathering of knowledge, to bring what you read, what you learn into a fine distillation such that you are able to write about the thoughts, themes and ideas that seem just and right. 

Enter the concept of blogging. What is a blog other than a commonplace book distilled? Blogs or weblog for short, can be found for just about any subject: news, celebrity, hobbies, topic-based. 

My topic here is theology. I do a lot of reading, and those thoughts, quotes and themes I jot down or highlight finding their way into my commonplace, well, they need somewhere to go. They refuse to remain just notes on a page. They have a tendency to hang around in my head until they gel into a coherent idea that expects to be written out. That is the purpose for this blog.