Wikipedia: “Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are similar to scrapbooks.”

I first heard of a commonplace book from the inimitable Ren Weschler, who is a keeper of wonders. We all collect these days, we save bookmarks, we jot on post-it notes, we keep journals. I find that writing notes on what I read is the only way of making sense of it, of slowing down, and stringing together the array of thoughts and quotes that are meaningful to me.

So, on this site, I will aim to keep a commonplace book, transfering some of the notes from my notebooks, or other things I find here to this site. I think it would ultimately be more informative than a bio (though it would certainly be more interesting had I been doing this all my life!).

I’ve started with a few quotes, but will seen convert them to be included.