Sorry to hear you’re going through this difficult time Bronwen. And also delighted to see Jillian featured here - I’m a big fan of commonplace notebooks and Jillian’s Notes is always so inspiring 🧡
so sorry to hear about your dad, Bronwen. I'll be thinking of you and your family. and thank you for sharing this guidance on keeping a commonplace book--I've been thinking about how to revise/re-energize my first year writing class for the fall, and that feels like one really useful way in.
Thanks so much, Nancy. Happy to share teaching materials if that would be useful. For grad students, I use a self-assessment through Canvas new quizzes.
All the love and congratulations to you, dearest Lady B!!!!! Earmarking for my upcoming semester. Keeping you all in my thoughts and holler if you need an ear to bend.
Congratulations on your tenure promotion, Bronwen, and I’m so sorry to hear about your dad’s health. Life is full of these painful and wonderful things that exist side by side. I really appreciate these thoughts on the commonplace book.
So sorry about your Dad. Sending good health vibes his way! I’m so appreciative that our ancestors kept commonplace books. I often write down Marcus Aerelius’s thoughts. And my books will go to my daughters. Someday someone in the future will look at our books and notes and learn about our time in history.
Thanks for reading, Dita. I'd love to hear how this approach works out for you if you try it! My dad is back home, but he still has a very weak immune system and terrible mouth sores. We're waiting to see if his white blood cell counts will rise. I'm back in Vancouver after a month in Portland but planning to return in a few weeks.
I discovered your Substack through the comments thread on Jillian Hess’ post about commonplace books. Thrilled to see you taught at Marlboro! I’m a ‘05 grad and knew Meg and Amer.
Prayers for your dad, and for your family as your walk through this season. Isn’t it amazing how the structure like you described here calms us during the hardest times? Reposting and subscribing because this was an excellent piece. You reminded me of some of the info processing rituals I’ve had over the years. Ready to start again.
Thanks for your prayers and kind words, Kim. I feel the "start again" is an essential mindset for these rituals, which do sustain us and also do slip away and need to be reasserted.
Learning as Mind Food resonates with me. What a calming concept. So many nourishing thoughts here Bronwen—thank you! Sending peace to your family today.
Thank you so much for sharing this. To be honest this is something I've been doing more or less regularly without knowing it had a name and was a thing :) Sending so much love from Berlin for this difficult times <3
I am so, so sorry about your father. Thank you for sharing. I hope for healing!
I’ve never taken the left-right side approach, but I’ve heard it before (I think from Jillian!) and it seems like a terrific way to really digest the work. I’ve always had sections for my thoughts but the clear delineation between pages sounds nice. I’m going to try it.
One thing I go back and forth on is if I should write things down as I’m reading, or wait until I’m done. When I do it as I’m reading, I tend to mark quite a bit more and things I don’t think are as important later. When I wait, it’s more distilled to the important bits and themes, but then I’m writing it all at once and I don’t always have the energy or time.
Thanks for reading, Nathaniel, and thanks for your wishes for my dad. I just got back from taking him to get his blood labs checked.
With the add-quotes-as-you-go versus wait-and-distill, I think it's kind of like with exercise: the best thing to do is the thing you'll actually do! I tend to make little pencil marks in the margin or use sticky flags as I'm reading and then do a quick review and choose the passages I want to add to the CPB. And I tend to make myself pick to get it down to one page of quotes. But I've also co-taught a course (with Amer from this post, in fact), where we were all making CPB entries chapter-by-chapter from a book we were reading together.
Sometimes it can be less a question of "how vital is this particular passage" and more a question of "ok, I flagged this for whatever reason, how can I use it as a jumping off point to think through something?"
Overall, I think the trick is being ok with our own contingency and imperfections in the practice.
Hi Bronwen, congratulations on your promotion! That's so wonderful to hear. I'm so, so sorry to hear about your dad's health, though, and I'm wishing you and your family well.
Also, thank you for your thoughtful newsletters! They always give me interesting ideas to think about with my writing practice, and I appreciate hearing updates about what you're up to. I've been using the commonplace method while reading books with ideas I want to capture and reflect on. I really enjoy the process.
Congrats on tenure Bronwen! And sending you much love and hugs right now.
I also love reading about commonplace books - in one way or another I've been gathering quotes for a long time in my journal and can trace myself/my development through referring back to them. This post has definitely made me think about taking that practice to the next level.
Sorry to hear you’re going through this difficult time Bronwen. And also delighted to see Jillian featured here - I’m a big fan of commonplace notebooks and Jillian’s Notes is always so inspiring 🧡
Thanks for reading!
so sorry to hear about your dad, Bronwen. I'll be thinking of you and your family. and thank you for sharing this guidance on keeping a commonplace book--I've been thinking about how to revise/re-energize my first year writing class for the fall, and that feels like one really useful way in.
Thanks so much, Nancy. Happy to share teaching materials if that would be useful. For grad students, I use a self-assessment through Canvas new quizzes.
ahh, interesting. I am kind of determinedly not thinking about teaching just yet, but I will check back in with you in August!
100% support this division of attention. Happy to talk whenever you turn to it.
All the love and congratulations to you, dearest Lady B!!!!! Earmarking for my upcoming semester. Keeping you all in my thoughts and holler if you need an ear to bend.
Thank you, dear. Talk soon, I hope.
Beautiful, Bronwen. I've been wondering how you were doing. It's so good that you can be with your dad right now. And thank you for these ideas.
Congratulations on your tenure promotion, Bronwen, and I’m so sorry to hear about your dad’s health. Life is full of these painful and wonderful things that exist side by side. I really appreciate these thoughts on the commonplace book.
Thanks so much, Julianne. And thanks for reading.
❤️❤️❤️
So sorry about your Dad. Sending good health vibes his way! I’m so appreciative that our ancestors kept commonplace books. I often write down Marcus Aerelius’s thoughts. And my books will go to my daughters. Someday someone in the future will look at our books and notes and learn about our time in history.
Really like your idea. May give it a try. Wonder how’s your dad doing? Best wishes. Dita
Thanks for reading, Dita. I'd love to hear how this approach works out for you if you try it! My dad is back home, but he still has a very weak immune system and terrible mouth sores. We're waiting to see if his white blood cell counts will rise. I'm back in Vancouver after a month in Portland but planning to return in a few weeks.
I discovered your Substack through the comments thread on Jillian Hess’ post about commonplace books. Thrilled to see you taught at Marlboro! I’m a ‘05 grad and knew Meg and Amer.
Aww, amazing! I just spoke on the phone with Amer a few weeks ago.
Prayers for your dad, and for your family as your walk through this season. Isn’t it amazing how the structure like you described here calms us during the hardest times? Reposting and subscribing because this was an excellent piece. You reminded me of some of the info processing rituals I’ve had over the years. Ready to start again.
Thanks for your prayers and kind words, Kim. I feel the "start again" is an essential mindset for these rituals, which do sustain us and also do slip away and need to be reasserted.
Learning as Mind Food resonates with me. What a calming concept. So many nourishing thoughts here Bronwen—thank you! Sending peace to your family today.
Thanks for reading and for your kind words, Ann.
So sorry to hear this news. Sending love! I really enjoyed reading the 'but how'-ness of commonplace books -- so useful and encouraging, as always.
Thanks so much for reading, Danielle!
Thank you so much for sharing this. To be honest this is something I've been doing more or less regularly without knowing it had a name and was a thing :) Sending so much love from Berlin for this difficult times <3
Thanks so much, Claudio. We're all looking forward to your new album in a few weeks! :)
I am so, so sorry about your father. Thank you for sharing. I hope for healing!
I’ve never taken the left-right side approach, but I’ve heard it before (I think from Jillian!) and it seems like a terrific way to really digest the work. I’ve always had sections for my thoughts but the clear delineation between pages sounds nice. I’m going to try it.
One thing I go back and forth on is if I should write things down as I’m reading, or wait until I’m done. When I do it as I’m reading, I tend to mark quite a bit more and things I don’t think are as important later. When I wait, it’s more distilled to the important bits and themes, but then I’m writing it all at once and I don’t always have the energy or time.
Thanks for reading, Nathaniel, and thanks for your wishes for my dad. I just got back from taking him to get his blood labs checked.
With the add-quotes-as-you-go versus wait-and-distill, I think it's kind of like with exercise: the best thing to do is the thing you'll actually do! I tend to make little pencil marks in the margin or use sticky flags as I'm reading and then do a quick review and choose the passages I want to add to the CPB. And I tend to make myself pick to get it down to one page of quotes. But I've also co-taught a course (with Amer from this post, in fact), where we were all making CPB entries chapter-by-chapter from a book we were reading together.
Sometimes it can be less a question of "how vital is this particular passage" and more a question of "ok, I flagged this for whatever reason, how can I use it as a jumping off point to think through something?"
Overall, I think the trick is being ok with our own contingency and imperfections in the practice.
Thanks for the thoughtful response! And you’re so right: 1) whatever keeps you doing it and 2) embrace imperfection.
I have no issues with the latter in my notebook practice though, thankfully 😅
Hi Bronwen, congratulations on your promotion! That's so wonderful to hear. I'm so, so sorry to hear about your dad's health, though, and I'm wishing you and your family well.
Also, thank you for your thoughtful newsletters! They always give me interesting ideas to think about with my writing practice, and I appreciate hearing updates about what you're up to. I've been using the commonplace method while reading books with ideas I want to capture and reflect on. I really enjoy the process.
Thank you! So great to hear that you've been finding the commonplace method useful in an ongoing way.
Congrats on tenure Bronwen! And sending you much love and hugs right now.
I also love reading about commonplace books - in one way or another I've been gathering quotes for a long time in my journal and can trace myself/my development through referring back to them. This post has definitely made me think about taking that practice to the next level.
Thanks so much, Gabriela. Your essay about Brody's Maps and Dreams is such a beautiful example of this kind of long-term living with a book.